Victoria lay sprawled across the massive bed in her designated room at the safehouse mansion, a remote fortress where even the wind seed to tiptoe around like it was scared of getting caught.
She had no clue what the exact location, and honestly? She didn’t give a damn.
The walls were thick enough to swallow secrets, the security invisible but ironclad, and for the first ti in days the suffocating Maxton shadows felt far enough away that she could finally breathe without tasting ash and fear on every inhale.
Her sisters were just next door. Sienna was probably glued to her phone like it was her lifeline, scrolling through whatever distraction the universe offered.
Delilah was most likely sitting cross-legged on the floor, eyes unfocused, quietly running those terrifyingly efficient ntal diagnostics on the trauma surrounding the twin sister she’d never even t... silent... heartbreaking in its precision.
It was all so damn sad. Victoria could already picture herself one day ripping Harold’s throat out with her bare hands and then going back for his cold, rotten heart just for good asure.
She pressed the phone tighter against her ear, cheek warming the screen, heart hamring a little too loudly for comfort.
"I hate to say this," she started, her voice already cracking at the edges like thin ice under too much weight.
Nastya’s voice flowed through the line—warm, steady, like she’d been sitting there waiting for this exact call all night. "Then don’t say it. Just feel it."
"That’s not—shut up, let talk."
"Talking."
Victoria let out a long, shaky exhale and it hurt on the way out, dragging old pain along with it.
"Our aunt showing up—that absolute nightmare of a woman—barging in and shattering everything right when we’d finally escaped the Maxton Mansion and found a sliver of peace... it was awful. Obviously. We were all shaking like leaves. But—"
She paused. The mory slamd into her fresh and brutal: Cassiopeia’s voice cutting through the room like a razor-sharp blade, the air turning thick and freezing, and then Phei stepping in front of her without a single second of hesitation.
Those fearless and protective presence blocking the worst of the storm, shielding her like it was the most natural thing in the world.
"But it brought closer to Phei."
Nastya stayed perfectly quiet and just listened.
"When everything went to hell and Cassiopeia appeared like a walking disaster, Phei was right there. When he escorted us to the car...he pulled into a hug when I was literally trembling, Nastya.
"Held tight like I was sothing worth protecting. Like I mattered. His arms were so warm, so steady, and I could finally breathe again. Then he helped into the car—his hands on my arm, my back... there was this genuine warmth in him. For . Through all the fear and the running and the chaos, I felt it.
"He actually cared whether I was okay."
Nastya let the silence sit for a beat, then spoke softer. "I’m happy for you, V. Really happy."
"Don’t get all mushy on now."
"I’m serious," Nastya replied, gentle but firm. "You sound like a girl who’s finally ready make the boy she’s been absolutely garbage to for years like he’s disposable."
The words landed like a soft slap—right where it hurt the most.
Victoria flinched hard, fingers twisting into the blanket until her knuckles turned white.
"Although," she admitted quietly, voice dropping as she yanked at a loose thread until it snapped, "it took until the last two months to realize what a massive bitch I’d been to him.
"Years, Nastya. Literal years of treating him like he was beneath . Beneath all of us. Like he was just the help. The charity case. The kid who never belonged. And he just... took it. Over and over. Every single ti. I still don’t know how he didn’t snap sooner. I don’t know why he never ended doing sothing bad to ."
After all, Phei was a boy... if he wanted, he could’ve done sothing to her because he was stronger than she was even then.
But he never even rose a hand to do anything to her.
She swallowed hard, throat tight, eyes burning with unshed tears.
"I keep replaying every cruel mont. And now... now I can’t stop seeing his face when he held . Like none of that shit mattered anymore. Like he still cared enough to keep safe."
The guilt sat heavy in her chest—thick, choking, the kind that made her want to curl into a ball and vanish.
"I hope it’s not too late."
"Apologies are never too late, Victoria."
"That’s easy for you to say when you’re not the one who has to look him in the eye and admit you spent years making sure he felt like nothing."
"It’s still true," Nastya said, her voice shifting—steadier now, carrying a weight no seventeen-year-old should ever have to hold.
"Especially with family. The people who hurtus the most are usually the ones closest to us. And usually the ones closest to us are the only ones whose apologies actually an sothing.
