Chapter 40. Eternity and After

Evelyn

Time slipped by faster than I could grasp. Before I knew it, Monday was already here again. Even though time moved quickly, I barely noticed—because all I did was lie in Jacob’s arms, soaking in these precious moments with him. Watching him heal, day by day, from his own wounds and trauma.

The ordeal with Tyler had left a heavy scar on me. Sometimes, my mind would forget how it ended and instead replay the terror that came before—the fear that had gripped me tight. My heart would pound wildly, and I’d cling to Jacob, listening to his steady, calm heartbeat, slowly finding my own peace again. He was my peace—my shelter in the storms, the breeze when I couldn’t breathe.

Sometimes I wondered how no one had seen the scared little boy trapped inside Tyler. How no one noticed the cracks until they shattered so badly that he could no longer hold himself together—until his brokenness spilled over in destructive ways. After all, he too was a human…living along