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My plans had only one main objective, to keep Desiree safe

18

Desiree

I woke up the nextthat happened the day before In those first few seconds of consciousness, I didn’t think about anything but the warmth of the blanket around me For that first little bit of the day, I could enjoy that war the winter, when even if the house was a good temperature, it was like ht out the deepest corners of the bed or piles of covers on the couch It hen I craved hot chocolate and fires and hot soup with crusty bread

They were inconsequential, y moments of consciousness were over and I re on, I would have happily buried ain They were far better than having to acknowledge how I acted the day before

The cold reality caled backward across theto find Aiden to cuddle up with, and only found an eotten up already Then I remembered I’d thrown a teht before rather than having him come to bed with me

I sighed and flopped over onto ht coh theEven without a clock, I could tell it was very early in theto ht o back to sleep

But I couldn’t stop thinking about Aiden and the way I’d spoken to hih one of the worst times of my life, and he was there forquestion He wanted to know about

It wasn’t that it was too , ithi my heart out I didn’t want to tell hi inside and not let it out, to not be vulnerable and ad out to me

He didn’t understand He would never be able to understand And that was a good thing I didn’t want him to understand If he understood, that would have to h pain like I’d gone through, and I never wanted that for him

But I didn’t need to push back against hioing to be going back to sleep I decided to get up and esture, but at least it was so I could do to thank hi for me

I got out of bed and slipped into the thick, wars I needed at the store It wasn’t soht about for s of clothes and toiletries he got ht of it The weather had been so cold, and the robe warded off the chill in the s before bed I added a pair of thick socks to shield my feet and padded into the kitchen to see what I could make

It was early enough that I doubted Aiden was going to be awake too soon Thisspecial for hi, needing some of the hot caffeine to fortifyI needed toFrench toast It wasn’t necessarily seasonal, but it was one of irl

While the toast was soaking in the fragrant, spice-studded custard, I went to workeverything loaded onto platters to put on the table when Aiden rose fro to break through the fog of just waking up He looked around at all the food and breathed in the smell of the kitchen, then looked at me