Chapter 22 Liora I don't know how to describe the feeling that rose in me as Callum spoke my name. like I was just another item on his list, another obligation he had to deal with. It wasn't just anger. Not just sadness either. It was something deeper, something that coiled in the hollow space behind my ribs and made it hard to breathe, like the ache of something sacred being turned into a joke you weren't invited to laugh at. He looked at me with eyes I used to want to trust, eyes I once could have given into, that whatever had passed between us meant nothing at all. "Liora," he said again, like he was addressing a stranger, like he hadn't once looked at me like I was something more than what everyone else saw. I stepped forward slowly, the weight of the world wrapping around my ankles like it was trying to hold me back. My hands curled into fists at my sides, not out of rage but restraint. The silence hung heavy between us, dragged out by the quiet satisfaction in Bianca's smirk and the dull echo of my heartbeat, slow and thunderous in my ears. "You told me you were sorry," I said, my voice steady, but only just. "Back in the corridor.. You stood there and said it like it meant something. Like I meant something." Callum's expression didn't shift. If anything, he looked... tired. Almost detached. I kept going, not because I wanted to, because my mouth gave way to my heart. "You said you didn't want to hurt me! That it wasn't about Bianca. Our bond wasn't something you could ignore! You were going to say something!" He blinked slowly. "I was being kind." And just like that, the breath in my chest turned cold. "Kind?" I repeated, my voice barely audible. "You were being kind by pretending our bond 1/3 งน!!CU Chapter 22 meant something? You didn't even mean it." +15 BONUS "I didn't ask for a bond," he said, and the way he said it made something in me go still. Bianca's laugh was soft but cutting, like it had been waiting in the wings, ready to perform. She stepped forward, her hand lightly brushing his arm, staking her claim with a gesture that felt more venomous than affectionate. "You've made your choice," I said finally, my throat burning. "And I hope she's worth what it cost." He didn't respond, not with anything real. Just a quiet, little smile, and a sentence that gutted me more than if he'd screamed: "I did what was best for both of us. Besides, maybe I just grew tired of playing with some wolfless's feelings." I closed the distance in an instant. My palm met his cheek with a sharp crack, louder than I expected, louder than I intended. His head turned slightly from the impact, but he didn't move, didn't stop me, didn't even blink in surprise. Just took it. Silently. "You bastard," I whispered, not out of hate, but heartbreak. Bianca surged forward, eyes blazing, but Callum held a hand out, stopping her. Even then, he looked... tired. Devastatingly handsome, standing there with the red blooming across his cheek, as if he were the one who had been betrayed. As if he was the victim here. He could have said something then. He could have tried to fix it, to explain it, to beg me to understand. But instead, he just gave me that same exhausted smile and said, "Oh please. You'll survive. Girls like you always do. Small and loud, swinging hard to distract from how empty your name really is." The rush back to my dorm was a blur-stone corridors, murmured voices, the faint rustle of wind through ancient windows. Everything felt dull around the edges, like the world had blurred out the background to force me to look at the pain I'd been trying to pretend wasn't there. 2/3 Chapter 22 +15 BONUS When I stepped inside, the door clicked softly behind me, sealing the pain in with me. I didn't notice Mia at first, curled in the chair by the window, sketching something in the textbook she never went anywhere without. She looked up, and the moment her eyes met mine, she stilled. "Liora?" she asked gently, her voice the only soft thing in the room. All I could hear was my heart in my ears. She stood slowly and crossed the space between us, placing a hand on my arm. "What happened?" I opened my mouth to respond, to explain, but no sound came out. Instead, something cracked in my chest, and I felt it, the wet heat behind my eyes, the unmistakable sting of tears building despite everything I was trying to hold back. I hadn't cried in years. Not since my mother died. Not since the last time I'd felt this alone. Mia said nothing else, just pulled me into a quiet, grounding hug that I didn't know I needed until I was in it. The first tear slipped down my cheek without permission. Then another. And another. I wasn't sure what to do, so I simply stood there and let the tears fall. When Mia stepped away, she didn't ask again. She just nodded like she understood, even if she didn't. 3/3