Chapter 125
Ellie POV
Everything smelled like stone and clipped hedges as Dominic walked beside me down the long drive away from his parents’
estate.
It was about to be a pretty long walk, but neither of us said a word.
Our steps fall into an uneven rhythm, his longer stride slowing to match mine without comment. The lanterns along the path cast long shadows that stretch and tangle across the ground, and I keep my eyes fixed ahead, afraid to look at him. I’m not sure why.
Maybe it’s how nice the air feel out here, that it feels like the last night we talked.
Dinner replays itself in my head anyway. The smiles. I wasn’t really sure if I had a choice anymore. I told them no. Did that land… or?
I rub my elbow.
“Cold?” Dominic asks and I jump.
“No, I’m fine.”
And honestly I was, it would be hard to be cold with Dominic’s presence beside me. He was always warm, and aggravatingly so. Close enough that our sleeves brush once when the path narrows, the brief contact sending a sharp spark up my arm. I pull away instinctively, fingers curling into my palm.
He notices.
Still, he doesn’t say anything.
We pass down the street in silence, the crunch of gravel under our shoes too loud in the quiet. I tell myself I’m relieved when the estate finally disappears behind us, but the knot in my chest doesn’t loosen.
“I’m sorry.”
The words come suddenly, breaking the silence like a crack through glass.
I glance at him before I can stop myself. His gaze is fixed straight ahead, jaw tight, hands shoved into his pockets tight, like he’s afraid of what they might do if he lets them hang free.
“For tonight,” he adds. “For… all of it. Our fight. Before.”
I consider a dozen responses. Sharp ones. Honest ones. Ones that would probably start another argument.
Instead, I let out a tired breath.
“It’s fine. And… I am too.”
The lie tastes flat. Not the sorry part, I did feel bad. But it wasn’t forgiveness so much as fatigue. I don’t have the energy to fight
him anymore.
“It seems like half the time we talk we just argue, say sorry, repeat.”
Dominic goes quiet again.
Maybe he’s tired too.
The road narrows as we near my place, the trees closing in, shadows deepening. Our hands swing close as we walk, close enough that I’m suddenly very aware of the space between my fingers and his. One wrong step and they’d touch.
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News to
The amok more hangs there sting, before I force myself to move ahead
Wuth gate 1 stop Me does as well, turning to face me For a heartbeat, neither of us speaks
them far sigh. Vir bu made a decision
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+30 Bonus
The wet van the with Lucas,” the continues, like this is a solution. Like it’s a kindness. “It’s what you want, right?”
Be with
713 start, heat Ganing in my voice despite myself.
that he’s already stepping away “I’ll handle it,” he says firmly
tele it can wash the sentence, before I can tell him how wrong that is, how infuriating it is that he keeps deciding things for
me, the toms and walics away
I stand then watching has broad silhouette fade into the dark, my hands clenched at my sides.
Anger summers beneath the exhaustion, because somehow, even when he’s trying to help, Dominic still doesn’t hear what I’m
achaally sang
1 part with a shaor of any head, climbing up my house steps, fumbling with my keys. I crack open the door as quietly as I can, slanking to Shutting the door with a gentle turn of the knob, I barely get the door closed before his voice cracks through the
Browse
Where the hell have you been
1 free
The lights in the sating mom tum on like a spotlight, and my step father is standing in the middle of it like he’s been pacing for
hours jacket off sleeves rolled jaw light
“I asked you a question,” he snaps “Where Have You Been”
“Out,” I say, already bracing, clutching my purse: “I told Mom!
“Don’t lie to me “He steps closer, finger jabbing the air. “I know exactly where you were ”
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