Chapter 223

• Leah's POV
• The afternoon sun hung low, casting long shadows that stretched like fingers across the cracked pavement. I followed Liam into his house, the air inside stale and heavy with the scent of old cigarettes and desperation. He collapsed onto the sofa, his body sinking into the worn cushions as if the weight of the world had finally crushed him. Within moments, his breathing evened out, and he was asleep.
• I knelt beside him, my eyes tracing the lines of his face - lines that were usually etched with worry but now smoothed into something almost childlike. For a fleeting moment, he wasn‘t the man burdened by debt, loss, and the scars of a life that had never been kind. He was just Liam, the boy who should've been. My fingers brushed a strand of hair from his forehead, lingering longer than they should have.