Sweet Hatred-Chapter 240: A Wrectched Mess

Kael took a step back, grabbed his phone, and started barking orders again.

"Have every guest accounted for. Every staff ID re-verified. Nobody leaves the island unless I see their face myself," he snapped, pacing the room.

I stared at him, still barefoot, in his shirt. Still aching from his touch and yet... rattled by the cold steel in his voice.

"You’re not sleeping tonight, are you?" I asked quietly.

He paused. Turned to me. His voice dropped.

"Not until I bleed out those bastards."

....

Kael’s voice kept slicing through the air like a blade, commanding and low as he barked into his phone from the next room, the lounge area, maybe. I didn’t know what to call it, but it had glass walls, expensive furniture that looked barely used, and the weight of too many secrets.

A knock sounded.

Then the door creaked open and one of his men, silent and rigid, handed over my bag, the one from my room.

I didn’t even thank him.

I didn’t care.

I just moved back to the sofa and sank into the cushions, pulling my phone from the folds of Kael’s shirt that still clung to me like a second skin. My hair was half-dry now, sticking to the back of my neck. My legs still trembled faintly, a reminder of the night and everything we did and didn’t say.

I checked my messages.

Still nothing from Olivia.

My heart twisted like it always did when her name showed up blank.

Sarah had texted.

"Hey baby, just checking in. I haven’t heard from you. U good?"

And Eric...

Of course. Eric. The bastard hadn’t given up even after months of me blocking the hell out of him.

"Aria, I swear it wasn’t what it looked like. Please. Just let me talk to you. Just once. There’s something I need to say—"

Blocked.

Without hesitation, without even blinking. I couldn’t do this again. Not with him. Not when my world was already too cracked to carry another weight.

I replied Sarah quickly with a casual lie, something like "All good. Just tired x" but my thumb hovered over Olivia’s name.

I wanted to send something. Just a single text.

"I miss you. Please talk to me."

"I don’t want to lose you."

But I didn’t.

Because what if she really didn’t want me anymore?

A hollowness curled up inside me like smoke.

I curled my legs up under the shirt, pulled my knees to my chest. The fabric slid up my thighs as I cradled myself, folding in on all the noise swirling In my head. The island was on lockdown. Guests were probably gossiping in whispers and sipping champagne over the fact someone almost died.

But none of it mattered. frёewebnoѵel.ƈo๓

What scared me more than the near-death chaos... was that I didn’t want to leave.

Because if I left, I’d go back to the real world. To the version of life where Olivia wouldn’t answer me. Where my father was still alive, happy. Where I had to face the fact I never properly mourned my mother. Where I was just a broken girl clinging to the illusion that maybe Kael could fix me.

He couldn’t.

He shouldn’t.

Kael was war. And I was a coward. A selfish one. Someone who had been broken multiple times like him deserved stability. Not a wrectched mess.

Even now, with his shirt wrapped around me like armor, I was spiraling. Feeling that familiar ache in my chest, the one that whispered break it all, Aria. Just so you can feel something again.

A cold hand touched the back of my neck.

I flinched.

His fingers slid under my hair, brushing the sensitive skin there, trailing lower, slipping beneath the loose collar of his shirt at the curve of my shoulder. Gentle. Icy. Real.

I looked up slowly.

He was crouched beside the sofa now, eyes softer than I’d ever seen them. That storm I was used to in his gaze? It had calmed. Just for me.

"Are you alright?" he asked.

Simple. Quiet.

And I couldn’t speak.

Because no.

I wasn’t alright.

Even though I wanted to be.

I didn’t think I’d been alright in a long time. Maybe since mom died. Or even when Eric cheated on me. Or way before that. Maybe I had simply been living under the illusion of the happiness created by all those good moments.

And I didn’t even know how to say it out loud without unraveling completely. I didn’t know how to tell him that I felt like I was rotting from the inside, that I was scared of the way he made me feel, scared of loving him, scared I’d ruin it like I ruined everything.

I didn’t know how to say I love you, because deep down... I didn’t think I deserved him. Not when I couldn’t even handle my own emotions without shutting down. I couldn’t even cry properly. Even when I heard the worst news of my life. Not when I thought he’d be better off with someone like Ash. Someone grounded. Stable. Not someone who still hadn’t even grieved her mother because it was easier to pretend it didn’t hurt.

So instead, I deflected.

I did what I always did.

"Are you alright?" I asked, my voice hoarse but quiet.

Kael didn’t answer.

He just rose, took my phone from my hands, and set it on the table.

Then he gently tugged me up from the sofa and walked me over to the bed.

He sat first, legs wide on the edge, then pulled me between them like it was second nature.

I didn’t fight it.

I couldn’t.

His arms wrapped around me as he leaned forward, burying his face into the crook of my neck. The heat of him pressed against my back, his breath brushing over my skin in steady, grounding waves. One of his hands slipped beneath the shirt again, this time splaying across my stomach, warm now, like he’d stolen all my cold away.

I could feel the rise and fall of his chest against my spine. The firm weight of his thighs bracketing mine. The subtle press of his mouth at the base of my neck, not a kiss, just... there. Like he was anchoring himself to me.

And I,

I couldn’t breathe for a second.

Because his arms around me didn’t feel like a cage.

They felt like home.

One, someone like me didn’t deserve.

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