Chapter 118\u00a0<\/p>\n
Athena\u2019s POV\u00a0<\/p>\n
Jess. His dead mate. The woman he\u2019d never gotten over, never stopped loving.\u00a0<\/p>\n
He wasn\u2019t making love to me. He was making love to a ghost, to a memory, to someone who would never come back. In his drunken state, he\u2019d confused me for her, and everything \u2013 the tenderness, the declarations of love, the promises all of it had been meant for someone else.\u00a0<\/p>\n
Before I could stop myself, my hand flew across his face.\u00a0<\/p>\n
SMACK\u00a0<\/p>\n
The sound cracked through the room like a gunshot. The force of it sent shockwaves up my arm, my palm stinging from the impact but the physical pain\u00a0<\/p>\n
was nothing compared to the agony tearing through my chest.\u00a0<\/p>\n
The slap seemed to snap Tristan back to reality. He blinked rapidly, his eyes clearing as he tried to focus on where he w\u00a0<\/p>\n
ppened.\u00a0<\/p>\n
I watched the confusion morph into horror as he realized he was in my bed, naked, and I was looking at him with pure hatred.\u00a0<\/p>\n
\u201cAth,\u201d he said, reaching toward me.\u00a0<\/p>\n
\u201cDo not touch me,\u201d I said through gritted teeth, scrambling away from him so fast I nearly fell off the bed. \u201cDon\u2019t you ever touch me again in your life.\u201d\u00a0<\/p>\n
My voice was shaking with rage, but I refused to let the tears fall. I wouldn\u2019t give him the satisfaction of seeing me break down again. I\u2019d cried enough tears\u00a0<\/p>\n
over Tristan Hayes to fill an ocean.\u00a0<\/p>\n
\u2018Oh my God, Ath. What did I just do? he whispered, more to himself than to me\u00a0<\/p>\n
\u2018I need you to leave my room and my house, Tristan,\u201d I said, my voice growing stronger with each word. \u2018I don\u2019t ever want you to talk to me again or show\u00a0<\/p>\n
your face around me again.\u201d\u00a0<\/p>\n
\u2018Ath, let\u2019s talk about this, please,\u201d he said, and I noticed the alcohol was completely gone from his voice now. Perfect timing.\u00a0<\/p>\n
\u201cThere\u2019s nothing for us to talk about. As of today, I\u2019m not your sister. Not your anything anymore. We\u2019re done, Completely done.\u201d\u00a0<\/p>\n
I was breathing so fast I felt lightheaded, but I forced myself to stay upright, to keep my shoulders straight.\u00a0<\/p>\n
\u2018I swear, whatever I said was a mistake,\u201d he tried again.\u00a0<\/p>\n
I let out a laugh that felt like broken glass in my throat. \u201cWhat part was a mistake, Tristan? The part where you said you loved me?\u201d His eyebrows shot up in surprise, like he hadn\u2019t realized he\u2019d said it. Or the part where you called me jess while you were still inside me?\u201d\u00a0<\/p>\n
His gaze dropped to the floor, and he said nothing.\u00a0<\/p>\n
That silence was all the confirmation I needed. Everything \u2013 every sweet word, every gentle touch, every promise \u2013 none of it had been for me, I\u2019d been so\u00a0<\/p>\n
incredibly stupid. Again,\u00a0<\/p>\n
\u201cI\u2019m sorry, Ath,\u201d he said quietly.\u00a0<\/p>\n
I laughed again, and this time the sound was so bitter it surprised even me. The pain was spreading through my entire body now, like poison in my\u00a0<\/p>\n
bloodstream\u00a0<\/p>\n
III\u00a0<\/p>\n
O\u00a0<\/p>\n
1\/2\u00a0<\/p>\n
2032 Thu Jan 8 \u2013 20\u00a0<\/p>\n
Chapter 118\u00a0<\/p>\n
\u752832%\u516c\u00a0<\/p>\n
You\u2019re sorry? Over and over and over again you keep doing this and keep saying sorry. I looked at him with a coldness I\u2019d never felt before, and for the first time in my life, I felt actual hatred for Tristan Hayes. \u201cSorry doesn\u2019t fix anything anymore.\u201d\u00a0<\/p>\n
Leave my house. And if anything should ever bring us together in the future, find a way to not be part of it. I\u2019ll try to do the same. I\u2019ll come to work, but I\u2019d appreciate it if you stayed away from me like the stranger you apparently think I am. I don\u2019t know what excuse you\u2019ll give Orion, but that\u2019s your problem\u00a0<\/p>\n
now. Get out.\u201d\u00a0<\/p>\n
I watched him scramble for his clothes scattered around the room. As he pulled on his pants and shirt, I felt absolutely nothing. It was like watching a stranger, someone I used to care about but whose face had become meaningless to me.\u00a0<\/p>\n
It was as if my brain and heart had finally reached their limit, had exhausted all the love and forgiveness they could give to one pe appreciate it.\u00a0<\/p>\n
er\u00a0<\/p>\n
Claire was silent in my mind, but I could feel her pain mixing with mine. He\u2019d hurt us both again, for the last time.\u00a0<\/p>\n
