Chapter 64 Bruised Lines

• The morning crept in slowly.
• Ariana stirred, blinking against the faint light slipping through the curtains. Damien was already gone from the bed, but the warmth where he'd lain still lingered.
• She sat up, dragging the sheets with her, her body sore in a way that wasn’t just physical. The night before played behind her eyes—not just what they'd said, but how close they'd come to losing pieces of themselves they hadn’t even realized were still raw.