Page 70 of Sage Haven
She had to stay away, until I was ready to bring her in for good.
Castor had grumbled about the plan for days. Called me a psycho more than once.
But he knew better than to challenge me outright.
I was the one who got us this far. I was the one who kept us alive. Cleaned up every mess. Fixed every mistake.
This was no different.
I told myself that until I almost believed it but if I was being honest with myself, something about this was different.
***
Later that night, I found myself in my studio.
The walls lined with shelves of my vinyl collection meticulously ordered. The faint scratch of the needle settling onto black grooves sounded like static in my head as I dropped into the worn leather chair by the window and closed my eyes while the music bled into the air.
I let the words swallow me whole.
The weight of its inevitability.
That beautiful wildflower had no idea what was coming for her.
No clue of the storm I was about to unleash.
I intended to be both her salvation and her ruin.
Her dream and her nightmare.
Because I wasn’t just going to take her life apart.
I was going to rebuild it.
Around me.
And if I had to burn everything else to the ground to get what I needed, so be it.
I hoped she was ready for the chaos that was about to erupt.
Because I knew that the next time she tried to walk away from me—it would be the last.
15
SAGE
Ididn’t get it.
No matter how many times I turned it over in my mind, no matter how many nights I spent reliving every look, every word, I couldn’t make sense of it.
I couldn’t understand why Reich hated me.
Why he kept pushing me away.
Why it cut deeper every time he did.
One moment, his touch burned through me—searing and consuming, like he wanted to brand himself into my skin. The next, his words turned sharp, slicing through every fragile piece of hope I dared to hold.
It was a cycle I couldn’t predict, a storm I couldn’t escape.
