---
Chapter Six – Ashes of Yesterday
The silence after the kiss hung between them, heavy and glowing, like smoke rising from a newly doused flame. Ava's breath came in shallow waves, her lips swollen from Elias's kiss, her body trembling with a thousand unanswered questions. His forehead rested against hers, fingers tangled in her hair, his heartbeat crashing into hers like thunder echoing across a canyon.
She hadn't said the words, not out loud. But she'd felt them in every inch of her soul.
And that was enough.
Elias didn't press. He only exhaled softly, a shaky sound that spoke of restraint, of hunger barely caged. "You should rest," he murmured, brushing his lips against her temple.
Ava nodded slowly, dazed and raw. He didn't ask her to stay, but when he stood and offered her his hand, she took it. Not because she was ready—but because for once, she wanted to choose what came next.
---
His home was quiet. Too quiet. The walls carried no echoes of past lovers, no pictures, no warmth—only minimalism and that curious scent she couldn't quite place. A blend of cedar, smoke, and something faintly sweet. It tugged at something in her, a thread fraying in the back of her mind. But she didn't follow it.
She was too tired to fight the ghosts.
Elias offered her a shirt and pajama pants—both far too big—and she changed in the bathroom. When she stepped out, she found him in the kitchen, bare-chested, warm light spilling over the lean, carved lines of his body.
"Tea?" he asked, gentle.
She nodded.
A few minutes later, they sat on the couch, her knees tucked beneath her, his gaze resting on her like he was trying to memorize her face.
"I want to know you," he said quietly.
She looked up.
"I want to know everything. Not to consume you," he added, voice catching, "but because I want to protect the parts of you the world never bothered to see."
Her throat tightened. She wanted to believe him. She wanted it so badly, it hurt.
But when he leaned closer, that faint scent reached her again. Stronger now. Thicker.
Vanilla.
No—not vanilla.
Something colder. Sharper.
Cologne.
It hit her like a blow.
That scent. That exact cologne.
The one Ethane used to wear every time before he touched her. Every time he whispered lies into her ear. Every time he left bruises that no one saw.
Her throat closed.
Her hands began to shake.
"Ava?" Elias sat up straighter. "What's wrong?"
She couldn't speak. The walls were closing in. The room was spinning. She couldn't breathe.
"Elias," she rasped. "That smell—what is that smell?"
He looked confused. "My cologne? I—It's new. I haven't worn it before around you."
She stood suddenly, stumbling backward. "Take it off. Take it off, please. Get it away from me!"
His face blanched. "Ava, what—?"
Her skin was crawling. Her chest tightened. The scent clung to her like smoke, like memories she'd buried under layers of willpower. And suddenly—she wasn't in Elias's house anymore.
---
She was seventeen.
The room was dark, the curtains drawn.
Ethane's voice was low and cruel, breathing that scent into her neck.
"You'll never leave me," he whispered. "You're mine."
She cried. He laughed. The cologne was suffocating.
---
She was on the floor now.
Coughing. Choking.
Tears streamed down her cheeks as she clawed at her skin, trying to erase the present. She could hear Elias calling her name—but it wasn't him. Not anymore.
It was Ethane.
She screamed.
---
Elias froze. Panic choked him. He rushed to her side, but when he reached for her, she recoiled violently.
"DON'T TOUCH ME!"
The way her voice shattered—it cut through him like knives.
He backed away instantly, horrified.
"I—I didn't know," he whispered. "Ava, I swear, I didn't know…"
She couldn't answer. Her vision blurred. Her breath came in gasps.
He grabbed his phone with trembling fingers and called emergency services.
---
They gave her an epinephrine shot.
She was stable.
But silent.
---
He sat in the hospital room, hands clenched between his knees, watching the IV drip beside her bed. She hadn't looked at him once. Hadn't spoken.
His cologne still clung faintly to his skin, but the nurses had given him antiseptic wipes and he'd scrubbed his wrists raw. It wasn't enough. He would never be clean again.
She stirred.
Her eyes fluttered open. Then narrowed.
She saw him—and flinched.
The ache in his chest was unbearable.
"Ava," he whispered. "Please. Talk to me."
She blinked, as if rejoining reality from somewhere far darker. Her voice came out like broken glass. "Do you know… what that scent means to me?"
He opened his mouth, but nothing came.
"That cologne," she said, trembling, "was the last thing I smelled every time he…" Her throat closed. "I begged him to stop. I begged. And he'd just smile. That smell would be on my skin for days."
Elias's eyes filled with tears. "I didn't know. I swear to you—"
"I know," she whispered. "That's the problem."
He frowned.
"You didn't know, because you never asked. You never gave me time. You just… pushed and pushed and decided you loved me so deeply that you couldn't see past your obsession."
"That's not fair."
She laughed bitterly. "Fair? You brought me into your world like I was some fantasy. You say you love me—but do you even know who I am? What I've survived?"
"I'm trying to!"
"Then stop loving me like I'm an idea. I'm not something to possess, Elias. I'm not your salvation. I'm not your cure."
His face crumpled. "I don't want to possess you. I want to hold you—freely, gently—"
"No. You want to own my pain. You want to be the only one who can touch it. But obsession isn't love. It never was."
Silence.
He dropped his gaze, shoulders shaking.
She looked away. "I want love. Not obsession. Not a prison made of passion."
---
He didn't follow her when she left the hospital.
He stayed behind, watching her disappear into the grey morning light.
---
For days, Elias didn't sleep.
Her words echoed in his head.
He tore through every memory. Every look. Every touch.
Had he ever really seen her?
Or had he fallen in love with the version of her he needed to soothe the hollow ache in his soul?
He went to her apartment once, but didn't knock.
He left a note instead.
> "I'll learn. I'll listen. Even if I lose you forever—I will become a man who deserves the truth you carry."
---
Ava read the note five times before hiding it in her drawer.
She didn't know what came next.
But for once, she wasn't afraid to walk away from something that hurt—even if it came wearing the face of the man she was starting to love.
---