Chapter 845: In Return

Leaving my bedroom turned out to be a whole lot more complicated than just swinging the door a little wider.

When you have someone like Adalia with you, huddled so close to you, it becomes more a matter of willpower and strength than anything else. It's like having to leave some poor cat alone that came cuddling up to you wanting pets. 

It's gut-wrenching.

Hell, I don't think Mr. Black was even capable of such raw, unbridled heartache himself.

Sadly, with pressing obligations like my own… I had to do what I had to do. I rose from the bed, Ria's gift tucked under an arm, and step by step, I drew further into blasphemy, leaving Adalia all on her lonesome. 

"You're staying?" I asked, one foot already past the doorway. "Usually you'd be gone the moment I look back."