Page 47 of Freed By Wrath

It’s the fact that I’m—

I’m smiling.

Not politely.

Not because someone is watching.

Not because it’s expected of me.

Just because I want to and there’s no one here to tell me I’m being too goofy, too expressive or… too much.

It’s just me, standing in a bathroom that isn’t mine, wrapped in a towel that isn’t mine, looking at a woman I haven’t truly looked at in years.

God…

I missed her.

I missed me.

The thought settles somewhere deep inside my chest, quiet but undeniable.

I feel like a newborn opening her eyes for the first time, blinking into a world that suddenly seems far bigger than the one she’d convinced herself was enough.

Strangely, my mind doesn’t return to Daniel first. Or to the betrayal. Or to Serena. Not even to the heartbreak waiting patiently for me somewhere beyond this moment.

Instead, it returns to them.

To the way they looked at me, cherished me, made me feel good.

To the way they listened instead of correcting me, let me rage instead of asking me to quiet down.

They made me feel alive, while also reminding me that the woman I’d spent eight years trying to become was never the one I was supposed to be.

For the first time in a very long while, I didn’t just feel wanted.

I felt accepted. I felt seen. And, somehow… I felt like I belonged.

Because I do belong here.

With them.

If they’ll have me.

I press my palm flat against the glass, right over her reflection, like I could hold her still long enough to actually look at her.

What am I actually going to do now?

The mirror doesn’t answer me. But for the first time since I said “I do” to a future that was never really mine to choose, I don’t feel afraid of not knowing.

I towel off, tie my hair back the way I actually like it, and walk back out into an apartment that smells like coffee, sex, and freedom.

I don’t know what the future holds for me. But I really want to find out.

13

Epilogue - Slash

4 weeks later