At the door, I stopped. I looked back at her one more time and let myself memorize the curve of her full mouth, the shadows over her cheek, her dark hair spilling across the pillow.
She’s mine.
Soon, everyone would know it. No more hiding. No more half-truths. She was my girlfriend, and I wasn’t pretending otherwise. The school, our families, and, of course, Elise wouldknow. Let them come for us. Let them try to split us. I would tear their world apart before I let them touch her.
I slipped outside, pulling the door until the latch caught. The night air cut cool against my skin. My SUV waited at the curb, a little way down the street. I slid behind the wheel just as her mom’s headlights swung into the driveway. Timing down to seconds.
I sat there for a while, engine cold, hands on the wheel. The weight of everything stacked against us pressed in.
Dunn’s takeover stalled only because Mila warned me. Her mom traced the shell companies back to him—quiet buys of King stock, one percentage at a time. My dad and Drew moved fast, snapping up shares before Dunn could. They called it a Pac-Man defense—eat or be eaten. For now, it was working. But none of it mattered if Mila wasn’t beside me. Every defense, strategy, and share was empty without her in the middle of it.
There were deeper cracks. The reason Mila and her mom left Blackwood hadn’t gone away. Darren Langley’s probable murder and cover-up. Maybe at Lorne’s hands. Maybe not. Secrets like that don’t stay buried. When they surfaced, the fallout would hit everyone—my family, Dunn, the town. And when it hit, it wouldn’t be containable.
I started the SUV, pulled away from the curb, and headed home.
Elise had her own plans for me. But they wouldn’t work. Not now. Not ever. Logan was the one I had to watch—every move, every shift on ice, every sideways word. Trust was currency, and Logan was bankrupt. Tori claimed she was with us, but trust wasn’t a given. Avery and Jax were solid, and Chase was learning to live with it. Theo keeping an eye on Tori helped keep her in line.
I drove through the empty streets, lights flashing across the windshield, thoughts turning heavy.
The truth could destroy us. But so could the lies. For once, I’d rather burn with her than survive without her.
CHAPTER THIRTY-FIVE
MILA
The days blurred after Luke and I had spent the night together. We didn’t talk about what would come next at the event. We just kept moving—practice, classes, meetings. The world kept spinning as though nothing had changed, but everything had.
By Friday, the Blackwood Foundation Gala had dominated the calendar. Every message thread, every hallway conversation, everysee you this weekendcarried the same undertone—money, image, control. King Enterprises and Dunn Industries were jointly hosting the event. It would be interesting, or terrifying, to see which way the balance tilted.
Luke texted once that afternoon:I’ll be late to the fundraiser.Don’t let Charles Dunn near you before I get there.
I didn’t answer. There wasn’t much I could say. Why would Mr. Dunn come near me? That was more my mom’s nightmare than mine. But Luke would arrive later, as he didn’t have to be there as early as Mom and me.
By Saturday night, the event already felt close—its presence threaded through the air as if charged with static. Mom moved through our rental with quiet purpose—hair pinned,perfume lightly misted, expression steady. She wasn’t going with Principal Miller as her date and said it was better to keep things simple. I knew what she meant—no attachments, no witnesses, no one else to pull into whatever this night might turn into. When she turned to zip my dress, she paused for a second, then met my eyes in the mirror.
“You don’t have to go,” she said quietly. “You’ve done your part.”
“I know. But I’m going.”
Her reflection softened. “Okay. Just…be careful.”
The car ride was mostly silent except for the radio droning as background noise. The town slipped by in streaks of light until the building came into view—marble, glass, and enough security to pretend this was about charity instead of two companies trying to rule.
The driver—courtesy of Dunn Industries—eased the vehicle to the curb. Flashbulbs popped near the entrance, cameras pivoting toward names that mattered. Mom and I got out of the vehicle and moved forward together, through the glass doors and into the wide, gleaming space.
Inside, crystal caught the glow and fractured it, refracting across glass and gold. Chandeliers dripped as though made of diamonds over marble floors. Waiters in black moved as though choreography through clusters of silk and tailored suits, champagne flutes flashing in their wake. The air smelled of perfume and polished wood—money dressed up as elegance.
My dress wasn’t made for this room. Silver, low-backed, catching the light in places I didn’t want noticed. Mom said that was the point.
When she gave it to me, I couldn’t stop staring. The fabric moved like mercury—fluid, alive. I’d loved how it skimmed my skin, caught the light, and made me feel as though maybe I could belong among the wealthy at the event. But here, underchandeliers and cameras, it felt like standing in a spotlight I hadn’t asked for.
Mom’s emerald dress was sleek, high-slit, designed to turn heads. Every line of it deliberate. The kind of beauty that didn’t ask for attention—it took it.
Her hand brushed mine as we stepped through the archway and into the room’s pulse. I felt the tremor in her fingers, which surprised me.
“Stay close,” she murmured without moving her lips. “Don’t stare. Don’t react. If Dunn comes near you?—”
“He won’t.” The words tumbled from my mouth without invitation. She’d been a wreck while we’d gotten ready, convinced something would go down at the event and we’d be caught in the crosshairs. Dunn, King, Lorne… they were all here tonight. Predators in tailored suits, lying in wait, and neither Mom nor I wanted to be caught in their sights.
