Chapter 55

Avery's pov

“I'm very sorry for how I treated you.”

The moment I heard those words, it felt like an invisible weight that had been pressing down on me had been lifted a bit.

Even while I was here in the forest, I could still feel the black ice slowly freezing me and penetrating deeper into my bones but now, I felt like a bit of it had stopped.

I knew what this feeling was, it was forgiveness. I had loathed and hated a lot of people that had caused me misery but did I really hate them? I wasn't a malicious person by nature, I was surprised that I had this much malice within me.

But now I knew that deep down, all I really wanted was an apology of any form. It didn't have to be direct, it didn't have to be the words “I'm sorry” but it had to make me know, make me feel relieved and safe. It had to assure me that what had happened would never repeat itself.

But most of all, I realized that the person I most hated was myself. For a long time I had slowly begun to hate myself, I hated the f