Aurora’s P.O.V

I sat there in silence, my fingers twisted together in my lap as I tried to think of how the hell I was supposed to explain this mess to Riley. My heart felt like it was caving in on itself every time I looked at him—so small, so innocent, so impossibly broken.

I had played the moment over and over in my head for the past hour, rewriting different versions of the truth, hoping that maybe one of them would soften the blow. Maybe if I said it gently enough, ...