Fated Series. Book #2
"Be possessive of me, own me, keep me, because if you do then nothing and no one else can." - Maddox.
My name is Maddox Vallero, and I'm dead.
Well, that's not quite true. I'm alive in the breathing, walking, talking sense-but...
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Chapter 31 Memory Lane Sophia
"Cancel our day, Soph." Maddox's voice was raw, scraping against his throat like it physically hurt to speak. His thumb glided down the side of my face—soft, reverent, like I was something rare, something fragile, something he'd spent his entire life hunting for. And now, having finally found me, he couldn't stop touching. Couldn't stop memorizing.
The void he left behind filled to the brim under his touch, then vanished completely.
It's not fair.
Not fair that only Maddox can do this. That only he can reach into the darkest corners of me and quiet the loneliness I've spent my entire life ignoring. Before him, I never even noticed it. Never let myself. But now? Now, it's unbearable. It hurts to be without him, an aching, gnawing kind of pain that rots at my chest, my mind, my entire fucking soul. And I hate that only he can soothe it. That only he can make it stop.
His pale gray eyes—so light they looked nearly translucent—blinked at me, heavy with too many unreadable emotions. I knew he felt this too. This unbearable distance between us, this space that neither of us had the strength to close, yet neither of us had the will to maintain.
"I need to talk to Mateo, and then we're leaving," he murmured, voice quiet, like he already knew I wouldn't fight him.
Because I wouldn't. I should. I should be pulling away, stepping back, rejecting this entire mess of a situation. But I didn't.
No effort at all. Because I've missed this. Him.
Before him, I was fine. Before him, I was resilient—untouchable. Unshakable. I had survived things that should've broken me, clawed my way out of a childhood that should've ruined me. I graduated with honors, worked full-time, got my master's degree in business administration and my bachelor's in management and leadership by the age of twenty-one. I overachieved. I won.
And I was proud of that.
I never looked back. Never faltered. Never let that crushing loneliness slow me down.
But Maddox... Maddox has shown me what real hell is.
It starts as nothing. A single thought, a passing ache. And then it spreads. Deep, slow, steady—until it's all you feel. Until it's rooted in you, poisoning your very existence. Hollowing you out, leaving nothing behind except the unbearable weight of missing someone you're trying like hell to forget.
And Maddox... he owns this hell.
He's the cause of it. The cure for it.
"Where are we going?" I asked, forcing my voice to remain even. If I couldn't actually be strong, the least I could do was act like it.
"We need to talk, Soph," he replied without hesitation, his voice unwavering. "And I'm not doing it in this stuffy conference room."
His mind was made up. And I realized, for the first time, so was his heart. The fear that had kept him caged in silence, that had driven a wedge between us, that had cost us everything—it was gone. I wished I could say the same for my own.
