The words chipped away at the frozen shell around her heart, creating more breaks.
“It’s been… a long time since I trusted anyone.” Her lashes fluttered. “I wish I could make the same promise… but I can’t.”
She turned her head, her gaze drifting toward the window and the sun-dappled forest beyond. Her throat tightened.
Brie.
That night.
Everything that had changed them.
She swallowed hard, pulling gently from Nikos’s embrace.
He let her go without a word.
She walked to the back door and stared out at the woods. Her movements were slow, deliberate as she touched the doorframe. A quiet war was playing out inside her.
She’d never told anyone everything. Not even Brie.
It had been too dangerous.
Too painful.
Too much.
But something had changed. Being here. Being with him.
She was tired of hiding.
Tired of pretending.
Tired of being alone.
She felt him behind her again, the warmth of his body just shy of touching hers.
Then his hands found her hips—gentle, grounding.
And need coiled low in her belly. Not just physical. Emotional. The terrifying kind. The kind that shattered walls.
She closed her eyes, breathing in and out as the memories of the aroma, the feel of the humid dampness in the air, the tensionthat never seemed to uncoil inside her rose and spilled over as if she were a child again. The secrets of her life overflowed as if the dam holding her emotions had been struck by an invisible hammer.
Jakarta, Indonesia
Sixteen years ago
The air carried sun-baked dust, fried noodles, and the sweetness of rain that wasn’t quite ready to fall.
Kiki perched on the stoop outside their flat, dragging a stick through the dirt, drawing wobbly circles that were supposed to be cats. The red paint of their doorway peeled in curling strips, the plywood window shutters sagged, and bright shirts and faded sarongs fluttered from laundry lines like prayer flags between the rusting bicycles and crumbling walls.
Her mother hummed softly above her, pinning another shirt to the line. It was one of the lullabies Kiki loved—something about the stars and the sea. Kiki hummed along under her breath, her bare feet dusted with gray powder from the street.
She looked up when a shadow crossed her drawing.
“Mama,” she started to protest as a dusty sandal scuffed through her circles.
Before she could finish, her mother scooped her up, her arms trembling under Kiki’s slight weight. Kiki felt the change immediately. The hum was gone. The song stopped. Her mother’s heart beat wildly, fluttering like a trapped bird.
“Hold on to me,sayang. Hold on tight,” her mother whispered in a raw voice.
