Chapter 110 Torn Apart
Malia's POV
Aiden looks at me with so much disappointment and hatred in his eyes, my heart seemed to squeeze in pain.
“I can't do this anymore” Aiden says, shaking his head.
The words come at him like these punches.
“Aiden—” I try again.
“No.” He holds up a hand. “I’m done. Done defending you. Done making excuses. Done pretending that you’re not all of those things that so many have said you are — unstable, dangerous, and now, it seems, disloyal,”
“That’s not fair—”
"You kissed my brother!" When he sprinkles his voice with alpha energy, a few students start to retreat. "Hours after I tried to keep you from going after someone else! After I tried to save you from yourself! And this is what you do?”
"You chose Lydia!" I'm crying now, can't help it. "You trusted her lies instead of mine! You left her
like she was more important than me!"
"Because she wasn't the one losing control!" He makes an extravagant gesture. "She wasn’t the one slamming people into walls or making scenes, or—" He halts, his jaw clenched. "I made a mistake yesterday. I admit that. But what did you do?" He indicates his phone. "That's not a mistake. That’s a choice. A betrayal."
"Aiden, please—" My voice is breaking.
“You called her a mistake.” Cian's voice cuts through, rough and angry like I've never heard before. “Yesterday, in front of everyone. You called Malia a mistake.”
Silence falls heavy.
Aiden's face flushes. "I didn't—"
"Yes you did." Cian’s pale eyes are hard. "You looked at her with disgust and called her a mistake. So don’t stand there and pretend like you are the only victim in this room."
“I was angry! She pushed me!” Aiden’s hands clench into fists."My alpha—" "Your alpha status isn’t a justification for being cruel."
For the first time, Cian’s voice holds command. Power. The quiet alpha is finally showing his teeth. "You hurt her first. Deeply. And when she sought comfort—yes, we made a mistake—but you don’t get to play martyr when you hurt her and then walk away."
The two brothers stare at each other, now both of their eyes shine – Aiden’s electric blue and Cian’s dark grey.
Rowan finally moves, stepping between them. "You both need to stand down. Now."
"Stay out of this, Rowan," Aiden growls.
"No." Rowan's voice is calm but the tension in his body and the tightness of his jaw are evident. "You're both wrong. You're both hurt. And you’re going to do something with this that can never be done?"
Behind them, Lydia whispers something to Beretta. Both smile.
This is what they wanted. The bond fracturing. The brothers turning on each other. I was exposed to everything they said I was.
"I can't do this anymore," Aiden says finally, voice hollow. "I can't be with someone I don't trust. "Somebody who runs to my brother the second things get hard."
"Aiden—" I make one more go for him.
He backs up and stares at me with a look that shatters something deep in my chest. Not angry anymore. Worse. Disgust, disappointment. Regret.
"We're done," he says softly. "What ever this was—" He waves between us. "—it's over."
Then he turns on his heel and leaves.
The crowd makes way for him. Lydia follows immediately, casting me one victorious look before vanishing after him.
Rowan stands there for a long moment, looking from me to Cian and back again. His face is impenetrable—hurt, anger, disappointment, all rolled up into one.
Finally he shakes his head slowly, takes his hands out of his pockets and leaves without a word.
The silence that ensues is deafening.
Students stare. Phones still record. The proof of my annihilation playing on loop on hundreds of screens.
Cian reaches for me. "Malia—"
"Don’t." I retreat from him, from July, from Freddy, from everyone. "Just—don’t."
"Please, let me—"
"Leave me alone!" My voice breaks. "Just leave me alone! Everyone of you!"
Cian halts, hand still outstretched, hurt fleeting across his features. But he nods slowly. Take a step back. Then another.
"I'm sorry," he says softly. "For all of it. I'm so sorry."
Then he leaves too.
And I'm alone in the hallway. Surrounded by witnesses. By evidence. The wreckage of everything I’ve destroyed.
July strides forward, arms outstretched. "Come here."
I fall into her sobbing so hard my whole body shakes and I can barely stand. She supports me, her arms locked around me, and Freddy gets himself in front of the crowd as a hurdle between us and them.
"Show's over," he tells the gawking students. "Move along."
Slowly, grudging they leave. But the phones are extended still. The videos keep running. Decay rippling through the school's social net like a prairie fire.
I cry on July's shoulder while she brushes my hair that I muffle sounds of comfort that even to my own ears sound hollow.
Because there is no going back from this.
The video, the photos, the public breakup—it’s all proof.
Proof that I’m unbalanced. That I’m disloyal. That I’m exactly what everyone is saying, what Lydia, what everyone’s been saying all along.
A mistake.
And now it's out in the open for everybody.
Through my tears, I can still make out students watching from doorways. See phones still pointed at us. See Lydia in the distance arm in arm with Aiden's they are both walking away.
He is not looking back. Not once.
And I know down to my core, to my very soul that I’ve lost him, I realize with absolute, devastating certainty that I have lost him.
Lost them all. Lost everything.
The power under my skin pulses.
Angry. Wanting out. Wanting to hurt something, break something, make real every terrible thing they have heard about me.
But I push it down. ‘Cause what’s the point anymore?
I’ve already torn down everything that we cared about. What’s left to break?