KAEL
Through the narrow crack in the doorway, I saw her.
Aria. Curled into Sarah like she belonged there. Like all her jagged edges had been soothed smooth in the warmth of her best friend's arms. Her body, tense and guarded all day, had just… melted. I could see it in the way her fingers clutched Sarah's sleeve. In the way her eyes closed, like she was finally letting herself breathe.
And I stood there like a fucking ghost.
Watching her belong to someone else in a way I didn't know how to reach.
Something twisted inside me, ugly, bitter, familiar. Jealousy, yes. But deeper than that. A loneliness I couldn't name without choking on it. Sarah knew how to hold her, to comfort her. She knew how to be soft in all the right ways. I didn't. I never had.
Not with my mother. Not with Ivan. Not with anyone.
