Page 94 of Glass Jawed
Liam: Don’t kill me. but Lucian told me you might need me.
A breath rattles out of me.
And just like that—without warning—my dry cheeks are wet again.
No dramatic sobbing this time. No gasping. Just tears. Slipping. Sliding. Quiet.
I stare at the text, willing it to disappear. Wishing it hadn’t been sent.
I don’t want to think about the fact that Lucian told Liam to check on me. That somewhere between throwing up in my bathroom and walking out the door with the quietest“I fell in love with you”I’ve ever heard, he still thought I’d need someone.
I don’t want to believe that he loves me in his own deranged, broken way.
No.
That kind of love comes with rot beneath it. With deception, manipulation, and a deliberate stripping of my dignity.
I’m not going to romanticize it.
I won’tletmyself.
Another tear slips out anyway.
I squeeze my eyes shut, grip my phone harder than necessary, and inhale through my nose.
No more.
Not tonight.
Notever.
TWENTY-FIVE
Lucian
There she is.
Diana Marie Graham.
I haven’t slept in days. Not real sleep, anyway. Just long stretches of darkness where my body shuts down and my brain claws at itself until morning.
I’ve been sealed inside my apartment like a man on house arrest. Everything outside feels irrelevant. Noise. Distraction. The only thing I’ve been able to focus on—the only name my thoughts will allow—is Aarohi’s.
My job? Doesn’t matter. Food? Doesn’t register. The mirror? I don’t look at it anymore.
Last week, I finally went on an indefinite leave from Kepler Health. Just like that. CEO no more. For a long while.
Since that day on her couch—since Iundeservedlyconfessed my feelings—I haven’t messaged her. Haven’t sent her food. Haven’t hovered in her shadow, hoping for scraps of forgiveness. It’s the one thing I’ve managed to do right.
Respect her boundary.
Stay gone.
But absence doesn’t mean peace. Her silence hasn’t freed me—it’s gutted me. I don’t even cry anymore. I just... sit. Still. Rotting in guilt I can’t rinse out of my bones. My skin—a persistent itching tightness around my soul.
The only thing holding me upright is the need to understand what I did.Reallyunderstand it. To dissect the ugliness inside me that let it happen.
That’s why I gave Sean, our VP of Product, full reins as acting CEO. Gave Liam the burden of every major executive decision. He didn’t take it well. Not because he couldn’t handle it—but because he could. And he saw what I was doing.
