Sweet Hatred Chapter 215: REGRET

ARIA

I didn’t look back.

Not even once.

Because if I did, I was afraid I’d break.

Not from his refusal to let go, I sort of expected that. Of course Kael Roman doesn’t let go. He hoards, he holds, he tightens until whatever he has left in his grip can’t breathe.

But what I didn’t expect... was the sick, fractured relief curling inside like a parasite.

He didn’t let go.

He didn’t want to.

And that stupid part of —the desperate, aching, pathetic part—clung to it like it ant sothing. Like it ant he cared.

God. What the hell was wrong with ?

I gripped the railing of the stairs and stared up ahead at the long sprawling blocks and closed doors, refusing to let the sting in my eyes fall. I should be furious. He dismissed my feelings like they were nothing. He used my own words to cut . And still,

Still I was wondering what I even wanted from him.

Do I want him to love ? Do I want him to beg?

Do I just want to feel like I matter?

I didn’t know. I never knew.

Because the truth, the brutal, unspoken truth, was that without the contract... what the fuck were we?

Would we survive it?

Or would we spiral back into nothing?

Would I have to watch him marry Ashlyn? Would I be forced to see her wear his na? Smile beside him for the caras? Be invited to dinner as Mrs. Roman?

No.

I’d disappear before that. Quietly, without fuss. I’d find a way.

Any way.

I reached the top of the stairs and continued into the hallway, numb from the inside out, dragging my feet like I was walking through sand. Each step to my apartnt door felt heavier than the last, dread creeping down my spine like it had claws.

I hated that hallway. I hated how quiet it was now.

The silence used to feel safe.

Now it just felt like a reminder.

Of how gone Olivia was. Of how I never really belonged anywhere in the first place. Of how much I missed Kaleb’s stomping, Lily’s drawings on the walls, Olivia’s late-night calls through the kitchen.

It had only been a few days since she disappeared, blocked my number, shut out and yet it felt like soone had taken a knife to my chest and twisted.

I didn’t even fight it anymore.

I deserved it.

I was toxic. Bitter. Full of anger I didn’t know how to let go of.

So maybe this was my punishnt.

I reached the door and—

Stopped.

There was a thin streak of light slipping beneath the door.

It was open.

My heart flipped. Open? I didn’t leave it that way.

My fingers hovered near the handle, body locking in place. I wasn’t sure if it was adrenaline or fear or so mix of both crawling up my throat, but sothing wasn’t right.

I nudged the door open.

Each creak felt like thunder in the silence. My heart was sprinting, chest tight, breath shallow, because I didn’t know what I was walking into.

A shadow moved inside.

I stepped in, fists clenched, body tensed like I was ready to fight. Or run. Or scream.

But then...

I saw her.

Frozen in the middle of my living room, crouched near the sofa, folding Kaleb’s tiny Spider-Man T-shirt into a traveling bag.

Olivia.

My chest cracked open.

She looked... thinner. Paler. Her curls were tied back like they used to be when she was studying late nights, and her lips were pulled tight, focused on the clothes like it was a task she couldn’t get wrong.

I didn’t think. I just moved.

"Olivia—"

I rushed toward her, and before I could stop myself, my arms wrapped around her. She slled the sa. Like fabric softener and sleep. And for a split second, I could pretend everything was okay. That she was back. That maybe she missed too.

But her body...

Didn’t move.

No return warmth. No squeeze back. Just... stillness.

And when she did speak, her voice was colder than anything I’d ever heard from her. Like ice in my ear.

"I’m sorry for letting myself in," she said, gently prying herself from my arms like I was a stranger in a supermarket who got too close. "Kaleb needed a few of his clothes. I thought it’d be quicker if I ca while you weren’t ho."

Quicker.

If I wasn’t ho.

Like she planned to avoid .

I stepped back, like her words were hands shoving away.

"Oh," I breathed. "Right. Of course."

She zipped the bag like that was the end of it. Like this was a transaction.

Not a reunion.

Not a sister seeing her sister again for the first ti since she disappeared without a word.

I tried to find sothing to say. Anything. But my mouth had gone dry.

"You could’ve texted," I finally managed, voice small. "I would’ve left them outside for you."

She didn’t look at . "I didn’t want to bother you."

Bother. .

I wanted to scream. Cry. Shake her until the real Olivia ca back.

Instead, I just stood there.

Staring at the person I once shared everything with, birthdays, secrets, late-night kitchen dances and realizing I was looking at a ghost.

A ghost who no longer wanted to be part of my life.

"I didn’t an what I said... that day. At the shelter," I said, my voice breaking into the silence like a bad mory. "I was angry and tired and just—I was lashing out. I didn’t an to throw everything in your face like that."

Olivia didn’t stop folding. Her back was still to .

She picked up one of Kaleb’s socks and balled it quietly before she replied.

"No," she said coolly. "You ant it. You always an it, Aria. You just regret how loud it ca out."

I flinched.

"That’s not true."

She turned slightly then, just enough for to see the edge of her profile. Her jaw was tight. Her eyes unreadable.

"You said you were the one carrying everything. That all I did was make it harder for you," she continued, voice like calm water—so calm it cut deeper. "That you were the one stuck with the weight. That you were always the one left cleaning up the ss. I think about that a lot, actually. Every ti Kaleb asks why he can’t see his auntie anymore."

"Liv—"

"No, it’s fine. I get it. You were tired. You were fed up. We all get like that eventually. Just... maybe next ti don’t make people feel like they’re just extra baggage you got stuck dragging through life."

It was like swallowing glass.

I stepped forward again, desperate. "I didn’t an it like that. Please. You know . You know I didn’t an it."

"I thought I knew you," she murmured.

That one sliced.

I felt my throat close up. My hands shook.

"Olivia... please."

But she just shook her head. "You don’t have to do this. We’re not gonna pretend this isn’t weird. Or sad. It is what it is."

I wanted to scream. I wanted to rewind ti.

I just wanted her.

"Where are you staying?" I asked softly, almost like I was asking for a second chance.

She zipped the suitcase, finally standing to her full height.

"With people who don’t make feel like a burden."

That one hit so hard I swayed a little.

I dipped my hand into my bag to take out my purse. "At... at least take my credit card—"

"No need!" Olivia smacked my hand before it could even reach her.

"We don’t need money from soone like you." She continued, glaring at .

She grabbed Kaleb’s teddy bear, tucked it into the bag like it deserved more care than I did, and walked past like I was nothing but a wall she had to get around.

And just like that—my sister was gone.

Again.