And he understood.
Seeing them stand there, letting another girl cling to them, calling them "brother" so naturally, while she herself was overlooked… it had undone everything.
The fragile progress they had made over the past three days, the careful effort to get closer to her, had all collapsed in that single moment.
And they are now back to zero.
The realization only made the guilt heavier.
Apollo pressed his lips together, stopping himself from speaking too quickly. Asking her outright wouldn't help; it would only sound like an excuse.
No… what he needed to do now wasn't to question her.
It was to explain.
And Ashley had only just returned to them after everything she had endured, and on top of that, she was supposedly suffering from amnesia. To be brought into a place so unfamiliar, surrounded by people she barely knew, it was only natural that she would feel uncertain… insecure even.