Tristan paused at my bedroom door like he wanted to say something else, but I stared at him with such complete indifference that he just turned and\u00a0<\/p>\n
walked away,\u00a0<\/p>\n
I didn\u2019t cry, I held my head high and kept my shoulders straight as I followed him to the front door. The moment he stepped into the hallway, I locked the door behind him.\u00a0<\/p>\n
\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
Memories Drifted Into Soft Silence by Kyx Frost 118 Chapter 118\u00a0 Athena\u2019s POV\u00a0 Jess. His dead mate. The woman he\u2019d […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"site-sidebar-layout":"default","site-content-layout":"","ast-site-content-layout":"default","site-content-style":"default","site-sidebar-style":"default","ast-global-header-display":"","ast-banner-title-visibility":"","ast-main-header-display":"","ast-hfb-above-header-display":"","ast-hfb-below-header-display":"","ast-hfb-mobile-header-display":"","site-post-title":"","ast-breadcrumbs-content":"","ast-featured-img":"","footer-sml-layout":"","ast-disable-related-posts":"","theme-transparent-header-meta":"","adv-header-id-meta":"","stick-header-meta":"","header-above-stick-meta":"","header-main-stick-meta":"","header-below-stick-meta":"","astra-migrate-meta-layouts":"default","ast-page-background-enabled":"default","ast-page-background-meta":{"desktop":{"background-color":"var(--ast-global-color-5)","background-image":"","background-repeat":"repeat","background-position":"center center","background-size":"auto","background-attachment":"scroll","background-type":"","background-media":"","overlay-type":"","overlay-color":"","overlay-opacity":"","overlay-gradient":""},"tablet":{"background-color":"","background-image":"","background-repeat":"repeat","background-position":"center center","background-size":"auto","background-attachment":"scroll","background-type":"","background-media":"","overlay-type":"","overlay-color":"","overlay-opacity":"","overlay-gradient":""},"mobile":{"background-color":"","background-image":"","background-repeat":"repeat","background-position":"center center","background-size":"auto","background-attachment":"scroll","background-type":"","background-media":"","overlay-type":"","overlay-color":"","overlay-opacity":"","overlay-gradient":""}},"ast-content-background-meta":{"desktop":{"background-color":"var(--ast-global-color-4)","background-image":"","background-repeat":"repeat","background-position":"center center","background-size":"auto","background-attachment":"scroll","background-type":"","background-media":"","overlay-type":"","overlay-color":"","overlay-opacity":"","overlay-gradient":""},"tablet":{"background-color":"var(--ast-global-color-4)","background-image":"","background-repeat":"repeat","background-position":"center center","background-size":"auto","background-attachment":"scroll","background-type":"","background-media":"","overlay-type":"","overlay-color":"","overlay-opacity":"","overlay-gradient":""},"mobile":{"background-color":"var(--ast-global-color-4)","background-image":"","background-repeat":"repeat","background-position":"center center","background-size":"auto","background-attachment":"scroll","background-type":"","background-media":"","overlay-type":"","overlay-color":"","overlay-opacity":"","overlay-gradient":""}},"footnotes":""},"categories":[77],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-26275","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-the-second-gear-of-love-novel"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/kezpres.xyz\/novelreading\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/26275","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/kezpres.xyz\/novelreading\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/kezpres.xyz\/novelreading\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/kezpres.xyz\/novelreading\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/kezpres.xyz\/novelreading\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=26275"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/kezpres.xyz\/novelreading\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/26275\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/kezpres.xyz\/novelreading\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=26275"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/kezpres.xyz\/novelreading\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=26275"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/kezpres.xyz\/novelreading\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=26275"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}