Chapter 19

• “Ava, you need to stop running.”
• His voice, quiet yet firm, stopped me dead in my tracks. It wasn’t the words themselves, but the way he said them. The deep sincerity in his tone, the weight of something unspoken hanging in the air between us. It caught me off guard, made me hesitate when I had meant to escape.
• I turned slowly, my heart racing, and found Crown standing there, his tall figure leaning against the doorway, his arms crossed over his chest. His usual confident demeanor was replaced with something softer—something far more vulnerable. His eyes, though usually guarded, held a kind of pleading in them now. He wasn’t demanding anything from me, not like the others. No, Crown was asking. Silently. Begging, almost, without saying a word.