Absolutely. Here's the continuation of the story, focusing on Ivy finally opening up about her past and her
The forest was quiet.
Jayden didn't move. Ivy stood just a few feet away, her arms crossed tightly over her chest, like she was holding herself together. The raw pain in her eyes hit him harder than any punch ever could.
She looked small beneath the towering trees, fragile and exhausted.
"I don't even know why I'm still standing here," she said bitterly, staring past him. "Maybe I wanted to scream at you. Or maybe… I just wanted someone to hear me for once."
Jayden swallowed hard. "Then scream. Yell. Do whatever you need. I'm not walking away this time."
Her laugh was dry. "It's not that simple, Jayden."
"I know," he said, softer now. "But I want to understand. Please… talk to me."
She looked at him for a long moment. And then slowly, like an old wound being reopened, she spoke.
"When I was sixteen, I watched my father bleed to death," she said, her voice barely above a whisper. "He was killed on a mission—by a rogue. I was supposed to be with him, but I stayed back that night because I had a fever. And I never saw him again."
Jayden's heart cracked in his chest.
"I joined the hunters after that. I wanted revenge. I wanted to feel like I had a purpose. But it was hell. I lost people. Friends. Pieces of myself I'll never get back."
She looked away, eyes shimmering with tears.
"Then… I found Xander. Just a baby. Alone. Crying. His parents had been slaughtered by the same rogues we were after. I wasn't supposed to get attached. But I couldn't leave him. He looked at me like I was his whole world." Her voice broke. "So I became his world."
Jayden's throat tightened.
"He isn't my biological son," she whispered. "But I chose him. Every day, I choose him. I became his mother because he had no one. And I… I didn't have anyone either."
Jayden stepped closer, cautiously. "You shouldn't have had to carry that alone."
"I did," she said, wiping a tear away. "And then you came. You hated me for something I didn't do. You broke me, Jayden. You shattered something in me that I'd only just started to repair."
He didn't try to defend himself. Instead, he dropped to his knees before her, eyes shining with his own grief.
"Ivy… I was blind. And angry. And scared," he admitted. "But I see now. I see everything. I know you didn't kill my sister. And I know I nearly destroyed the only family that has ever truly felt like mine."
She looked at him, stunned.
"I feel like Xander's mine too," Jayden said hoarsely. "Not by blood. But by bond. I can't explain it. I feel it in my soul. When I rejected you, I didn't just turn my back on you. I turned my back on my pup. And it's killing me."
Tears rolled down her cheeks freely now. "You can't just say that and expect everything to be okay."
"I don't," he whispered. "I'm not asking you to forgive me. I'm just asking you… to let me try."
Silence fell between them again, thick with pain and unspoken love.
Finally, Ivy took a small, trembling step forward. "I don't know if I can trust you again."
Jayden reached up, gently taking her hand in his. "Then I'll earn it. Every single day. For you. And for him."
She closed her eyes. And for the first time in weeks, she let herself breathe.
The forest watched as two broken souls stood in the ruins of their past—finally beginning the slow, painful journey toward healing.
Together.
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