Chapter 232: Stand Back

Savannah There was a version of my life that existed before Roman. Sometimes, it felt like it belonged to someone else entirely. A girl who lived a life that was too easy. Who believed that life was permanent. Who thought love was soft and predictable and didn’t come with bloodstains you couldn’t scrub out no matter how hard you tried. Before Roman, my world was simple. Not perfect—but safe. I had never watched someone die. I had never smelled gunpowder or heard the deafening crack of a gunshot splitting the air. I didn’t know how heavy a weapon felt in your hands, how wrong it was to see one pointed at a human being and realize it only took a twitch of a finger to end a life. That sort of violence, back then, had been abstract. Something that happened to other people. Something on the news. Something distant. And then there was my life after Roman. After I fell in love with a man who seemed to carry death like a shadow behind him. Chaos followed us everywhere. It clung to him, bled in