Chapter 98 – Night Confession
Chapter 98 – Night Confession
(Eden’s POV)
The apartment was too quiet to sleep.
Even with Harper in the guest room and the twins just outside my door, the silence pressed against me like a weight. Every creak of the building, every hum of the heater, pulled me back to that cold room where the only sound was Daniel’s voice telling me I wasn’t clean enough, never clean enough.
I tossed, turned, tried to count breaths. But sleep dragged me under anyway, and with it came the nightmare.
The scalding water. My skin peeling. The sound of his boots on the floor.
“Again, Eden. Until they’re gone from you.”
I woke gasping, the sheets tangled around me like restraints. My throat was raw, and it took me a second to realize the scream had been mine.
The door burst open. Luca and Levi were there instantly—no hesitation, no fumbling. Just them.
Levi knelt at the edge of the bed, his hand on my arm, gentle but grounding. “Eden. Look at me. You’re here. With us.”
Luca flicked on the lamp, flooding the room with warm light. He sat beside me, his palm settling at the small of my back. “Breathe. With me. In and out.”
I tried, but the panic clawed up my throat anyway. “I can’t—I can’t get it off me—”
“You don’t have to,” Levi cut in, firm but not unkind. “There’s nothing on you. Nothing in you that we don’t already love.”
The word hit me like a blow. I blinked at him, sure I’d misheard.
Love?
Levi’s eyes softened, his voice breaking as he said it again. “I love you, Eden. I should’ve said it months ago. Years ago, maybe. But I’m saying it now because I can’t keep swallowing it like it’ll choke me.”
My mouth opened, but nothing came out. The room swayed under the weight of the words.
Then Luca’s hand slid up to cradle my cheek. His gaze locked on mine, unflinching. “And I love you too. You’re not just someone we want to protect. You’re the center of this. Of us. We should have told you sooner, but we’ll never let you doubt it again.”
My chest heaved. My body didn’t know how to hold this—how to hold love when I’d been taught for months that I was tainted, wrong, ruined.
“I don’t…” My voice cracked. “I don’t know how to be what you deserve.”
Levi shook his head fiercely. “You already are.”
Luca leaned closer, his forehead almost brushing mine. “You’ve been through hell, Eden, but none of that makes you less. You survived it. That makes you more.”
The tears came hot, unbidden. For once I didn’t hide them. They didn’t shrink back when I cried; they didn’t look away. They stayed.
Levi pressed his hand over mine where it twisted in the sheets, steady and strong. “We’ll prove it to you every day. With words. With actions. Until you believe it.”
Luca’s thumb brushed a tear from my cheek. “But tonight, all you have to do is hear it.”
The sob broke free from my chest. I sagged forward, into Luca’s shoulder, my other hand groping for Levi. They closed around me like they’d been waiting for this moment forever.
And maybe they had.
For the first time, the love I’d felt in the way they touched me, shielded me, held me, wasn’t something I had to guess at. It was spoken, solid, undeniable.
I didn’t say the words back. Not yet. My heart wanted to, but my fear still held me too tightly.
But I let them hold me, and I didn’t pull away.
When the trembling eased, they didn’t leave. Levi stretched out at the edge of the bed, one arm draped protectively across me, while Luca slid behind, anchoring me with his warmth. They didn’t crowd, didn’t press—just surrounded me until the nightmare couldn’t find its way back in.
Somewhere in the quiet, I heard Levi whisper, almost to himself, “Never again. She’ll never doubt it again.”
And Luca’s reply, steady as stone: “Never.”
I drifted off again, cocooned between them, the weight of their words still echoing in my chest.
I wasn’t ready to say it back.
But for the first time, I believed I might get there.