“Harlan...”
“I’m going to fix this,” I swore, stepping closer. “I will fix it. And if I can’t… I’ll burn it down and rebuild it with my bare hands. But not without you. I can't do any of this without you. So please... don’t give up on me yet.”
She looked up at me, tears brimming but not falling. Her jaw clenched like she was holding back a lifetime of doubt and disappointment.
And then, finally, her forehead fell to my chest, and she let me wrap her in my arms.
I knew this was not forgiveness. Not a full answer.
But something.
A pause in the storm.
Inside the curtain, Remi shifted and groaned.
Ava turned toward the sound, voice soft. “She’ll hate having to stay here even for a night, and she will not agree to eat what they pass off as food here.”
I smiled faintly despite the knot in my chest. “I’ll bring tacos. Hell, I’ll bring half the damn menu if that’s what she wants.”
“You better.”
We stood together in the hallway, tired and frayed but not broken.
And while I held Ava, I let myself imagine the other reality, the one where I got here and it was too late, where curtain three was already closed, where the voices I loved most had been silenced. The thought made my stomach lurch and my vision blur.
I let the feel of Ava in my arms chase away some of that fear. But I refused to let the rest go. No, I’d keep it, carry it, let it sear into me as a reminder.
Of what I was fighting for.
Of who I was fighting for.
And why failure was no longer an option.
CHAPTER 33
AVA -LEGEND
Grief doesn’t burn the same way after a year.
It doesn’t scream. It doesn’t claw.
It simmers. Quiet. Tired. Familiar.
Like smoke under the skin.
It had been a year since Sofia was...
It had been a year.
Andhewas still free.
The year had passed in blurs of highs and lows.
Love and loss.
Moments of clarity. Moments of madness.
Wins that felt hollow. Losses that made me question why we kept doing any of it.
