She snorted. “You’re avoidin’ him because you’re scared.”
The words landed clean.
“You didn’t see how he looked at me,” I said quietly. “It wasn’t anger. I can handle anger. It was… final. Like he’d already decided who I was.”
Her expression softened, just a fraction. “I know exactly how my brother looks when he’s hurt.”
I swallowed. “Then you know why I can’t just walk into the clubhouse and demand he listen.”
Briar set the papers aside and leaned forward, elbows on the table. “Calder’s stubborn. He’s proud. And when he thinks someone played him, he digs in like concrete.” She paused. “But he’s not cruel. And he’s not stupid.”
I dropped my gaze to my hands, the faint scars across my palms catching the light. “He thinks I cheated on him. He thinks I chose Zach.”
“And you didn’t.”
“No,” I said, my voice breaking. “I was trying to end it. I was trying to tell Zach I couldn’t keep secrets anymore. That I wouldn’t lie to Chain again. I just… didn’t get the chance.”
She reached across the table and took my hand, her grip solid and grounding. “Then you have to tell him that. All of it.”
“What if he won’t listen?” I whispered. “What if he looks at me like I’m nothing again?”
“Then at least you won’t spend the rest of your life wonderin’ if you should’ve tried,” she said gently. “Calder respects the truth, Lark. Even when it hurts him.”
I shook my head. “You didn’t see how far gone he was. I thought he was going to kill Zach.”
“Yeah,” she said softly. “That tracks.”
A weak laugh slipped out of me despite myself.
She squeezed my hand. “You need to go to the clubhouse. Not to fight. Not to beg. Just to tell the truth. Then let him do with it what he will.”
“And if he tells me to leave?” I asked.
Her gaze didn’t waver. “Then you leave knowin’ you didn’t lie to him anymore.”
Silence settled between us, thick with everything at stake.
“You’re hidin’ in his parents’ house,” Briar added quietly. “He’s already closer to you than he knows. Don’t let fear be the thing that finally puts distance between you.”
My chest tightened.
I’d escaped a cult built on silence and obedience. I’d promised myself I’d never let fear decide my life again.
And yet here I was.
“I don’t know if I’m strong enough,” I admitted.
Briar smiled, small but fierce. “You survived that cult. My brother’s temper doesn’t get to be the thing that scares you into disappearin’.”
I closed my eyes and breathed through the ache in my chest.
When I opened them, the decision was already there. Heavy. Inevitable.
“Okay,” I said softly. “I’ll go.”
Briar stood and pulled me into a hug that smelled like hay, sunshine, and home. “Good,” she murmured. “Because whether he realizes it or not, Calder Riggs is already sufferin’. And you’re the only one who can fix this part.”
As I pulled away, dread and resolve twisted together in my gut, one truth cutting clear through both.
