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ⁿᵒʷ ᵖˡᵃʸⁱⁿᵍ
𝐚𝐬𝐡𝐞𝐬 & 𝐢𝐧𝐤𝐬
𝐅𝐚𝐜𝐞 𝐩𝐫𝐞𝐭𝐭𝐲 , 𝐬𝐨𝐮𝐥 𝐩𝐫𝐞𝐭𝐭𝐢𝐞𝐫
𝐓𝐡𝐞 𝐬𝐭𝐨𝐫𝐦 had passed, but the world didn’t feel clean. It felt empty.
𝐌𝐚𝐲𝐚 stood in the middle of the road, rain mixing with the tears on her face, watching the wreck burn. The car that held their enemies — gone. The one that held Jax — flipped on its side. Smoke pouring out.
She ran. Barefoot. Screaming his name until her voice cracked.
“𝐉𝐀𝐗!”
No answer. Just fire popping and metal creaking like the world itself was breaking apart.
She pulled open the door with shaking hands, coughing on the smoke. He was there — blood on his face, breath shallow, eyes half open.
“𝐌𝐚𝐲𝐚,” he whispered.
“Don’t you start that goodbye talk,” she said, voice trembling. “You hear me? We done with that. You promised me peace.”
He smiled faintly, his hand brushing her cheek. “And I gave it to you.”
“No, you don’t get to do this again—”
He shook his head. “You and 𝐋𝐞𝐨… y’all my 𝐩𝐞𝐚𝐜𝐞. That’s all I ever wanted.”
His hand fell away. His eyes didn’t close. They just stopped moving.
ˢᵒⁿᵍ:
ᵃ ᵇᵒᵒᵍⁱᵉ – “ˢᵗⁱˡˡ ᵗʰⁱⁿᵏ ᵃᵇᵒᵘᵗ ʸᵒᵘ
ⁱ‘ˡˡ ˡᵒᵛᵉ ʸᵒᵘ ⁱⁿ ᵗʰⁱˢ ˡⁱᶠᵉ ᵃⁿᵈ ᵗʰᵉ ⁿᵉˣᵗ.
She stayed there until the firemen came. Until the sirens drowned out her sobs. Until someone dragged her back, and she screamed so loud it scared the sky itself.
By the time the flames were out, Jax was gone. For real this time. No miracles. No secret returns. Just ashes and silence.
Weeks later, Maya and Leo sat by the ocean. He played in the sand, building castles that the waves kept knocking down. She watched him, too tired to cry anymore.
𝐌𝐎𝐌𝐌𝐘,” Leo said, pointing at the sky, “𝐘𝐨𝐮 𝐭𝐡𝐢𝐧𝐤 𝐝𝐚𝐝𝐝𝐲 𝐜𝐚𝐧 𝐬𝐞𝐞 𝐮𝐬 𝐟𝐫𝐨𝐦 𝐇𝐞𝐚𝐯𝐞𝐧?”
She swallowed hard. “Yeah, baby. He watching every day.”
“Then I’m gonna build him a castle too,” Leo said proudly, digging faster.
Maya smiled, but it didn’t reach her eyes. “He’d like that.”
That night, after Leo fell asleep, she sat on the porch with one of Jax’s old shirts in her lap — the one that still smelled like him.
“You were right,” she whispered to the dark. “Peace don’t come easy. It don’t stay long. But I’ll keep it for him.”
A breeze swept through, soft and warm, brushing her face like a goodbye.
She closed her eyes. For the first time in forever, she let herself feel the loss.
𝐍𝐨 𝐡𝐚𝐩𝐩𝐲 𝐞𝐧𝐝𝐢𝐧𝐠𝐬. 𝐉𝐮𝐬𝐭 𝐥𝐨𝐯𝐞 𝐭𝐡𝐚𝐭 𝐛𝐮𝐫𝐧𝐞𝐝 𝐭𝐨𝐨 𝐛𝐫𝐢𝐠𝐡𝐭 𝐭𝐨 𝐥𝐚𝐬𝐭, 𝐚𝐧𝐝 𝐚 𝐰𝐨𝐦𝐚𝐧 𝐥𝐞𝐚𝐫𝐧𝐢𝐧𝐠 𝐡𝐨𝐰 𝐭𝐨 𝐥𝐢𝐯𝐞 𝐰𝐢𝐭𝐡 𝐭𝐡𝐞 𝐞𝐜𝐡𝐨𝐞𝐬 𝐨𝐟 𝐢𝐭.
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