Page 173 of The Silent War

“Baby,” he whispered, reaching for my thigh. “Can I take your bra off?”

My shock quickly turned to anger. “Bastion—this isn’t the time.”

His thumb stroked circles onto my leg, his mouth brushing the inside of my knee. “Please.”

I should’ve said no. Instead, I sighed, my body betraying me, and nodded.

His fingers slid slow up my back, unclasping the bra beneath my shirt. He didn’t pull the fabric off. He slid the straps down my arms, easing the bra free, then turned it over in his hands.

I frowned. “What are you?—”

He angled the inside cup toward me.

Ink.

So faint I almost missed it. Letters written where no one else would see.

My breath shattered.

Those were their names.

My hands shook as I grabbed it from him. I stared, heart hammering.

“Your names are on my bra.” I said it again, louder. “Your names are on my bra.”

Bastion’s hand was already sliding my panties down my thighs. He turned the waistband so I could see. Initials stitched faint, invisible unless you looked for them.

“We never let go, baby. We just had to hold you differently.” His thumb gently stroked my thigh. Tears blurred the fabric in my hands.

Luca leaned in from the other side, his lips brushing my cheek. “Everything you wore carried us. Every dress. Piece of jewelry. For years, you’ve worn our names.”

I couldn’t speak. How was this possible. All these years, they had… I shook my head. I wasn’t sure what was worse, that all this time I hadn’t been alone. Or that they let me think I was.

Bastion’s hands burned against my thighs. I wanted to pullaway, to stand, to demand answers until their empire of secrets cracked.

Instead I sat frozen, heart hammering, the bra still clutched in my fingers.

My body was betraying me. My pulse jumped every time his thumb drew a circle into my skin. “You’ve worn us for years,” Luca murmured, his lips brushing my cheek. His voice was too steady, too certain, like he wasn’t asking but reminding me of something I didn’t remember agreeing to. “Every day. Every night. Our names against your skin.”

I shook my head, but it was weak. “I didn’t know.”

“You weren’t supposed to,” Bastion pressed his mouth higher on my thigh. The rough scrape of his stubble against my skin sent heat spiraling into places I didn’t want to think about. “It was ours to know. Yours to feel.”

I should have pushed him away. Instead, my breath caught.

“Please,” Bastion murmured against me. “Let me show you.”

Luca’s hand came to the back of my neck, warm and steady. He turned my head so I had to meet his eyes. “We never left you, Em. Not once. Not for a day. We built the world around you so you could come home.”

Tears blurred my vision. I wanted to scream at them for deciding my life in secret. But the devotion in their eyes. They had branded my clothes. For three years.

My bra slipped from my fingers, falling soundless to the floor.

Bastion’s lips pressed higher, to the inside of my thigh. His hands gripped tighter, anchoring. As if by holding me here he could erase the years apart.

“Stop,” I whispered, but it broke on a sob. “Don’t?—”

“Can’t,” Bastion murmured into my skin. “Won’t.”