Page 63 of Betrayed By Sin

My throat tightens.

I squeeze my eyes shut, willing myself not to let those words sink in. Not to let them break through the wall I’ve spent years building.

But I feel it pressing against me, the weight of what my absence must’ve done to her.

I take a slow breath.

“I don’t want to be lost.”

She reaches for my hand, her touch tentative, careful, like she’s not sure I’ll let her.

Her fingers close around mine. “Then trust us.”

“I do.” I sigh, leaning into her embrace. “I’m sorry.”

She chuckles, “Nothing to apologize for, love. We missed out on a lot of things, mother daughter fights being one of them.”

I chuckle at her response, “Are we safe?”

“Yes, you saw we hired extra security. And Zeik will be here,” Her eyes roam around mine. “He cares for you.”

I recall how kind he was the day he picked me up on the side of the road. “Yeah, he does.”

Sleep doesn’t come.

I lie in bed, staring at the ceiling, sheets tangled around my legs like chains I can’t shake off. My thoughts keep looping, chasing themselves in circles. Cameron’s words, my mother’s touch, the portrait of a father I never got to know. It all presses in, too much and not enough all at once.

I try turning over. Then again. And again.

No matter what position I land in, the ache in my chest doesn’t change.

A buzz.

Sharp and sudden in the stillness. My heart lurches.

I reach for my phone on the nightstand, expecting… I don’t know.

But not this.

Sin.

His name lights up the screen, and for a second, I don’t breathe.

Just seeing it is enough to send a jolt through my whole body.

I should ignore it.

Ishould.

But my thumb moves before I can stop it.

I answer.

Silence.

Not the kind you get when someone’s trying to figure out what to say. This silence is thick, charged, like he’s just listening to me breathe. Or maybe trying to steady his own.

I almost ask if it was a mistake. If he meant to call me at all.