Chapter 232: A Rebirth

♡ Leila ♡

He doesn’t answer.

My eyes locked onto his tattooed arm, and something inside me shattered.

Shit.

This wasn’t a dream. This wasn’t Tobias.

This was Cain.

Reality crashed into me so hard it stole my breath.

I watched him tense, heard him curse under his breath, saw him shift back hurriedly to cover himself—and I reacted on instinct, jerking away like I’d been burned. My body moved too fast. My balance failed me.

The next thing I knew, I was falling.

I hit the floor with a sharp cry, pain exploding through my back and up my spine. But it wasn’t the pain that hurt the most.

It was the humiliation.

The shame.

The unbearable realization of what I had just done.

Oh God.

I had touched him.

I had crossed that line.

I had done it thinking I was lost in some stupid, cruel dream where Tobias was still alive and holding me and everything wasn’t broken.

Was this really my life now?

Was this what I had become?

“Leila!” Cain shouted, jumping off the bed. “Oh my God—are you okay?”

He reached for me, but I rolled away immediately.

“Don’t,” I whispered, curling in on myself.

I couldn’t let him touch me.

I couldn’t look at him.

I wanted the floor to open up and swallow me whole.

My head was pounding. My chest felt tight. My heart was racing like it wanted to escape my body. Every second replayed in my mind, every stupid, reckless thing I had done, every soft sound I had made, every illusion I had believed.

What was wrong with me?

“Leila, what are you doing?” he asked softly, confused, worried.

I squeezed my eyes shut.

Because if I opened them, I’d have to face him.

And I didn’t know how.

I didn’t know how to explain that grief had twisted my mind, that loneliness had blurred my reality, that I had been so desperate to feel something other than pain that I had clung to a fantasy.

I had crossed a line.

A huge one.

And I was the one who did it, not him. Stupid grieving and horny me.

I had let it happen.

No—worse.

I had started it.

And now I was lying on the floor of his bedroom, shaking with embarrassment and regret, wondering how I was ever going to look him in the eyes again.

Not after he told me to become a new Leila.

“Please… just leave,” I whispered, squeezing my eyes shut.

I waited for the sound of his footsteps, and the door opening and shutting.

One second passed, then another.

Silence.

Relief almost settled in—until I heard movement again.

Footsteps heading toward the door.

Yes.

Good.

Go.

But then they stopped, and turned back.

“No.”

His voice was calm.

I snapped my eyes open.

“What?” I blurted, staring at him. “What did you just say?”

I pushed myself up into a sitting position on the floor, my back against the bed.

Cain crossed his arms and, unbelievably, lowered himself to sit on the floor across from me.

“I said no,” he repeated, expression blank. “First, because this is my room. Second, because you owe me an apology.”

I let out a sharp laugh before I could stop myself.

A scoff, really.

It burst out of me like steam from a broken pipe.

An apology?

Was he serious right now?

“You’re joking,” I muttered.

Yes, okay. Fine. I crossed a line. A huge one. I wasn’t proud of it.

But it wasn’t intentional.

I thought he was Tobias.

I thought I was dreaming.

And last time I checked, Cain was more than strong enough to stop me.

So why didn’t he?

Why did he wait until my hand and my lips were already on his cock before he decided to wake me up?

“You’re laughing?” he asked, narrowing his eyes. Then he pulled an exaggerated offended face, covering himself dramatically with his arm. “You violated my body and you’re laughing? You should be apologising.”

I stared at him.

“You think I should be apologising?” I repeated slowly.

My embarrassment evaporated, replaced by disbelief.

“You do realise I didn’t even think it was you.”

“That makes it worse,” he shot back. “So you’d do that to my brother too? Giving him some action as a ghost? What if he just wanted to talk to you in your dreams? You didn’t have to give him the full package. It’s a freaking dream, Zombie. You’re weird.”

My mouth fell open.

“What—are you serious right now?” I snapped. “It’s because it was a dream that I did it! That’s the whole point. And you could’ve stopped me. You’re literally twice as strong as I am.”

“I was tied up,” he said calmly, pointing to the thin red rope on the floor.

I followed his finger.

Then I looked back at him.

Then I laughed again.

“You’ve got to be kidding me,” I said. “As if that would ever stop you. Since when can a piece of ribbon restrain you? And why were our wrists tied in the first place? Was this some ritual? Some weird plan? Did you set this up?”

He sighed and pinched the bridge of his nose like I was giving him a headache.

“I’m in the mafia, Zombie, not a cult,” he muttered. “God forbid a guy just wants to make sure his brother’s girlfriend doesn’t run off in the middle of the night without his knowledge. Because that’s exactly what you’ve been doing all day.”

I sighed quietly, staring at the floor.

Annoyingly… he was right.

It all made sense.

The rope. The room. Him staying close. Him trying to keep me from disappearing again.

Everything tracked.

And I was the one who had gone completely off the rails, sucking and blowing on him.

Typical.

“I have to go…” I murmured, pushing myself up.

Before I could take even one step, Cain grabbed my hand.

“Where are you going?” he asked. “You haven’t apologised yet.”

My brow twitched.

Seriously?

Was he enjoying making this harder for me?

I wasn’t okay or stable then.

I wasn’t in the right headspace for emotional conversations and moral lectures.

And yet, here he was.

Holding me hostage over an apology.

Something in me snapped.

I turned back to him.

“Didn’t you enjoy it though?” I shot back. “Why do you even need an apology?”

His jaw dropped.

Actually dropped.

He froze like I’d slapped him, then he dramatically crossed his arms over his chest again.

“Leila!” he yelped. “You did not—”

I almost laughed, because the look on his face was priceless.

It was pure shock and pure disbelief.

Like he couldn’t believe those words had come out of my mouth.

And honestly?

Neither could I.

That wasn’t me.

Old Leila would’ve died before saying something like that.

Old Leila would’ve been hiding under the bed right now.

Old Leila would’ve been crying herself to sleep.

But old Leila was gone.

She died with her baby.

I straightened my back, standing up, reached out and held my hand toward him.

“I’m being the new Leila,” I said quietly. “The one you told me to be.”

This was my rebirth and I wasn’t going back.

MY DEEPEST APOLOGIES FOR THE DELAY IN UPDATE.

I haven't been okay for the past weeks.

Don't worry, updates will roll in this week.

Thank you for your constant support and patience.

Once again I'm sorry.