LAUREN'S POV

My eyes snapped up to Sophia’s face. No. Not this time. Not after everything. The memory of Elena’s empty room, the hollow stillness that followed, still haunted me, but it no longer had the power to crush me the way it once did. I cared too much now, too many people depended on me. Tessa believed in me. Roman stood by me. And Aria… Aria’s tiny hands wrapped around my finger in the dark had become the reason I dragged myself up every morning. I would not let that love be ...