Page 176 of BounBound By Scars

I was tired.

So goddamn tired.

He said he’d come back.

I had to believe that… right?

Fuck.

I was sitting in the lounge surrounded by people who once called themselves a family. But right now?

It felt like he was the only one who ever meant it.

Everyone was quiet for a long moment before Zarek spoke up.

“Amelia,” he said.

I looked up, barely.

“I think you should talk to Dylan.”

I blinked once.

“He hasn’t spoken to any of us,” Zarek added. “Maybe hearing from you—hissister—will bring him out of it.”

I stared at him for a beat too long. The silence stretched.

Then I said it. Plain. Final.

“No.”

Zarek’s mouth pressed into a tight line, like he’d expected resistance but not that.

Notcoldrefusal.

He looked disappointed, even a little hurt.

That was all it took to push me over.

“If you’d shown even anounceof that care to Kabir,” I snapped, voice razor-thin, “maybe he wouldn’t have walked into hell alone.”

His jaw tensed. Eyes dropped.

Good.

Let him feel it.

“Alright,” Sebastian interjected, stepping in. “That’s enough. We’re not… turning on each other.”

I groaned and then the room quieted again.

Zarek’s shoulders dropped, his expression unreadable now—but the guilt was obvious. It hung in the air between us like fog.

Sebastian exhaled, then looked around. “We received confirmation this morning. Romano’s cousin, Daniella Eames—she was killed last night. Gas explosion at her home in Denver.”

“Shit,” Logan muttered.

Kaylan straightened. “You think it’s retaliation? Or clean-up?”

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