Chapter 620: The Ghosts We Carry

The engine groaned as Matilda sped down the backroads.

The city lights faded behind them, swallowed by endless night.

Inside the car, the silence was thick, suffocating.

Jayden clutched his side, blood seeping through his fingers, but his eyes weren't on his wounds.

They were locked on the rearview mirror.

On the memories chasing them.

On the ghost he had just seen — Gloria.

> "She was supposed to be dead," he murmured, his voice rough.

"I buried her. I watched them lower her coffin into the ground."

Matilda's knuckles whitened around the steering wheel.

She said nothing.

Because secrets weighed heavier than grief.

And she carried a few of her own.

---

They stopped at an abandoned church miles outside the city.

The windows were shattered.

The altar was broken.

But for now, it was sanctuary.

Jayden sat on the cracked marble floor, patching himself up with trembling hands.

Matilda knelt across from him, offering bandages, her eyes darting nervously.

> "Jayden..." she began.

"There's something you need to know. About Gloria. About all of this."

Jayden stared at her, his face blank.

Emotionless.

He had learned long ago — the more you showed, the more they used it against you.

> "Not now, Matilda," he said coldly.

"Not when every word tastes like betrayal."

She flinched as if slapped.

Because she deserved it.

Because the guilt was eating her alive.

---

Meanwhile, in the heart of the burning city, Gloria stood atop a rooftop, her silver mask discarded at her feet.

Smoke and fire curled around her like a lover's embrace.

In the reflection of a shattered window, she saw herself clearly for the first time:

Not the girl Jayden had once loved.

Not the princess the world had mourned.

But something else.

Something stronger.

> "They wanted me buried," she whispered to the night.

"But I was never meant for a grave. I was meant for a throne."

Behind her, men in black knelt, waiting for orders.

Gloria's revenge wasn't about survival anymore.

It was about domination.

And Jayden, poor, foolish Jayden...

He was just the first crack in the world she planned to shatter.

---

That night, as Jayden lay against the cold floor of the abandoned church, sleep pulled him under.

But his dreams weren't merciful.

He dreamt of her.

Gloria in a white dress, laughing beneath cherry blossom trees.

Her fingers brushing against his.

Promises they had whispered beneath stars.

> "We'll always be together, right?"

"Always," he had sworn.

Now those promises bled like wounds he couldn't stitch closed.

Jayden woke with a gasp, sweat dripping from his brow.

The church was still dark, the world still broken.

Only now...he wasn't sure if he wanted to fix it anymore.

Maybe some things were meant to stay shattered.

---