The door clicked shut behind him.
Silence.
The kind that pressed against his ribs like a blade.
Kieran stood there, frozen, his back against the wood as if barricading himself…not from the world outside, but from the storm inside.
He didn't move at first.
Couldn't.
It was easier when he pretended.
When he kept his tone cold. When he stayed behind walls. But here, alone with her, the act fell apart.
He had no script. No armor. Only silence. And her.
His chest tightened painfully as he walked forward.She lay still, too still, her chest rising in shallow breaths.He laid the wooden wolf and the crushed blue wildflower beside her pillow.
"I am sorry," he whispered, the words cracking like glass. "I don't think I will ever stop saying that."
His shoulders shook. He tried to steady himself, tried to swallow the scream crawling up his throat.
"I scared a kid today," he whispered quietly. "He thought he had to protect you…from me…"
