Sophie
Afew days passed by in a daze.
I’d wake up, thinking Jonathan was still dead, and then I’d remember the events on the yacht.
His betrayal replayed itself differently every time I thought of it. With disbelief. With rage. And with an incredible kind of hurt.
He’d been alive.
Alive… and he hadn’t come for me.
I pressed my fingers into the teak beneath me, grounding myself as the realization finally crystallized.
Jonathan didn’t just fail me. He also failed Kristoff and Sienna, and most of all his own son. Ultimately, Jonathan chose himself.
And somehow, accepting that was freeing.
A form of grief lingered, but it wasn’t overwhelming. It came in small waves, catching me off guard with memories. First time I saw Jonathan. First stolen kiss. That innocent smile he’d offer me before everything got complicated. Before he betrayed my family.
That truth hurt more than anything.
Kian’s yacht was docked, the sea calm, but we had yet to go up to his house. I wanted another night on this yacht, to erase all other memories of Jonathan, Jacqueline, and the cursedKraken.
I sat alone on the aft deck wrapped in one of Kian’s shirts, the fabric still carrying his salty, musky scent. The seagulls soared skyward and waves lapped at the dock in a slow and steady rhythm, almost like a lullaby.
Behind me, familiar footsteps approached. Kian never tried to mask his presence around me. He didn’t need to. My body always knew when he was close, like some internal compass resetting itself.
“Couldn’t sleep?” he asked quietly.
I shook my head.
He sat beside me, not touching me at first, giving me space the way he always did when it mattered. It struck me then how intentional and grounding he was.
“I keep thinking I should feel more,” I admitted. “Angrier. Sadder. More vengeful.”
Kian’s gaze stayed forward, fixed on the water. “And you don’t?”
“I do,” I said. “But I also don’t, because ultimately it led me to you. I’m just angry Sienna suffered through it, and so did her mother and Kristoff.”
“I could always end him for it.”
That earned my first real smile in days. “The knowledge that you’re completely serious should bother me. Yet, it makes me all giddy."
He finally turned to me then, studying me with those dark, yearning eyes full of love. “So… that’s a no on me ending him?”
“No.” I swatted playfully at his shoulder. “He’s not worth it. All I want is you. We’re safe, and so is my family. That’s all that matters.”
“Is that all you feel about Jonathan, Sophie?” Kian asked softly. “Regardless of the outcome, your happiness is what matters most to me.”
“Jonathan is my past,” I said with a shuddering breath. “I’m not even sure the version of him in my head ever really existed.” I swallowed. “And I feel stupid for thinking love meant endurance.”
Kian’s jaw tightened. “You weren’t stupid. You were loyal.”
I let out a breath. “I don’t think I knew what loyalty was supposed to feel like.”
“And now?”
I turned toward him fully, meeting those dark eyes that had never once looked away. Those hands that kept me safe.
