“What happened when you told your parents?”
He ran a hand over his face.“They ambushed me.Bags packed.Private jet waiting.I didn’t even have time to grab my phone charger.”
“I never saw Nicole again after that night,” Paige said.“She vanished.A week later, I heard she was already in Austin for early registration.I assumed you’d worked it out privately.But then...nothing.I heard rumors about an annulment, but no one ever talked about it.”
Her parents had shipped her off early too.But why?What excuse had they given?Deep down, he suspected it wasn’t about her at all; it was about him.About making sure their precious daughter never wasted another second on the boy they thought wasn’t good enough.
“I didn’t work anything out,” Tripp said, voice thick with emotion.“They took me to Europe and cut off my world.When we got back, Dad handed me the annulment papers and said Nicole had already signed.I didn’t question it.I was too angry, too hurt.”
“Did you call her?”
God, how he’d called her.Over and over, but she never picked up.Had her mother blocked his number?Surely, someone could have told her he was trying.Yet when he lost his phone, every contact vanished—and with it, any chance of reaching the people who might have bridged the gap between them.“I tried.Dozens of messages.No response.”
“She said you never called.”
That wasn’t true.And the thought of her carrying that lie in her heart—believing it of him—shattered him, breaking something so deep inside he wasn’t sure it could ever be put back together.
“I know.Which makes me wonder...did she even get my messages?Or was someone intercepting everything?”
Paige didn’t speak right away.Then she said, “You think someone faked the emails?”
“Don’t you?”
“Your parents or hers,” she said flatly.“Hell, maybe both.We were all telling her to wait.Telling her that if it was meant to be, it would survive a few months apart.Maybe someone thought they were helping her.”
“Helping?”Tripp spat.“By burning down everything we were building?”
“She was seventeen, Tripp.”
“And I was eighteen.And we were in love.”
And everyone and everything had been against them.It had felt like the whole world was against them, every voice, every circumstance, every force conspiring to pull them apart.
Paige’s voice softened.“I believe you.I always did.”
He leaned forward, elbows on the desk, head in his hands.“I saw her today and...it wrecked me.She’s still so damn beautiful.Still brilliant.Still...her.”
How could he face her every day?It was going to be difficult.
“You’re not over her.”
He’d lied to himself all these years, telling himself that he was over her.That it was just a young man’s foolish mistake, and then he’d seen her.All five-foot-four, one-hundred-ten-pounds, dripping wet.
But he wasn’t ready to admit to anyone that with one look, all those feelings came rushing back.
There was a long silence between them, heavy with old memories and unspoken regret.
Finally, Paige said, “So what do you want from me?”
“I need to know everything you remember.Everyone who could’ve had a hand in it.Every odd conversation.Every look.Every overheard comment.”
“I’ll think.I’ll go through my old journals.”
“You kept journals?”
“Of course.I was seventeen.I wrote down every tragic romance event.And I’ll be honest with you, Tripp...I don’t think you’re going to like what you find.”
It was a risk he was willing to take.Maybe he’d learn that Nicole did indeed end the relationship, but he didn’t think so.
