He was done playing along.

When silence says everything—and lies unravel the truth.

Arya didn’t expect it to feel like this.

Not the stillness.

Not the ache.

And definitely not the way the morning sunlight made Alwin look like he belonged to a world she couldn’t touch.

They’d slept together.

But this wasn’t closeness.

This was the kind of quiet that felt final.

No words. No promises. Just a shared bench in the park and the weight of something unspoken between them.

Then came the car.

Ranti’s car.

And Alwin—always too quick to run—didn’t even say goodbye. He walked away like the night they shared meant nothing.

But Arya?

She couldn’t let it end like that. Not with a lie still festering in her chest.

So she told the truth.

She told Ranti that Alwin’s heart had stopped—literally.

That he had collapsed. That she’d revived him. That she’d lied to protect her, to protect him.

And Ranti cried like she cared. Like it broke her.

But inside the car, Alwin watched those tears and felt nothing but rage.

Because he knew those tears. Knew the way she used them—weaponized them.

“This woman is a snake.”

To her, he wasn’t a son.

He was an accessory. A project. A broken thing to polish and show off over dinner.

Let her pretend, he thought. Let her perform.

He was done playing along.

…

This isn’t a love story.

It’s a story about people breaking quietly.

And the ones who still dare to care.

Read the next chapter of The Dating Club Book 2!

#darkromance #foundfamily #emotionalfiction #brokenboys #psychologicalromance #messyhearts