He sneered again, pain tightening across his face as he said, "You don't understand!"
But I did.
For someone who had grown used to loneliness, even warmth could feel like something unfamiliar and unsafe. He wasn't holding onto me out of affection. It was something deeper and harder to admit. He saw me as someone who would never push him away, someone like Grandma, who had given him a place without conditions. The house in R Province was not just a home to him; it was the only place he believed he could remain without being rejected.
He didn't belong anywhere else. That was why he clung.
A cold presence brushed against my senses, subtle but sharp enough to make me turn. Ashton stood at the doorway, his gaze fixed on us, steady and unreadable.
