Justin – POV
She wasn't ready.
Not like I thought she would be.
Not yet.
But she will be.
Eventually, she'll break the same way I did—slowly, painfully—until the only thing left to hold onto is the taste of vengeance and the fire in your gut that won't die until the world bleeds for what it did to you.
That's how it always starts.
They always think they're better than the monster. Until they need him.
I watched her eyes when I handed her the knife. I watched her stare at him—the man who ruined her—and freeze.
I felt it then.
The flicker in her chest. The hesitation in her soul.
The crack in the connection we had.
And the voices inside me—them—they started screaming.
You're pushing her too far.
You scared her.
She's not like you.
They were clawing at me now, hissing in my ear, snapping in the dark corners of my mind.
"You're going to lose her."
The weak one took control.
The soft one.
The one with trembling hands and tear-stained dreams.
