SERAPHINA’S POV
The words landed between us like a physical blow, so strong I actually stumbled back a step.
‘The only reason I ever chose Celeste was because I thought she was you.’
For a long moment, I couldn’t breathe.
The cicadas faded to a dull hum, the world narrowing to the space beneath the tree and the man standing a few feet away from me, looking as though he’d just torn his own chest open and offered me the heart beating inside.
“I don’t—” My voice faltered. I swallowed and tried again. “What do you mean?”
Kieran took a breath, slow and steady, as if bracing himself for the weight of what he was about to unearth.
“There was a park in the neutral zone,” he said quietly. “I was a child—six or seven, maybe. I’d run away after a fight with my father.” His jaw tightened at the memory. “I fell. Hurt myself. I was angry and scared. And then a little girl found me.”