"You think he doesn’t know how much it costs you to swallow your pride and admit you were wrong? A boy who’s survived that house for ten years understands exactly what real pride tastes like when you have to choke it down whole."
Victoria blinked rapidly. Hot tears pricked at her eyes—she swiped them away in guilt and regrets with the back of her hand.
"He’ll hear you," Nastya continued softly. "He’ll hear you because you’re family. And real family doesn’t put an expiration date on forgiveness. Not the kind that counts."
"When did you turn into a damn therapist?" Victoria muttered, a weak smile tugging at her lips.
"I’ve always been this wise. You just never listened before."
"Bullshit."
"Complete bullshit," Nastya agreed cheerfully. "But the advice is still solid."
Victoria let out a short, wet laugh—the kind that ca from soone crying a little and stubbornly refusing to admit it.
She wiped her eyes again, sniffed once, and straightened her spine against the headboard like sheer posture could shove the guilt back down where it belonged.
"By the way... our plan—still in motion, right?"
The shift in Nastya’s tone was instant. The wise therapist disappeared. The fierce, bright girl roared back to life—buzzing with sothing that danced dangerously close to obsession, yet still so achingly young and certain.
"Oh, absolutely."
"You’re still holding to it?"
"I will never give myself to anyone but him." Clean. Certain. Zero hesitation. "Although—that was my five-year-old brain talking. I know that now. I was five then. I barely understood what I was proposing."
A beat.
"But I still hold that promise sacred."
Victoria laughed—real this ti, bright and genuine, the laugh of soone who’d heard this story enough tis to find it both completely ridiculous and heartbreakingly beautiful.
"I still can’t believe you made tiny Phei say that."
Nastya squealed—high-pitched, delighted, pure unfiltered teenage glee exploding through the phone.
"He was SO CUTE, Victoria! You don’t understand!" She was practically vibrating. "Those wide purple eyes—completely round, just staring at in total shock! This girl two years older than him standing there, telling him he was so cute and that he was going to be her little man from now on."
"Her little man."
"MY LITTLE MAN!" Nastya corrected with another delighted squeal. "And he just... his mouth fell open and nothing ca out for like five whole seconds! Then his face went beet red and he nodded like his life depended on it. I almost died right there, Victoria. I almost died! Three years old and he already had the power to destroy won and he didn’t even know it yet."
Victoria was laughing so hard her ribs actually ached, the kind of deep, belly-shaking laugh that left her gasping for air and clutching the blanket like it was the only thing keeping her from rolling off the bed.
The image was pure cody gold: tiny three-year-old Phei, those big wide eyes practically swallowing his whole face, cheeks blazing red like overripe tomatoes, standing there completely helpless while a slightly older girl with flowers in her hair declared him her little man with the absolute authority of a tiny empress.
He’d looked like soone had just handed him a prize he wasn’t sure he wanted, but he was too polite, too terrified of her (and too stunned) to say no.
The shaky old video Nastya had shown her was still burned fresh into Victoria’s brain.
Shot on so ancient kid’s phone with unsteady little hands, it captured a small boy with ssy dark hair and eyes too big for his face, standing in a sunlit garden, getting formally "claid" like he was signing a lifelong contract he didn’t understand.
His expression? Pure, unfiltered panic wrapped in the most adorable politeness imaginable.
"Does he still rember?" Victoria asked, her voice dropping quieter now as the laughter finally started to fade.
"Fuck no, he doesn’t," Nastya shot back, flat and completely certain. With certainty that ca from years of watching his eyes for even the tiniest flicker of recognition and finding absolutely nothing.
"If he rembered, he would’ve claid already. That boy doesn’t leave promises sitting on the table unfinished. But he doesn’t know. Doesn’t have a single clue."
Victoria paused, pulling the blanket up to her chin like it could shield her from the weight of the conversation.
"I heard my mom on the phone once," she said, even softer now. "Talking about Phei. She said he’d lost most of his mories from when he was really young—after so incident when he was so you. But she never explained what that incident was. And then even moredisappeared after the trauma of watching his parents burn in that car."
User Comments
0 comments from readers