My gaze shifts back to the flowers.
White. Too white.
Like his skin. Like the silence that fills my head whenever I look into his eyes.
Something special about him.
The thought lingers—unwanted, unfiltered.
How is that possible? Something special… about a Beta who can't even speak?
About a boy who cried after falling off the bed—over a cut that barely broke the skin?
And yet— He lied for me.
He looked at my brother with those brown, jewel-like eyes and wrote words that weren't true.
I fell from the bed while sleeping. Ellis treated it. I'm better now.
He took the blame for something I did.
Why?
"Ellis." Sum's voice drifts through the haze, soft, probing. "What are you thinking?"
I don't look at him. My gaze stays on the flowers—on petals trembling in a breeze I can't feel.
"Nothing."
Sum leans forward, elbows on the table. His face sinks into his hands, like he's tired of holding it up. His voice is low. Lazy. The voice of someone who knows me too well to pretend.
