Sweet Hatred
Chapter 60: Shock

Chapter 60: Shock

My feet hit the ground, but I barely felt it. My body felt light. Strange. My legs were shaking.

Dead.

Mia was dead.

The same girl who smirked at me with venom in her eyes not even thirty minutes ago. The one who told them to "enjoy" me. The one who betrayed me. She was dead. Just like that.

A truck.

It didn’t make sense.

"It’s my fault." My lips moved before I realized I was speaking.

"If I hadn’t walked into that damn office... If I’d just let them fire me... maybe..."

Kael reached for me again. I stepped back, but my knees buckled slightly and he caught me anyway. His arms came around me again, stronger this time—protective and sure.

"Don’t do this," he murmured against my ear. "Don’t blame yourself. Not for her."

"But I—" My voice cracked, thick with something raw I didn’t understand.

"She made her choice," he said, firm but still gentle. "You’re not responsible for that."

I wanted to believe him.

But my body wasn’t listening.

I was shaking again. From the cold. From the shock. From the haunting image of her face—the smug smile that haunted me, and now... nothing. Gone. Like she’d never been real.

Kael didn’t say another word. He just lifted me again, effortlessly, and this time... I didn’t fight it. I didn’t have the strength to.

I let him hold me.

And for the first time since I’d known this bastard. I didn’t want to let go.

Kael didn’t say a word the entire ride back.

And I didn’t ask him to.

I just sat there in the back seat of the sleek black car, curled in his coat, head resting against the cool window while the city lights blurred past in long, glowing streaks. The setting sun dipped low into the horizon. My hands were still trembling, though I tried to keep them still. My mind wouldn’t stop replaying it—the look on Mia’s face when she’d smirked at me in that damn warehouse, the sound of her voice when she told them to enjoy me... and then the words they’d said moments later. She has been caught.

She ran into the road. And.

She didn’t make it.

Mia was dead.

And for the life of me, I couldn’t understand how the world hadn’t paused. The streets were still lit, the traffic still humming, people still out like everything was normal.

By the time we reached his apartment—a place too cold, too pristine, too Kael—I was completely detached from everything. I barely noticed the elevator ride up. Kael fingers locked with mine was probably the only thing that kept me grounded. I barely heard the beep of the door unlocking. I was still drifting somewhere between reality and disbelief when I sat down on the edge of his massive bed, staring down at my bruised wrists like they didn’t belong to me.

The room was quiet, except for the sound of Kael shrugging off his coat, tossing his gun onto a nearby armchair like it was just another accessory.

Then his voice broke through the fog.

"You want to handle this yourself," he said, "or should I help you wash up?"

My eyes shot to him. "No, I can do it myself."

It came out sharper than I intended, and the look he gave me said he knew it. But he didn’t push.

"Alright," he murmured, backing off and turning toward his closet.

I peeled myself off the bed and made my way to the bathroom like a ghost. The marble tiles were cool under my feet, the lights too bright. I stepped into the shower and let the water hit me, hot and relentless, stinging every raw, tender mark on my skin. The bruises on my wrists looked worse under the spray, like the metal chains had scorched through to the bone. I stared at them, transfixed, and suddenly—every damn thing came crashing in again.

Mia’s laughter.

Her taunts.

The way she looked at me like I was already ruined.

And now... she was gone. Just like that.

Dead.

And somehow... it still didn’t feel real.

I should’ve cried. I should’ve screamed, collapsed, something. But there was just this numbness. This unbearable stillness inside me like I was frozen solid.

Then the door creaked open.

I flinched, twisting toward the sound. "What the hell—?!"

Kael stepped in.

Naked.

I stared.

"What are you doing?" My voice came out breathless, stunned.

He didn’t even blink. "You looked like you were going to pass out. I’m here in case you do."

"I’m not a f*cking porcelain doll," I snapped. "You really think I’m that fragile?"

Kael’s eyes didn’t move from mine. "What’s wrong with being fragile?"

I opened my mouth to answer, but I couldn’t. Because his words knocked something loose. Mia had said something similar. That I’d always put on a tough front, but I was just weak underneath. Always have been.

And maybe... maybe she wasn’t wrong.

I was weak.

But pretending to be strong was the only thing that ever kept me alive. Acting tough.

It was the only way I knew how to survive. That anger. That wildness. It was the only thing that saved me from the cruel fate that waited me from the past.

And yet now, none of it mattered.

Because Mia was dead.

But it didn’t feel like she was.

It felt like she’d still be there tomorrow, at HQ, tossing me a look over her shoulder, calling me pathetic with that smug tilt of her mouth. I hated her. I should’ve hated her.

So why did I feel like my insides were tearing apart?

Kael moved closer, slow and deliberate, and before I could react, he stepped under the water with me, steam rising around his sharp, perfect body like he belonged in the fire. He caged me in, hands pressing gently to the small of my back as he pulled me against him, bare skin to bare skin.

I froze.

"I’m not asking you to fight it," he said softly, voice barely audible over the water. "You don’t have to. Not with me."

I looked up at him, jaw tight. "I’m not going to cry."

"You can if you want to."

I laughed.

A low, bitter sound.

"I don’t even remember how."