Seeing Aurelus kiss Marissa was like watching the world tilt sideways. Both Robert and Auren felt their stomachs twist with disgust, their chests heavy with betrayal.
But for Robert, it was worse. His heart didn't just crack—it split open, all the grief he had bottled up bursting free like a flood.
"Marissa!... How could you do this to us!? To me!" Robert's voice broke as he staggered to his feet, his wounds still bleeding, his body trembling.
The cuts across his flesh screamed with pain, but compared to the wound inside his chest, they felt like nothing. His heart throbbed louder than the blood dripping down his arms.
Auren stood frozen, his expression draining of fire. The sight carved into him too, dredging up memories he had buried deep.
He remembered his mother, the woman who once held him, who remarried a man that despised him after leaving his father.
The same coldness that had hollowed him as a boy now returned, sharper than before.
