Chapter 30

Lancelin’s P.O.V I pulled Sanaya closer, my arms tightening around her fragile frame as she exhaled a soft breath against my chest. She had finally fallen asleep, but the tension in her body had not fully eased. Even in slumber, she was still fighting ghosts from her past. I could feel it in the way her fingers curled slightly against my shirt, as if afraid that letting go meant losing something important. It broke me to see her like this—to know that tonight had opened up old wounds she had been trying to forget. The party had been a disaster, and it wasn’t her fault. She had been doing so well—she had stayed close, holding her head high even as whispers followed her in the crowded ballroom. But the moment her ex appeared, the color had drained from her face. She hadn’t expected to see the man who had abandoned her, who had broken her beyond what any hospital could fix. I had seen the way Sanaya’s entire body had tensed, the way her eyes had darkened with a storm of emotions she was t