Chapter 323

AURELIA’S POV I barely slept. The night was long, heavy, and cruel — haunted by too many thoughts I couldn’t silence. Micah’s sudden reappearance had dragged every buried memory back to the surface, sharp and suffocating. And Derek’s so-called “condition” — three questions a day, as if truth could be rationed like medicine — replayed in my head like a cruel joke. By the time the sun bled weakly through the curtains, I felt more like a ghost than a living being. My body ached from exhaustion, my eyes burned, and yet my mind refused to rest. I splashed cold water on my face and forced myself to breathe. One day at a time, I told myself. Just one. When I stepped outside, the morning air felt thick, too still — the kind of silence that didn’t comfort but warned. And there he was. Micah. Leaning lazily against the railing, arms folded, like he had all the right in the world to stand there waiting for me. His eyes flicked over me once, sharp and calculating, before that infuriating smirk cur