Chapter 281. Did Nothing Wrong

Aurora’s POV

The door clicked shut behind us, muffling the low hum of voices that still echoed in the hallway. I could feel my pulse thudding in my cheek where Maggie’s hand had landed, hot and sore beneath the surface. Caleb was right beside me, his hand steady on my lower back as he guided me toward the edge of the bed. The silence between us felt heavy—unspoken words pressing on both our chests, coiling in the air like smoke.

“Sit,” he said gently, already moving toward the small cooler he kept tucked away in the corner of the room. I sat, biting the inside of my cheek to hold in a wince, though the sting had become more emotional than physical now.

Caleb returned moments later with a cloth-wrapped bundle of ice and knelt in front of me, his dark brows drawn together in quiet frustration. “She had no right,” he murmured, dabbing the cold compress to my cheek with a tenderness that nearly broke me. “I don’t care how angry she was. That... that wasn’t okay,