Chapter 68: The Anger I Couldn’t Explain
Josie
I stared at the door even after it closed behind him, my entire body trembling from the pressure of everything he’d said—and everything he hadn’t.
How dare Kiel walk away like that? How could he come in here and speak to me like my feelings were irrelevant? Like I was overreacting or being irrational? My nails dug into my palms as I sucked in sharp breaths, trying to stop the tears that threatened to fall.
I hated the way he’d made me feel—like I was the problem for not accepting his explanation. Like it was somehow my fault that he had a history with Michelle. A long, ugly, bloody history that I would forever be trapped beneath.
"Damn it," I muttered under my breath, dragging my fingers through my hair. I paced the room, trying to collect my thoughts, but everything was crashing down like waves in a violent storm.
Michelle had tried to kill me.
She had stood over me with eyes cold as death, dagger in hand, and she would have ended me if Varen hadn’t come when he did. And yet... now Kiel was acting like I was the one who needed to let things go?
He didn’t believe me. Not really. None of them did.
Maybe Varen, but even he hadn’t done much to speak up. Not enough to make this feel any less isolating.
I gritted my teeth and tried to breathe, but my chest only got tighter. My eyes burned. My skin crawled. I felt like I was drowning and the air was thick, too thick to inhale.
"No," I whispered. "No, no, no—"
The room started spinning. My knees buckled. I reached out for the edge of the table for support, but my fingers barely brushed it before I collapsed and took the whole thing down with me.