Chapter 37. It Has Always Been You

S:

It’s been hours.

Or maybe minutes.

Time’s a blur when your world crumbles without making a sound.

The blood on the floor still hasn’t dried.

Her blood.

From the cup. From her fingers.

From the words she threw like knives.

Not once flinching.

"Stop pretending."

I didn’t know words could slice through bone.

I sit at the foot of the stairs.

Staring at the door she locked.

The one keeping me out.

The one keeping her pain in.

Karina.

That name. That curse.

"Tell that to Karina, not me."

I don’t move.

Not when Eliza storms down, demanding I stop breaking things.

Not when Kieran offers me a bottle and a silence I didn’t ask for.

My fists are torn open.

Knuckles split from slamming into walls.

Glass.

Frames.

My own reflection.

I can’t fix it.

I can’t reach her.

And that’s the