I cut myself off, my words tangling together, tripping over each other on my tongue. At some point, I’d dropped my gaze to the ground, though I couldn’t remember deciding to. My heart was slamming violently against my ribs, each beat too hard, too fast. My chest felt tight, so tight it bordered on pain. I forced one slow breath in through my nose, just one, before lifting my eyes back to them. And the moment I did, I knew. I had said the wrong thing. The look on Seren’s face was unmistakable. So was the one on Zane’s. Confusion. Real confusion. The kind that doesn’tcome from pretending or testing or withholding. They had no idea what I was talking about.
That didn’t make sense. It couldn’t. Seren was Austin’s friend, his best friend. From everything I knew about both of them, they were the kind of people who carried each other’s darkest, most dangerous secrets. At the very least, it had always been clear that he knew all of hers. So how was it possible that she didn’t know this? But there was something else in the way Seren was looking at me now. Something sharper. Something that made my stomach drop. I wasn’t sure I could take my words back. And judging by the sudden, stabbing pain blooming in my chest, I knew I needed to try anyway.
“I—I,” I stammered, my voice cracking so badly I was sure they heard it. I shook my head again, faster this time, almost frantic. “I—I thought you knew.”
“Knew what?” Seren’s voice was deadly calm. Flat. Cold as ice. “Knew what, Blair?”
I froze, staring at her, suddenly terrified by the way she was breathing. Each breath dragged in through her nose looked sharp, strained, like it hurt. Zane noticed it too—I could tell by the way his brow furrowed, by the way he reached for her hand without looking away from me. And watching him do that only made the weight of it sink deeper. Because the energy pouring off Seren now wasn’t confusion anymore. It was something far worse. The moment Seren felt Zane’s hand settle against her back, she turned sharply toward him.
“Zane,” she said, and the single word was so sharp it could have cut skin. “What is she talking about?”
“I don’t know,” Zane replied immediately. His voice was steady, serious. He looked her straight in the eyes with a kind ofunfiltered honesty that left no room for doubt. “I don’t know what Austin has to do with Jax’s accident.”
Seren stared at him, silent. The kind of silence that comes from people who know each other too well to fill space with words. Maybe they really did have that kind of connection. The kind where truth didn’t need to be explained—it was either there or it wasn’t.
“What is she talking about?” Seren asked again. This time, something twisted deep in my stomach, because her face crumpled as she said it. Her voice cracked, splintering around the edges. It was the same question, but it didn't have the same meaning. She wasn’t accusing him anymore. She was begging him to help her understand.
Zane finally turned toward me, and I saw pain in his eyes too, but it wasn’t the same pain Seren was carrying. Hers was raw, immediate, tearing her open from the inside out. His was quieter. More contained. I got the sense that Zane didn’t care, not really, whether Austin had been involved in Jax’s death or not. What he cared about was that Seren did.
“Blair,” he said slowly, carefully, like he was stepping onto unstable ground. “Can you explain what you’re talking about?” He paused, watching my face, my panic written too plainly to miss. “Take a breath,” he added gently. Gentler than I’d ever heard him. “Okay? Just breathe. It’s going to be okay. Austin is going to be fine. Everything is going to be fine.”
But even as he said it, I knew something he didn’t. Nothing was fine anymore. And whatever I said next was going to make it worse.
“I don’t know if it’s going to be okay,” I whispered, the confusion finally draining out of me, leaving only dread behind. It settledin my chest, heavy and immovable. “I don’t know if it’s going to be okay, Zane.”
“Then tell us what you’re worried about,” Zane said gently. Seren didn’t say anything. She just stared at me, unblinking.
“I… I don’t know if I’m supposed to,” I whispered. “I don’t know.”
“Whatever Austin did, you need to tell me,” Seren said, her voice cutting through the air. “Especially if you think it’s why he was arrested.” Something in me recoiled at that. A reflex. A need to protect him that flared too late to be useful.
There was a part of me that wanted to keep Austin’s words sealed inside my chest now that I understood what they were. A secret. A confession. Something he’d trusted me with when he thought the world was already falling apart. And then there was another part of me. A louder one. One that had been holding its breath since the moment I saw him in handcuffs. That part wanted the truth out in the open. I drew in a deep breath. Then another. It felt like standing at the edge of a cliff, knowing the only way forward was down.
“Austin was there,” I said. The words fell quietly, but they changed everything. “He was there the night Jax…” My voice faltered around his name. I noticed then that Zane hadn’t said it once. “Austin was the car that caused him to drive off the road.” The silence that followed wasn’t empty. It was stunned.
“What?” Seren breathed. The word barely made it out.
Zane spoke instead, his voice steady but tight. “Why would Austin get arrested for that?”
I swallowed. My throat felt dry, raw. I stilled, eyeing Seren like I was measuring her ability to hear what came next. Like I wasweighing whether this would break her completely, or if she was already breaking and this would only confirm it.
“There’s more.”
Seren let out a slow, shuddering breath. She lifted her hands to her hair again, fingers tangling in it as she took a few steps away from us. For a second, I thought she was going to run. Instead, she stopped herself and turned back, walking toward us again like she was fighting her own instincts.
“Okay,” Zane said calmly. “What is it?”
“He didn’t know,” I said, my voice quieter now. “At first, he didn’t know it was him. He thought… he thought it was someone else. Someone who needed help.” I swallowed, my throat tight. “Austin went to the car. He said it was destroyed. He thought maybe he could help. And then he realized who it was.” I couldn’t look at Seren anymore. I had to keep my eyes on the ground, because the way she was holding herself together, the way her mouth trembled while she refused to cry, was going to unravel me too.
“And he didn’t call for help,” Zane said. It wasn’t a question.
I shook my head slowly, pressing my hand against my forehead like it could stop the memory from replaying itself. “He didn’t call for help.”
The silence that followed was thick and suffocating. Zane inhaled deeply, clearly trying to organize the information into something that made sense. Seren didn’t bother pretending anymore. The tears came freely now, spilling down her face as her breaths broke apart into sharp, painful sounds.
“That’s not good,” Zane muttered. “That’s really not good.”
“Why?” Seren cried, spinning toward him. “Why, Zane? What do you know?” Zane hesitated. And that hesitation told me everything.
