Chapter 210\u00a0<\/p>\n
Athena\u2019s POV\u00a0<\/p>\n
What, what are you doing here? I stutter, my voice barely above a whisper. How did you get here?\u00a0<\/p>\n
My heart is pounding so hard I can feel it in my throat. I thought I was being careful. I thought I was quiet enough, that no one would hear me dreva\u00a0<\/p>\n
But here he is, standing in the middle of the street like he\u2019s been waiting for me.\u00a0<\/p>\n
Like he knew exactly what I was planning to do.\u00a0<\/p>\n
He doesn\u2019t say anything. He just stares at me with this look that makes me want to disappear into the ground.\u00a0<\/p>\n
The intensity of his gaze forces me to lower mine. I can\u2019t look at him anymore. I can\u2019t stand to see what\u2019s written all over his face.\u00a0<\/p>\n
Disappointment. Hurt. Pain that I put there by trying to run away from them again.\u00a0<\/p>\n
\u201cI\u2019m sorry, I whisper, the words coming out all shaky and pathetic.\u00a0<\/p>\n
But he still doesn\u2019t say anything. He just turns his back to me and starts walking toward the house. Each step he takes away from me feels like a knife\u00a0<\/p>\n
in my chest.\u00a0<\/p>\n
I stand there for what feels like forever, watching him walk away. My feet won\u2019t move. My brain can\u2019t process what just happened.\u00a0<\/p>\n
He caught me trying to leave and now he\u2019s walking away from me without saying a single\u00a0<\/p>\n
word.\u00a0<\/p>\n
Maybe this is it. Maybe he\u2019s finally had enough of my running and my fear and not worth the effort anymore.\u00a0<\/p>\n
i\u00a0<\/p>\n
my inability to trust him, myself or anyone else. Maybe he\u2019s decided I\u2019m\u00a0<\/p>\n
The thought makes me want to throw up.\u00a0<\/p>\n
After a while, his steps slow down. He stops completely and looks back at\u00a0<\/p>\n
me\u00a0<\/p>\n
read.\u00a0<\/p>\n
over his shoulder. There\u2019s something in his expression that I can\u2019t quite\u00a0<\/p>\n
I raise a confused brow. Why did he stop? What does he want?\u00a0<\/p>\n
But then I see the look on his face more clearly. It\u2019s expectation. He\u2019s waiting for something.\u00a0<\/p>\n
\u201cOh, I mutter in understanding. He\u2019s waiting for me.\u00a0<\/p>\n
He\u2019s not walking away from me forever. He\u2019s walking home and expecting me to follow him. The relief that floods through me is so strong it makes my\u00a0<\/p>\n
knees weak.\u00a0<\/p>\n
I take hesitant steps toward him. He still doesn\u2019t say anything. When I finally reach him, close enough to touch if I wanted to, that\u2019s when he starts moving again.\u00a0<\/p>\n
Still silent. Still not looking at me.\u00a0<\/p>\n
The quiet between us is suffocating. I want to explain myself, to tell him why I tried to leave. But the words stick in my throat.\u00a0<\/p>\n
111\u00a0<\/p>\n
O\u00a0<\/p>\n
1\/2\u00a0<\/p>\n
Chapter 210\u00a0<\/p>\n
How do I explain that I was trying to protect him by abandoning him? How do I make him understand that running away felt like the only way to him safe, to keep them safe?\u00a0<\/p>\n
We walk back to the house in complete silence. My mind is racing with all the things I want to say, but none of them seem right. None of them sem like enough.\u00a0<\/p>\n
When we reach the guest room, I enter first. My hands are shaking as I listen to him follow me in. The moment he\u2019s inside, he locks the door and slides the key into his pocket before climbing onto the bed.\u00a0<\/p>\n
I stand there watching him, feeling surprised and amused despite everything. He\u2019s actually locking me in. He\u2019s making sure I can\u2019t sneak out again..\u00a0<\/p>\n
\u201cTristan, I say softly.\u00a0<\/p>\n
He doesn\u2019t respond. He just lies down with his back to me, like he\u2019s planning to go to sleep and pretend this whole thing never happened.\u00a0<\/p>\n
I walk toward the bed with a small smile on my face. I can\u2019t help it. I\u2019ve never seen Tristan sulking before.\u00a0<\/p>\n
This strong, confident man is actually posting because I tried to run away. It\u2019s almost cute in a heartbreaking sort of way.\u00a0<\/p>\n
I sit on the edge of the bed and stare at his back. His shoulders are tense, and I can tell he\u2019s not actually trying to sleep. He\u2019s just avoiding looking at\u00a0<\/p>\n
\u2018I\u2019m sorry,\u2018 I try again.\u00a0<\/p>\n
Nothing. He doesn\u2019t even twit\u00a0<\/p>\n
\u201cT, look at me.\u201d Still nothing\u00a0<\/p>\n
\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
Memories Drifted Into Soft Silence by Kyx Frost 210 Chapter 210\u00a0 Athena\u2019s POV\u00a0 What, what are you doing here? I […]<\/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-26367","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\/26367","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=26367"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/kezpres.xyz\/novelreading\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/26367\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/kezpres.xyz\/novelreading\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=26367"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/kezpres.xyz\/novelreading\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=26367"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/kezpres.xyz\/novelreading\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=26367"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}