Page 181 of When the Storm Breaks

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I can’t look away.

Without thinking, I move toward her, nearly tripping over myself to close the distance. But at the last second, I stop—

Hands jerking back before I can reach for her. Before I can risk scaring her away.

I just need her to stay.

“You’re safe… you’re here…”

My voice is hoarse.

It’s all I can manage beneath the flood of emotions crashing over me—relief, desperation, a need so deep it borders on unbearable.

I’ve dreamed of this moment.

Ached for it.

But now that she’s here, she’s unreadable. Her expression is blank, eyes guarded.

But there’s something different about the way she stands—something you’d only notice if you knew her like I did.

Strength.

“I saw the news,” she says.

Her voice is steady. But there’s caution there. Distrust, too.

Still, she’s not closed off. Not completely.

There’s a thread of possibility—

Like she might be willing to hear me out.

I nod and step aside, wordlessly inviting her in.

She walks past me, her footsteps loud against the bar’s floor. And for the first time, I realize this moment isn’t going to be what I pictured.

I see it in the way her eyes skim the room. In the way she hesitates. In the way her gaze moves to the low table—her table—then moves away.

I hold my breath, waiting. Hoping.

Sending up a silent prayer that she’ll sit, curl into the chair like she always did. Like it still belongs to her.

It does.

But she doesn’t.

She turns to face me instead, arms crossed tightly over her chest. And when she speaks, her voice is firm. Not cruel—just final.

“I didn’t come here for you.”

Chapter 58

Calla

My heart is pounding so hard I swear it might crack open and spill out every secret I’ve been holding for the last seven months.

I expected him to look worse—gaunt, unshaven, haunted. Like he’s been suffering the way I have.

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