“And she’ll get it—” His jaw ticks. “When it’s time.”
“Time?” she snaps. “Jesus, Dax, there is no time. That’s the fucking point.”
“Enough.” His voice cracks like a whip.
My chest twists. “No. Not enough. I’m done standing here while you two spit poison around me. One of you better tell me exactly what’s going on, right now.”
Finally—finally—they both look at me.
Two sets of eyes.
Two different flavours of guilt.
Lola folds first. Her shoulders sag, her mouth trembling as she steps closer. “Cass…”
I shake my head, stepping back. “Don’t—don’t you dare pity me.”
She pulls me into a crushing hug anyway, whispering hot and broken against my ear, “I’m so sorry.”
Before I can grab her, before I can demand anything—She lets go.
Turns.
Walks away.
My chest heaves as Lola’s heels disappear into the noise of the wedding. My hands are shaking. My pulse is a drumbeat in my skull.
I whirl on Dax so hard my dress nearly tears. “What the fuck was that?!”
He stands rigid in the shadows, jaw iron, fists flexing at his sides. “Cass?—”
“No.” I jab his chest hard enough he has to step back. “Don’t Cass me. You don’t get to do that. Not after she just said—whatever the hell she just said. You’re hiding something. Again.”
His eyes flick away.
That’s all it takes.
My stomach drops.
“Oh my God.” My voice shatters. “It’s bad, isn’t it? It’s something you don’t think I can handle, so you’re going to ghost me again? Just rip yourself out of my life and let me burn alone?”
“Stop.” His voice is sharp, but there’s no heat in it. Just exhaustion.
“I won’t stop!” Tears rise, thick and burning. “You don’t get to keep breaking me open with your silence. You don’t get to stand there like I’m some stupid girl you can pat on the head while you bleed secrets everywhere. Tell me.”
He looks at me then—really looks—and his eyes are storms. Wild. Violent. Raw.
“It’s nothing,” he says, too fast.
“Don’t lie to me.”
“It’s not—” His breath hitches, jaw grinding hard. And then he exhales, like the truth is dragging itself out of him by force.
“It’s no big deal, Cassandra. I’ve been deployed again. In a week.”
The world stops.
The music muffles.
