His eyes flicked from the chain to the bottle. “This isn’t the way.”
“Don’t start,” I muttered.
But he didn’t flinch. Didn’t get preachy or pissed. Just stepped inside and shut the door behind him as though he’d been there before. As if he knew exactly what it meant to watch someone you love vanish without a reason.
“I’ve been exactly where you are,” he said, voice low, steady. “World turned upside down. Gutted from the inside out. And I promise you—it doesn’t end with just one night.”
I wanted to tell him to fuck off. That I didn’t need a babysitter. But there was no pity in his face—just truth. And coming from my brother, truth held weight. He’d crashed and burned before—alcohol, drugs, rock bottom. Dad hadn’t done much besides get pissed at the spiral Drew had fallen into. A disappointment. A risk. The pressure had shifted to me. If Claire—Drew’s assistant back then, now his fiancée—and I hadn’t dragged him out of whatever devastation had tipped him over the edge… I wasn’t sure he’d have made it back. He still hadn’t told me what it was, but Claire was his tether to sobriety now.
He grabbed the bottle, tipped it into the trash until the last drop was gone, then plucked the necklace from my hand and set it on the desk like it deserved to survive this night. Even if I didn’t.
“Hold on to that. Trust me—it’s lighter than what’s waiting for you if you don’t get your head straight.”
And damn if he wasn’t right.
That was the night I stopped trying to drink my way through the burn. At most, one or two beers at parties. Water after wins. Not because I was clean. But because Drew showed me where that road ended—and I wasn’t ready to lose more than I already had.
And maybe that was why I only let family close now. Because trusting anyone else? She taught me exactly how that ended.
CHAPTER THREE
MILA
Islowed just short of Blackwood Academy’s doors, pressing my palm against the brick as if steadying myself for what waited inside. For a moment, the thought of turning back felt almost reasonable. No Blackwood and no Luke, no eyes dissecting every step I took.
The urge passed, and I straightened. I let my expression settle into something calm, the version of myself I wore so they didn’t see the real me—the side that longed for things to go back to how they were between Luke and me before everything went to hell. My hand drifted to my throat before I caught myself. The bare skin there felt more exposed than the crowd I hadn’t even faced yet.
Brave didn’t mean reckless. It meant walking through those doors even with fear and dread crawling through me. I smoothed my shirt and stepped forward even if every cell in me knew Luke King didn’t hand out second chances.
The moment I entered Blackwood Academy’s halls, I felt it—that electric snap in the air, the prick of a thousand eyes carving into my spine. Whispers slithered down the hallways, curling around corners. Some curious. Most venomous.
I used to rule this world at Luke’s side. Now I was its fallen queen, ripe for punishment and ridicule.
With my head high, I took measured steps, my spine locked tight even as my stomach twisted itself into knots. The weight of judgment pressed heavy, unspoken accusations stitched into every sidelong glance.
I made it through the first four periods without running into Luke, or his crew, or Avery—or worse, Elise Dunn, heiress to Dunn Industries, and her cackling clique. Small mercies. Blackwood royalty had scattered themselves across different schedules and electives, which meant I could breathe. A little.
I took note of the new hierarchy since I’d been here last. Elise had climbed the ranks in my absence. I’d seen it unfold over social media—each carefully curated post, every tagged party photo, her proximity to the guys, as though it were a throne she was born to inherit. Elise didn’t just want the crown. She wanted to make sure no one remembered who wore it before her.
I didn’t expect peace. I wasn’t stupid. I just hoped to buy time.
That illusion shattered the second I stepped into the cafeteria. The energy shifted. Forks paused mid-air. Conversations stalled mid-laugh. It was as if the entire room exhaled at once—then held its breath.
There they were. The elite. Lined along the back wall, gods surveying their court. Luke’s crew sprawled along the table, a painting come to life: Theo leaned back, grin too predatory, Jax stone-faced and calculating, Chase halfway through a joke no one dared interrupt. And Elise. Poised just close enough to their table to stake her claim, as if she belonged—like she owned it.
She spotted me and smiled, a blade unsheathed. Then leaned into one of her minions, her straight, black hair curtaining her round face, highlighting her doe eyes, and whispered somethingbehind a manicured hand. A second later, the entire table erupted in laughter, jagged and rehearsed.
I didn’t have to hear the words to know they were about me. Screw her. I grabbed a tray and moved like I didn’t notice. Found the farthest table from the chaos and sat with my back to the wall, where I could see everything.
Then his eyes found mine. Luke. The second our gazes collided, something inside me clenched and frayed. His stare was heat and fury and history rolled into one brutal punch to the chest. Attraction and longing for what we once were rolled through me. And for a breath, it was as if nothing had changed. Like we were still us.
His expression hardened. He looked past me, and I was once again invisible. And still, I felt it—the moment he stood. The scrape of his chair, the shift in energy as his team clocked him moving and mirrored him, shadows at his back. He cut across the cafeteria with one singular focus. Me.
I didn’t move. Wouldn’t. My gaze tracked him—every inch of his frame sharper than I remembered. He’d grown broader, thicker through the shoulders. The cut of his jaw was more defined now, honed by a year of pressure and pain. And I knew him well enough to spot the twitch—right there, beneath the corner of his jaw. A tell. He was spiraling. And I was the reason.
He stopped in front of me, crowding my space, the rest of his crew settling, a pack behind him. The room went dead silent, all eyes shifting to whatever this was.
Luke’s voice was a low hum, smooth and deadly. “Didn’t think you had the guts to show your face here.”
