GRAYSON

I stared into her eyes, the walls I’d built around myself wavering, almost crumbling under her gaze. I wanted to let her in—to let her pull me out of this twisted prison I’d trapped myself in. But what if it was too late? What if the anger and the darkness had become a part of me, too ingrained to ever escape?

“I don’t know if I can,” I whispered, my voice thick with the weight of everything I felt. “I’ve spent so long being… this. Keeping control by pushing everything else away. It’s what I know, Ariana. It’s what’s kept me alive.”

Her eyes softened, her fingers tracing along...