All Chapters of Escaping The Billionaire's Embrace : Chapter 21 - Chapter 24

Aiden's POV: The water was still. Too still.I stood at the edge of the cliff, soaked to the skin, shoes abandoned, fingers trembling in fists I couldn't unclench. My breath came slow and shallow, like my lungs refused to take in air she wasn't breathing.Caitlin.Gone.She didn't scream when she jumped. She didn't flinch. She just looked at me with eyes full of everything I couldn't give her, and let go.Like she knew it would destroy me. And maybe that was the point.I never cried. Not even when my mother died… Not when my father left. Not when the board tried to burn down my empire from inside out.But as I stood there dripping, the scent of her still clinging to my skin like a curse, my chest fractured in quiet, invisible ways. My vision blurred. I tasted salt, and I didn't know if it came from the rain or me. Was I crying? Aiden Gallagher crying? Tf!I dried the droplets of water falling from my eyes right away.. they obviously weren't tears, but water. Why should I cry

The air was thick, heavy with the weight of memories I could never shake, and it clung to me, suffocating me with every step I took.I didn't know how I had gotten here, standing in front of her grave.I didn't know why I thought this would bring me any kind of closure. Maybe I had come for absolution, hoping that standing here, at the final resting place of the woman I had loved and lost, would somehow make it all stop.But it didn't.The pain only deepened, cutting into me like a jagged knife. I could barely breathe. My chest was tight, constricted by grief and the crushing weight of my own guilt. Caitlin's name was carved into the cold, unforgiving stone before me, and for a moment, I forgot how to exist. I couldn't even move.She's gone.The words bounced around in my mind, echoing like a cruel mantra. I had told myself this truth a thousand times. But standing here, inches away from the grave that held her, it felt like the ground beneath me was falling away. There was nothing st