Gwin awoke to the glow of moonlight through half-drawn blinds.
Her throat burned with residual poison, her muscles was stiff. Arthur sat slumped in a chair beside her bed reading the same book Joseph give him.
"Evening love, Glamourbabe's gone," he said before she could speak. "Elders kicked her out after the interview disaster. Saying it was unprofessional, and it worsen her creditability when she leaked our video. And she was Violet ride, so she left right immediately."
Gwin turn to face him, "Arthur," she whispered, voice frayed at the edges, "Can you join me. I just want someone to hold for a while."
He stilled. The request held none of her usual playful teasing—just a raw, quiet need.
"As you wish." Boots thudded against the floor. Jacket placed over the chair. The mattress dipped as he slid under the blanket, leaving careful space between them.
Gwin closed the gap, pressing her head against his chest. His arms hesitated before wrapping around her, "Do you...want to talk about it?"
Her head stayed buried between his chest, "It was seven years ago," she began, staring at the wall.
---
"My dad divorced my mom because he couldn't handle Mom's silence. She was born with an ill that made it hard for her to speak to anyone. She would use her phone or signs to speak which work for their early stage of their marriage. But he had a breaking point. When I was eleven, my dad suddenly left and years later he had a new lover."
Arthur reminded quiet.
"The mansion became a silent cage. Mom depended on my father on everything so she could survive. But she was far more concern over how I turned out. I never had a friend so I would often talk to myself. Taking a liking to knives and offered catch me fighting my dolls. She wanted to send help for me, but we were short on money."
Arthur continued to listen in silence as he gently caressed her hair.
"Then Tombstone came. A gangster who owned the area where I stayed. My mom made a deal with that man. One that haunts me till this day. He put a death curse on us. If we told anyone about him, the other would die." Gwin's nails dug into Arthur's bad.
She suppressed her urge to cry, "He hurt Mom. Every night. I watched. For years. When I was fourteen, I hatched a plan. If I don't say his name, the curse won't trigger. So, I lured a rookie hero home under false pretences. But not only did Tombstone killed him. Mom collapsed the second the hero died. The curse didn't care about technicalities. It still activated." Arthur's grip tightened.
"He told me I'd killed her. That I'd wanted to." Her breath hitched. "I believed him. I had nothing left in life worth fighting for. When he said proving my loyalty would 'fix' me… I poured acid on Violet without blinking."
Silence.
Then—
"That wasn't you. That was a kid trying to survive." Arthur said.
Gwin removed her head and look directly in his eyes, "Say it again."
He did. Again. And again.
Until her shaking stopped.