Chapter 147

Kelly POV

The apology should have been the end of it. Lucian had said what he came to say, I had heard him out, and the conversation should have closed there, clean and final. And yet, hours later, as I lay in bed staring up at the ceiling, my thoughts refused to settle. They kept circling the same place, over and over, like they couldn’t find a way out.

I didn’t hate him anymore.

That realization should have felt like relief, like something lifting off my chest. Instead, it left a strange emptiness behind, something unfamiliar and hard to name, like I had removed a weight I had gotten used to carrying without realizing it.

For so long, anger had been the thing holding everything in place. It had given me direction, boundaries, a reason to keep distance between us. It had reminded me of what had happened and why I couldn’t simply move past it. But now that it wasn’t as sharp anymore, that protective wall felt like it was starting to break, and I didn’t