Chapter 285\u00a0<\/p>\n
I looked over at him. \u201cWhat do you mean?\u201d\u00a0<\/p>\n
14%2\u00a0<\/p>\n
\u201cThe kitchen window is broken, there\u2019s damage from the fight, blood on the floor,\u201d he explained,\u00a0<\/p>\n
his jaw tight.\u00a0<\/p>\n
\u201cI don\u2019t want you there while it\u2019s like that, not after what happened, you need to rest somewhere\u00a0<\/p>\n
safe, somewhere you can actually relax.\u201d\u00a0<\/p>\n
\u201cSo where are we going?\u201d I asked.\u00a0<\/p>\n
\u201cI was thinking we could get a hotel room for a few days,\u201d he said. \u201cJust until I can get the house\u00a0<\/p>\n
properly secured and cleaned up.\u201d\u00a0<\/p>\n
I considered it, the idea of a neutral space did sound appealing, somewhere that didn\u2019t have\u00a0<\/p>\n
memories of violence soaked into it.\u00a0<\/p>\n
But before I could agree, Tristan\u2019s phone rang through the car\u2019s speaker system, Orion\u2019s name\u00a0<\/p>\n
flashing on the screen.\u00a0<\/p>\n
\u201cHey,\u201d Tristan answered. \u201cWe\u2019re on our way back from Mara\u2019s.\u201d\u00a0<\/p>\n
\u201cHow\u2019s Athena?\u201d Orion asked immediately. \u201cHow\u2019s the baby?\u201d\u00a0<\/p>\n
\u201cBoth fine,\u201d Tristan said, and I heard the relief in his voice even saying it again. \u201cMara said\u00a0<\/p>\n
everything looks good.\u201d\u00a0<\/p>\n
\u201cThank god,\u201d Orion breathed. \u201cListen, I\u2019ve been thinking, you can\u2019t take Athena back to your\u00a0<\/p>\n
place right now, not with the damage from last night.\u201d\u00a0<\/p>\n
\u201cI know,\u201d Tristan said. \u201cI was actually just telling her we should get a hotel for a few days.\u201d\u00a0<\/p>\n
\u201cNo,\u201d Orion said firmly. \u201cYou\u2019re coming to my place, both of you, stay with us.\u201d\u00a0<\/p>\n
\u201cOrion, we don\u2019t want to impose,\u201d Tristan started.\u00a0<\/p>\n
\u201cYou\u2019re not imposing,\u201d Orion cut him off. \u201cSarah and I already talked about it, we have plenty of\u00a0<\/p>\n
room and you both already have room here anyway, what\u2019s the difference.\u00a0<\/p>\n
III\u00a0<\/p>\n
1\/3\u00a0<\/p>\n
19.59 Tue, Jan zu WG\u00a0<\/p>\n
Chapter 285\u00a0<\/p>\n
And honestly, after last night, I\u2019d feel better having everyone under one roof, that way we can\u00a0<\/p>\n
protect each other if anything happens.\u201d\u00a0<\/p>\n
Tristan glanced at me and I could see he was considering it. \u201cWhat do you think?\u201d he asked me.\u00a0<\/p>\n
I thought about it, about being at Orion\u2019s house with Sarah and the kids, about having family\u00a0<\/p>\n
around us instead of being isolated in some hotel room.\u00a0<\/p>\n
\u201cI think he\u2019s right,\u201d I said. \u201cIt would be safer, and I\u2019d like to be close to Sarah right now, make\u00a0<\/p>\n
sure she\u2019s really okay.\u201d\u00a0<\/p>\n
\u201cSee?\u201d Orion said, having heard me through the speaker. \u201cAthena agrees, it\u2019s settled, come to my\u00a0<\/p>\n
place.\u201d\u00a0<\/p>\n
\u201cAlright,\u201d Tristan conceded. \u201cWe need to stop by my house first though, grab some clothes and\u00a0<\/p>\n
things.\u201d\u00a0<\/p>\n
\u201cMake it quick,\u201d Orion said. \u201cAnd call me when you\u2019re on your way, I\u2019ll have food ready.\u201d\u00a0<\/p>\n
He hung up and Tristan changed direction, heading toward his house instead of a hotel.\u00a0<\/p>\n
When we pulled up, I felt my stomach clench at the sight of it, it looked normal from the outside except for the boarded up kitchen window, but I knew what had happened inside, knew that\u00a0<\/p>\n
violence had invaded what was supposed to be our safe space.\u00a0<\/p>\n
\u201cStay in the car,\u201d Tristan said. \u201cI\u2019ll go grab what we need.\u201d\u00a0<\/p>\n
\u201cI\u2019m not staying in the car,\u201d I said. \u201cI need to get my things too.\u201d\u00a0<\/p>\n
\u201cAthena,\u201d he started.\u00a0<\/p>\n
\u201cI\u2019m not fragile,\u201d I said firmly. \u201cI can walk into my own house.\u201d\u00a0<\/p>\n
He looked like he wanted to argue but finally nodded, coming around to help me out of the car\u00a0<\/p>\n
and keeping his arm around my waist as we walked to the door.\u00a0<\/p>\n
Derek\u2019s truck was still in the driveway and when we entered, I found him in the living room with another man I recognized from the pack, both of them were cleaning up the overturned furniture\u00a0<\/p>\n
and broken items from the fight.\u00a0<\/p>\n
2\/3\u00a0<\/p>\n
19:59 Tue, Jan 20 W GE\u00a0<\/p>\n
Chapter 285\u00a0<\/p>\n
\u201cHey,\u201d Derek said when he saw us. \u201cHow did it go?\u201d\u00a0<\/p>\n
\u201cBaby\u2019s fine,\u201d I said, and he smiled with genuine relief.\u00a0<\/p>\n
\u201cThat\u2019s great news,\u201d he said. \u201cReally great.\u201d\u00a0<\/p>\n
14%\u00a0<\/p>\n
I looked around the living room and felt my chest tighten, the coffee table was cracked, one of\u00a0<\/p>\n
the armchairs was torn, there were scuff marks on the walls and dark stains on the floor that I knew\u00a0<\/p>\n
were blood.\u00a0<\/p>\n
Memories Drifted Into Soft Silence by Kyx Frost 285 Chapter 285\u00a0 I looked over at him. \u201cWhat do you mean?\u201d\u00a0 […]<\/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-26442","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\/26442","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=26442"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/kezpres.xyz\/novelreading\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/26442\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/kezpres.xyz\/novelreading\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=26442"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/kezpres.xyz\/novelreading\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=26442"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/kezpres.xyz\/novelreading\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=26442"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}