Like he’d already moved on.
“He thinks you betrayed him,” Briar said quietly after a minute. “He’s spiralin’. This isn’t—”
“Don’t,” I whispered. “Please don’t try to explain it.”
She fell silent, understanding that explanation wouldn’t change what I’d seen.
I wrapped my arms around myself, the scars on my palms pressing into my skin, grounding me in the present. I’d come here ready to tell the truth. Ready to fight for us.
Instead, I’d found proof that the damage had already spread.
He didn’t chase me. He didn’t look for me.
He filled the space I left with someone who knew exactly how to be easy.
The car rolled on, the clubhouse disappearing behind us, and with it the last fragile hope I’d been carrying.
I pressed my forehead to the cool glass and finally let myself feel it.
Not anger. Not jealousy.
Loss.
Whatever we’d been building had burned down while I was trying to save it.
And this time, I didn’t know if there was anything left worth salvaging.
CHAPTER FORTY-EIGHT
I SHOULDN’T HAVEgone into the woods with her.
I knew that even as Sugar’s fingers curled into the front of my cut, even as she leaned into me like she’d been waitin’ on permission I never actually gave. I didn’t want her. Not really. I wanted the noise she brought. The distraction. The proof that I wasn’t standin’ around like a kicked dog waitin’ on a woman who hadn’t chosen me.
Lark hadn’t shown up.
That was the story my head kept tellin’ itself, over and over, like repetition might dull the edge of it. She didn’t come back to the clubhouse. Didn’t call. Didn’t send word through anyone. Just disappeared after sneakin’ off to meet another man.
So yeah. I told myself she ran.
Ran straight back to him.
Sugar laughed at somethin’ I said, her voice too loud, too practiced, like she knew exactly how to play this part. That was the thing about her. Easy didn’t require effort. Didn’t ask questions. Didn’t look at you like she was tryin’ to see past the armor.
Her hand slid lower, nails scratchin’ over denim, and I felt… nothin’. No heat. No hunger. Not even relief. Just a hollow space where want should’ve been.
We stopped where the trees grew thicker and the light thinned out, somewhere private enough to pretend bad decisions were the point. Sugar pressed closer, her mouth near my ear, whisperin’ somethin’ about how she knew how to make me forget.
I almost laughed.
Forget what?
The woman I needed to breathe?
You don’t forget that. You just bleed around it.
I caught Sugar’s wrist, gentle but firm, stoppin’ her hand before it went any farther. She froze, then looked up at me, surprise flickerin’ across her face before she smoothed it into a smirk.
“What’s the problem?” she asked. “Thought you wanted this.”
