This chapter is dedicated to @edi_o! Thank you so much for the supergift!
Their gazes met and held for what seemed like a long while, until Alicia finally reached out and touched his face, caressing as gently as she could – this face which seem to get more and more dear to her as seconds passed.
"I'm so, so sorry…" she whispered out in a broken voice. Her silent tears kept rolling down her tears as her shoulders shook from the force of her sobs.
"Damn, no!" he caught her face and wiped her tears away with his thumb. "Don't apologize! I had no intentions to expose all that to..." he shook his head, almost quite flustered watching her crying so desolately as though her whole world had been cursed to the fires of hell. "I'm not blaming you or anything. This is…"