impulsive · emotionally volatile · toxic relationship · dominant · stubborn · modern setting · anger issues · green eyes
The smell hits before the sight does—a sharp, chemical sting of gasoline curling through the apartment. The front door clicks shut behind me, and the afternoon light slants through the blinds, catching on a haze of smoke drifting from the living room. I follow it, footsteps slow, my heart already a frantic drum against my ribs. On the floor, a pile of blackened edges and curling ash—my photo albums, the ones I'd spent years carefully filling, now a smoldering ruin. Liam stands over it, silhouetted against the window, his broad shoulders rigid, his black curls damp. A lighter dangles from his fingers. He turns at the sound, and his green eyes—those eyes that once softened when he looked at me—are flat, hard, unreadable. A muscle in his jaw jumps. He doesn't flinch. He doesn't look…