Sweet Hatred Chapter 474: The Breach

SARAH

I looked at Aria again and sothing inside finally split.

Her face was marked with tears that had dried and started again. Skin blotchy. Eyes dulled by exhaustion and fear she was no longer bothering to hide.

I had done that.

Every shaking breath. Every tremor in her hands. The way she held herself like the room might collapse if she relaxed.

"I wish you’d never approached that day."

The sentence escaped before I could weigh it. It settled between us, low and heavy.

Her eyes lifted, startled.

I saw it again, clear as if it were happening now. The hallway. The stupid orientation flyers. Her smile, awkward and hopeful, when she asked for help.

"I wish I’d ignored you," I said. "Pretended you weren’t there."

Her body recoiled, subtle but unmistakable.

"Maybe then..." I stopped myself. "Maybe things would have turned out differently."

It hurt her. I saw it land.

It hurt too, because part of it was true.

If I had walked past her. If I had kept my head down. If I had not looked at her that day. She would not be bound to a wall. I would not be standing here with blood on my hands and a gun in my waistband. We would both still be ordinary people with ordinary sins.

Or at least she would be.

But it was also the most dishonest thing I had said all night.

I could never have ignored her.

Even knowing how this ended. Even knowing the wreckage waiting at the bottom. I would still let her into my life. I would still sit beside her. Still listen. Still let the line blur until it was gone.

I would still fall.

She had been worth it.

Even now.

"I knew the mont I t you that you would ruin ," I said.

Tears slid down her face again. Quiet. Steady.

"I couldn’t stay away."

How did you explain gravity to soone who had never felt themselves pulled apart by it.

"You made everything else go quiet," I said. "Like the world faded whenever you were near."

Many years of falling.

No ground in sight.

"Every ti you dated soone, I told myself I could handle it," I went on. "That it didn’t matter."

Eric. Kyle. The one from statistics whose na I had erased out of spite.

"But it did. It always did."

Each one lodged deeper.

"I never wanted to hurt you," I said. "Everything I did, the paperwork, the interference, I told myself it was for us."

The lies had worn the shape of logic. They had sounded reasonable in my head.

"That if I could just take Kael out of the picture..." A laugh scraped out of . "I was lying."

It had never really been about him.

"You were never going to choose ."

Not a question. A reckoning.

I had known it for years.

"Even if he never existed. Even if I had told you everything back then."

Her eyes t mine.

"You loved ," I said. "Just not like that."

"Sarah."

"I should have left," I said over her. "Should have let you be happy. Should have wanted that more than I wanted you."

I hadn’t.

"I needed you close," I said. "Even if it destroyed us."

I looked around the room. Concrete. Restraints. The proof of my failure written everywhere.

"I destroyed us," I said. "Didn’t I."

The silence answered for her.

"The real parts," I added. "The parts that mattered. I ruined all of it."

Years of mories collapsed into sothing unrecognizable.

"And I can’t undo it."

"You were my best friend."

Her voice broke on the word.

"But you lied. You manipulated. You hurt people I love."

Each sentence struck clean. Deserved.

"I mourn what we were," she said. "I mourn the friendship we could have kept if you had told the truth."

"I know."

"I can’t forgive what you’ve done."

"I know."

The quiet that followed pressed in on my ears.

"Please," she said. "Let go."

I really looked at her then.

At the person who had been my anchor and my undoing. My closest companion. The reason I crossed every line.

"Turn yourself in," she said. "Get help."

For a heartbeat, the idea took shape.

Untie her. Open the door. Let the story end clean.

"This doesn’t have to be worse," she said.

We both knew better.

That ending had been taken from us a long ti ago.

"I’m scared for you," she said. "I’m scared of what cos next."

"So am I."

"Please don’t let this be the end of us."

I opened my mouth.

Three hard knocks shattered the mont.

My body locked.

No one was supposed to be here. The rental car was hours away. The eting point was nowhere near this place. No one should know this address.

Another knock. Louder.

I pushed gag back in Aria’s mouth before she could scream and moved to the window, barely parting the curtain. I could not see the door.

My pulse climbed.

I stepped closer to the entrance, my hand finding the weight at my waist.

"Who is it," I called.

Nothing.

Another knock.

"What do you want."

"I need to check the water ter, dear."

An older woman’s voice. Uneven. Careful.

"Won’t take long."

The landlord.

Mrs. Lane. Or whatever na she had given .

Cash. No questions. Minimal contact.

But sothing was wrong.

The tremor in her voice felt practiced. Forced.

I leaned toward the peephole.

An elderly woman stood there. Small. Unthreatening.

Every instinct in scread.

I could not refuse outright. I could not risk her calling for help.

I unlocked the bolt and opened the door just enough to shoo her away with another excuse I could co up with.

The door blew inward.

The impact sent stumbling back as n poured into the room.

Armor. Masks. Weapons built for efficiency.

Not police.

Not Kael’s people.

I raised my gun and fired.

The first man dropped. The second followed.

Then hands were everywhere.

They tore the weapon from . Drove to the floor. A knee crushed into my back.

I fought. Thrashed. Scread.

It did not matter.

Sothing tightened around my wrists.

I heard Aria through it all. Gagged. Panicked. Struggling.

"Don’t touch her," I yelled.

They barely glanced her way. Checked the restraints. Moved on.

Footsteps entered the room, slow and assured.

The n parted.

A man stepped forward in an immaculate suit, expression calm, eyes assessing.

I knew that face.

Andrew Roman.

My stomach dropped.

"Hello, Sarah."