Page 114 of Yours Until Forever

“You’re leaving?” he asks, voice lower now. Strained.

“I have a meeting.”

“Fuck.” He drags a hand down his face, regret already chasing his temper away. “I don’t want to leave it like this.”

“I have to go.”

“Amelia.”

He tries to reach for me, but I shift just out of range, my body already closing in on itself.

“No.” My voice is soft. Final. “I need a minute, Gage.”

“What kind of minute?” His eyes are searching now. Less fury, more fear.

I hold his gaze for a beat that hurts more than it should. “I don’t know. I just need some space.”

And then I’m gone.

30

Amelia

After a day I wish never existed, I collapse into bed just after eleven. My bed. Alone. But I eye the cameras I had Gage install months ago and know he would have received the motion alert.

He tried to call a few times today. I’m not proud that I didn’t take those calls. That I ignored a man I know is hurting. But I had to put myself first. Protect my heart that’s spent the entire day beating too erratically.

They say our nervous system reacts before our brain does, so we’re basically out here making life choices based on vibes and trauma responses. So now, I’m ignoring a man I’m in love with because my nervous system saw a red flag that might’ve just been a trauma-colored shadow.

But as much as I’ve tried to logic my way past it today, I can’t.

It’s too real.

Too fresh.

Not even forty-eight hours have passed since James came to my door and threatened everything I love. Since he tore throughmy boundaries and said words that slipped under my skin and made themselves at home in places I thought I’d fortified.

And now? Gage’s voice—that voice—won’t stop replaying in my head.

Not because I think he’s James.

But because my body doesn’t know the difference.

That whole “I decide what happens here” energy goes straight to the part of me that learned the hard way what a danger warning sounds like. And no matter how much my heart wants to trust him, my fear is louder today.

He calls five minutes after my head hits the pillow and this time I answer.

“Hey,” I say softly. “I’m sorry I didn’t answer your calls. I just...couldn’t.”

“I don’t want your apology, Princess. I want to see you.”

I close my eyes.

Why does love have to be so hard? So painful at times?

“I’m tired, Gage.”

“And I’m not a man who goes to bed on a fight, so we’ve got a problem here.”

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