Page 113 of Sweet Madness

I know it the moment he tears his gaze from mine and looks at the men behind me, detached and uncaring. It’s so unlike the man I’ve come to know and love. “It’s time for you to return to your world, Miss Kenton,” he says, his voice sounding cruel.

I feel my heart drop, hurt piercing through me. But I refuse to believe him. He’s doing this because he thinks it’s what’s best for me.

I step closer until I am face to face with him, our breaths mingling. I try to search his eyes, hoping to find the man who, with one tender look, could make everything seem alright. But I am met with a wall of detachment. His eyes remain fixed on Benji and my brothers, as though he is unable or unwilling to meet my gaze.

Deciding not to let this break me, not yet, I whisper, “That’s no longer my world. You’re my world.” My voice trembles with sadness and desperation. I reach out tentatively, my fingers grazing his bearded cheek, trying to make him see me.

Still, he doesn’t.

He won’t look into my eyes, and his silence is deafening, a stark contrast to the torrent of emotions swirling within me. In this moment, I feel my entire world collapsing at my feet alongside my heart and every dream I had of us. He acts as if nothing matters, as if what we shared was so easily disposable and forgotten.

I try to think of what could have possibly brought this on, but I can’t come up with anything. We had grown closer over the past few days, and I truly believe that when the time came, he would never have pushed me away like he’s doing now. I have always believed that my love for him could withstand any storm, yet now I see it might not be the same for him.

“Sis, come on. Don’t reduce yourself to the likes of him,” Kyrin says.

“Quiet, Ky,” I snap, looking over my shoulder at my baby brother. “You know nothing.”

He doesn’t.

Shaw is the best thing that has ever happened to me. Even now, he still is, even when he’s so easily giving up on me.

My brothers exchange knowing glances, their expressions hardening. I look at the other man who means the world to me. Uncle Benji’s gaze softens briefly when it meets mine, heartbreak in his eyes before he turns away, most likely unable to bear witness to the heartache unfolding before him.

I swallow hard, a tear slipping down my cheek. I let it fall and didn’t wipe it away. I let myself feel everything. I have never felt more broken, more alone, than I do in this moment of shattered dreams and unspoken truths.

Taking a deep breath, I turn to Shaw, ignoring everyone else. “I love you,” I murmur softly, my eyes pleading with him to stop this nonsense. “Don’t you love me?”

There. I said it.

I said what I have been feeling long before I ever knew what the word meant.

I love him, and now I’m losing him.

He hears me. I know he does, and yet he still seems distant and guarded. His jaw clenches as if he is struggling with conflicting emotions, but he holds onto his silence like a shield. When he says nothing, I feel the rejection that shatters my heart.

My breath catches in my throat, tears welling in my eyes as the reality of this moment sinks in. I have bared my soul to him, not just now but every day spent here with him, only to be met with this cruel indifference.

Broken and ashamed, I feel the room closing in around me, suffocating in its silence and heartbreak. I take a step back, shaking my head in disbelief at how everything has gone to hell so quickly.

What do I do now?

Shaw

“Don’t you love me?”

I never imagined a pain greater than the one I felt after losing my mother, yet what I feel now, breaking the heart of the woman I love, comes a close second.

As I stand here, my gaze fixed on Ella, my heart is torn between love and the painful necessity of letting her go. At this moment, as she looks at me with tear-filled eyes, I know I won’t be the same after this.

I love Ellaiza Kenton.

I fell madly in love with my client.

And it is a love that has grown from the depths of my tattered soul, a love I once believed would never be for me. A love that makes me want not only better for myself but for her. That’s the only reason I’m not dropping to my knees and begging for her forgiveness for hurting her this way when I promised her she would always be safe with me.

Fuck.

Love isn’t enough. It should be, but it isn’t.

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