Page 135 of Stuck with my Boss Daddies

I had let my guard down. I had let myself sink into their warmth, their love, their promises of forever. I had started to believe in something dangerous… something I should have known better than to trust.

Home.

Family.

Safety.

And now, Owain’s text. The nightmare.

It was too much.

I opened my eyes, my reflection staring back at me, raw and hollow.

I had survived so much. But what if I was walking straight into another storm?

Tears blurred my vision as I grabbed a piece of paper from the nightstand. My hand shook so badly I could barely hold the pen, but I forced myself to write through the tremors.

I’m sorry. I can’t do this. Please don’t look for me.

The words felt hollow, but I didn’t know how else to say it. I didn’t even understand it myself—this relentless ache, this gnawing fear that chewed through every piece of warmth I had let myself believe in.

A sob clawed up my throat, but I pressed my hand to my mouth, swallowing it down. If I let it out, if I hesitated for even a second, I would break.

And if I broke, I would stay.

I couldn’t stay.

The house was silent as I crept toward the door, every breath held so tightly in my chest it burned.

Every creak of the floorboards sent a spike of panic through me. I braced myself for the sound of my name, for one of them to reach for me, to stop me.

But no one did.

They trusted me.

I had let them believe in forever. But how many times had I believed in forever, only to watch it shatter?

A sharp pain stabbed through my chest, but I shoved it down, shoving everything down until all that was left was the need to move.

I stepped out into the night. The cold air hit me like a slap, stinging my skin and stealing my breath. I didn’t stop. I walked fast, head down, pushing forward. The town blurred past me.

The Foundry, standing strong against the wind, a ghost of everything I was leaving behind. With every step, doubt clawed at me, thick and suffocating.

This felt wrong.

Like I was unraveling something I couldn’t stitch back together.

I told myself I was protecting them. Protecting them from me, from my past, from whatever curse seemed to follow me like a shadow.

What if you’re wrong?a voice whispered in my head.What if this time, they stay? What if this time, you don’t have to run?

I squeezed my eyes shut, forcing my feet to keep moving, forcing my heart to harden against the longing, the love, the hope I had no right to hold.

The nightmare twisted through my thoughts… the truck flipping, their bodies broken, their voices crying out for me.

It wasn’t real, I reminded myself.

But leaving them? That was.

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