Page 105 of Oliver
"Enlighten me," he gritted through clenched teeth, looking up from the ground as she loomed over him with her full five feet four inches of height.
"Oliver could've ended you. But he didn't." She leaned in, dropping her voice to a whisper so cold that chills ran down my spine. "If you ever come near me again, I won't be that merciful."
For the first time, Ryan seemed to get it. Terror flashed across his features before he scrambled to his feet.
"You're not worth it anyway," he spat over his shoulder as he retreated to his car, his steps hurried.
Zahra rolled her eyes. He wasn’t worthy of a response. She turned, walking up the porch steps with her chin high, her movements strong and sure.
I stayed hidden behind the corner of the house, my back pressed to the rough brick, and my heart hammering painfully against my ribs.
I wanted to go to her.
I wanted to fall to my knees at her feet, to beg her to see that I could change, that I could still be the man she needed.
But I didn’t move.
Because I saw it now, clearer than any star I'd ever mapped.
Zahra Nazarian didn’t need me.
Not to save her.
Not to hold her up.
Not to complete her.
She was whole already.
And me?
My whole life, love had been a transaction measured in sacrifice. Earn your keep. Pull your weight. Be useful or be invisible.
Even with Emmet, every booking I took at Foxy’s, every late-night study session, every dollar scraped together—it all came back to the same desperate plea I could never put into words until now.
Don't leave.
Don’t forget me.
Please need me, or else I'm nothing at all.
Because without something to offer, I was nothing—and all I had left to give Zahra were the pieces of myself too broken to matter.
I was still the boy who equated his worth to how much he could give.
She deserved so much more than that.
More than a shattered man who measured the distance he kept from the people he loved in light years.
The front door creaked open, and her mother stepped out, a cozy robe wrapped tight around her.
"Azizam," she said warmly, pride thick in her voice. " I am so proud of you for how you handled that."
Zahra smiled, her entire body relaxing into Mina's praise.
“Thank you.” She leaned down, sharing a tight embrace with her mother. “I’m kind of proud of myself.”
"Have you heard anything from Oliver?" her mom asked, worry etched into the corner of her eyes.
