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"It's all your fault," her mother's voice echoed in the darkness, each word a searing indictment of Isadora's perceived failures. "You left me all alone. You were selfish, Isadora. You abandoned me."
Isadora recoiled at the accusation, her heart constricting with guilt and anguish. She tried to protest, to explain that she had no choice, but her words fell on deaf ears as her mother's accusing gaze bore into her soul.
With a strangled cry, Isadora jolted awake, tears streaming down her cheeks as she gasped for breath. The nightmare still clung to her like a suffocating shroud, leaving her trembling and disoriented in the darkness of the hotel room.
Before she could gather her bearings, she felt a presence beside her, and she turned to see Anakin watching her with cold detachment. His expression was unreadable, his eyes distant as he regarded her with an air of indifference.
"What happened?" he asked, his voice devoid of emotion.
Isadora's heart clenched at the sight of him, his icy demeanor a stark reminder of the vast chasm that now lay between them. She wanted to reach out to him, to seek solace in his arms, but she knew that was futile.
"It was just a nightmare," she murmured, her voice barely above a whisper. "Nothing to worry about."
But even as she tried to brush off his concern, she couldn't ignore the flicker of something in his eyes, a fleeting glimpse of the warmth and tenderness that once defined their relationship.
And then, to her surprise, he spoke again, his voice softening ever so slightly as he made an unexpected offer.
"You can sleep with me if you want," he said, his words laced with a hint of vulnerability. "It might help."
Isadora's breath caught in her throat at the offer, her heart fluttering with a mixture of apprehension and longing. She knew that accepting his offer would mean crossing a dangerous line, inviting a level of intimacy that neither of them was ready for.
But as she gazed into his eyes, searching for some sign of the boy she once knew, she couldn't help but feel a glimmer of hope stirring within her. Perhaps, just perhaps, there was still a chance for them to find their way back to each other, to bridge the divide that now threatened to tear them apart.
With a hesitant nod, Isadora accepted his offer, crawling into bed beside him and allowing herself to be enveloped by the warmth of his embrace.
As Isadora lay beside Anakin in the dimly lit hotel room, she couldn't help but steal glances at his sleeping form. His features, softened by sleep, bore none of the hardness or indifference that seemed to define him when he was awake. In that moment of vulnerability, he looked almost peaceful, his chest rising and falling in a steady rhythm.
A small smile tugged at Isadora's lips as she watched him, her heart swelling with a bittersweet ache at the sight. It was moments like these, when he was unguarded and unaware, that she caught glimpses of the boy she once knew—the boy who had laughed and played with her on the sun-drenched meadows of Naboo, the boy who had been her closest friend and confidant.
