Chapter 303\u00a0<\/p>\n
There was a knock on the door a moment later.\u00a0<\/p>\n
\u201cTristan?\u201d Athena\u2019s voice came through, softer now. \u201cCan I come in?\u201d\u00a0<\/p>\n
\u201cI want to be alone,\u201d I said, my voice coming out harsher than I intended.\u00a0<\/p>\n
\u201cPlease,\u201d she said. \u201cI\u2019m sorry, I didn\u2019t mean to upset you, I was just joking around.\u201d\u00a0<\/p>\n
\u201cI said I want to be alone,\u201d I repeated.\u00a0<\/p>\n
There was silence for a moment and I thought maybe she\u2019d left, but then I heard her voice again and it was different this time,\u00a0<\/p>\n
quieter, almost hurt.\u00a0<\/p>\n
\u201cAre you really going to leave me standing out here with our children?\u201d\u00a0<\/p>\n
74\u00a0<\/p>\n
The emphasis on our children hit me like a physical blow and I immediately opened the door.\u00a0<\/p>\n
She was standing there looking up at me with those big eyes and I could see she was actually upset now, not playing around anymore.\u00a0<\/p>\n
I didn\u2019t say anything, just scooped her up in my arms and carried her into the room, using my foot to close the door behind us.\u00a0<\/p>\n
I set her down on the bed but I couldn\u2019t bring myself to look at her, couldn\u2019t shake the fear that was still coursing through me.\u00a0<\/p>\n
\u201cTristan,\u201d she said softly. \u201cI was joking, everyone knew I was joking except apparently you.\u201d\u00a0<\/p>\n
\u201cIt\u2019s not funny,\u201d I said, my voice tight.\u00a0<\/p>\n
\u201cI know it\u2019s not funny to you,\u201d she said. \u201cBut it was meant to be light, a joke between friends, I would never actually race while pregnant, you have to know that.\u201d\u00a0<\/p>\n
I sat down on the edge of the bed, my back to her, and felt her hand on my shoulder.\u00a0<\/p>\n
\u201cTalk to me,\u201d she said. \u201cTell me what you\u2019re really feeling because this seems like it\u2019s about more than just a joke about racing.\u201d\u00a0<\/p>\n
I took a breath and tried to find the words for what I was feeling, for the terror that had gripped me the moment she\u2019d started talking\u00a0<\/p>\n
about racing.\u00a0<\/p>\n
\u201cI\u2019m scared,\u201d I finally admitted. \u201cI\u2019m terrified that I won\u2019t be able to protect you, that something will happen to you or the babies and I\u2019ll be powerless to stop it, that I\u2019ll fail you the way I failed Jess.\u201d\u00a0<\/p>\n
The room went quiet and I felt Athena move behind me, then her arms were wrapping around me from behind, her cheek pressing\u00a0<\/p>\n
1\/2\u00a0<\/p>\n
11:48 Fri, Jan 23\u00a0<\/p>\n
Chapter 303\u00a0<\/p>\n
against my back.\u00a0<\/p>\n
\u201cIs that what this is really about?\u201d she asked softly. \u201cJess?\u201d\u00a0<\/p>\n
\u201cI couldn\u2019t protect her,\u201d I said, and the words came out broken. \u201cShe was my mate and I couldn\u2019t keep her safe, Daxon killed her and our baby and I wasn\u2019t there, I couldn\u2019t stop it.\u201d\u00a0<\/p>\n
\u201cTristan, Jess\u2019s death wasn\u2019t your fault,\u201d Athena said firmly. \u201cDaxon killed her, not you, he\u2019s the one who failed her, not you.\u201d\u00a0<\/p>\n
\u201cI should have been there,\u201d I said. \u201cI should have known something was wrong, should have protected her better.\u201d\u00a0<\/p>\n
\u201cYou couldn\u2019t have known,\u201d she argued. \u201cDaxon was a monster who hid what he was, even I didn\u2019t know the full extent of what he was capable of until it was too late, you can\u2019t blame yourself for not seeing what he didn\u2019t want anyone to see.\u201d\u00a0<\/p>\n
I turned to look at her and saw tears in her eyes.\u00a0<\/p>\n
\u201cI can\u2019t lose you,\u201d I said, my voice breaking. \u201cI can\u2019t lose you or those babies, I won\u2019t survive it, Athena, I can\u2019t go through that again.\u201d\u00a0<\/p>\n
She moved so she was sitting in front of me, taking my face in her hands and forcing me to look at her.\u00a0<\/p>\n
\u201cListen to me,\u201d she said, her voice strong despite the tears. \u201cI am not Jess, and Daxon is dead, he can\u2019t hurt us anymore, no one can\u00a0<\/p>\n
hurt us because we won\u2019t let them.\u201d\u00a0<\/p>\n
\u201cBut what if,\u201d I started.\u00a0<\/p>\n
\u201cNo,\u201d she interrupted. \u201cLet me finish, this pregnancy, these twins, this is the moon goddess giving us back what we lost, you lost Jess and your baby, I lost my baby with Daxon, and now we\u2019re being given two children to heal those wounds, to fill those empty spaces in our\u00a0<\/p>\n
hearts.\u201d\u00a0<\/p>\n
\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
Memories Drifted Into Soft Silence by Kyx Frost 303 Chapter 303\u00a0 There was a knock on the door a moment […]<\/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-26460","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\/26460","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=26460"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/kezpres.xyz\/novelreading\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/26460\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/kezpres.xyz\/novelreading\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=26460"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/kezpres.xyz\/novelreading\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=26460"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/kezpres.xyz\/novelreading\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=26460"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}