Page 154 of Modern Romance September 2025 5-8
‘Tell me,’ she pleaded. ‘Make me understand why you can’t let us be what I know we could. Together, in all the ways couples can be together. Why are you fighting this so hard?’
And she fought with every fibre of her being not to lean into him. To keep her distance.
‘I have to, because if I don’t, I cannot keep you safe, you or the baby. I couldn’t keephersafe.’
‘Who?’
‘Amelia.’
‘Who is Amelia?’
‘My sister.’ He nodded, and she knew he was remembering everything he’d said the night they’d met.
‘So badly did I want to paint,’ he continued, ‘so badly did I need an outlet for my pain that I left her. I left her at home. I locked her in her room to keep her safe, and then I snuck out. I thought she would be safe if I locked the door. If I kept them out.’
‘Who out?’ she asked, but he didn’t hear.
‘I thought… I promised myself I would only be out for an hour, and I was. But when I returned…she was gone. The fire has taken everything. I could have stopped it. I could have protected her if I’d have been there. If I hadn’t been so selfish.’
‘Your sister died in a fire?’
‘She did,’ he confirmed, and Aurora’s heart broke for him.
Losing her parents had been hard. She had grieved. But losing Michael had been a different kind of a grief. A deeper pain.
‘Sebastian…’
He dropped his hands to his sides and looked at her. The mist was gone, but the shadows lurked in his eyes.
‘My hands do what I tell them to now,’ he said. ‘I create to please others now. I create for the people who need to see the light beyond their own darkness. I do not make art for me anymore. It is for them. For her.’
‘For Amelia?’ she asked.
‘Yes!’ he hissed. ‘However unnatural it feels, I will keep my hands under control. Under my control.’
‘You’re punishing yourself?’
‘I deserve it,’ he said. ‘My whole family is dead because I failed to protect them. And I failed you, too. I pushed you away in New York. I left you all alone and pregnant.’
‘You didn’t fail me,’ she said. ‘You are a gift.’
‘I am no one’sgift,’ he snarled. ‘But I will not fail again. I will not fail you.I will not make the same mistake.’ He stepped back, away from her. ‘I will keep my distance from you. I will keep my hands away. I will keep my head. Danger will never find you or our child.’
‘Why would danger find us?’ She stepped forward. Followed him. ‘We’re safe. You have made us safe. There’s no one here but us. No one wants to hurt us…’ Her body trembled, and her hand shook, but she made herself lift it. She pressed it to his chest, to the solid, unmoving muscle. ‘I am here. Safe.’ He inhaled deeply, and she felt it beneath his skin. He trembled too.
Aurora reached for his hand, and he let her claim it. Let her place it on the evidence of what they had made together.
Something beautiful.
Life.
‘The baby is safe,’ she assured him. ‘There is no danger here. It is only us. Only what we could be. A family. A mother and father who are here for their child and each other. Friends.More.’
‘Do you think because I live in a house, with a bed, I am civilised?’ Sebastian murmured. ‘You believe I’m safe? I was raised on the streets since I was fifteen. I’m not civilised.Iam not safe.’
‘Is that when it happened?’ she asked. ‘The fire?’
‘It doesn’t matter when it happened, it happened. I am still that man. That boy born into depravity, raised on the streets. You do not know me, Aurora. You do not know what I’m capable of. You do not want me to be your friend. Or lover. I am not capable of being either.’
