Chapter 104. Make Me Forget (18+)

ARDEN

I couldn’t stop shaking.

No matter how tightly Cade held me and no matter how warm his embrace was, my body wouldn’t still. My mind kept circling back to the way Kieran’s hand gripped my face and how his lips touched mine. I wanted to vomit.

My fists clenched around the fabric of his shirt.

I tried to breathe. Inhale. Exhale. But it seemed like nothing helped.

Why did he do it?

Why did Kieran kiss me?

There was a theory clawing its way through my brain—one I had tried to push away ever since I was old enough to realize that my family never really looked at me the same. That I was different from them.

Maybe I wasn’t part of the family after all.

Maybe I never was.

But even if that was true—even if I was just some orphan they’d taken in to raise like a project, a token of goodness for their reputation—

It didn’t excuse what Kieran did. It didn’t make the revulsion feel any smaller.

I squeezed my eyes shut an