Her voice was quiet. Cracked. But there was something raw in it. Something that wasn't seduction. It was shame. A desperate, twisted form of love. As if offering herself this way might make him forget. Forgive. Let her stay.
Atlas didn't move.
For a full breath, neither did she.
Then his hands closed around her wrists. Not roughly—but firmly. She looked up, startled.
His face was unreadable. The moonlight caught his features—jaw tense, eyes shadowed.
"This isn't the way."
"Then what is?!" she burst out, her voice loud again. "What is the way, Atlas? Do I crawl? Do I cry? Do I let them tear me apart in the square? Do I sit in a cell like a ghost while you forget I even existed?"
Her hands were trembling.
"I made a mistake… a horrible one. But I loved you. *I still do. And that night, when I thought you were leaving forever, I broke. You were the only thing left keeping me from going full monster…"
Tears streaked silently down her cheeks.
"…I just wanted you to stay."
