Chapter 22 The Word He'd Been Avoiding

• Kael had known the word since the first night in Bay Four. He’d been standing over a dying man, and some old, instinctual part of him had whispered it before he even knew Emily Carter’s last name. For two months, he’d carefully avoided saying it out loud, carrying the secret like something fragile in a crowded room, terrified that one wrong move would shatter everything.
• He decided to finally say it on a random Sunday evening. He didn’t want a crisis forcing his hand—no medical emergencies, no panicked confessions on rooftops, no chaos dragging the truth out of him.
• Just the two of them at his kitchen table, dinner mostly finished, sitting in that kind of comfortable silence you only get when you've finally learned how to just “be“ with someone.