It was a plan. It was for survival—barely. I was done. I had to be. Because if I wasn’t—if I let him back in—I wouldn’t crawl out of the wreckage. I’d bleed out in it.
Then my phone lit up. My breath caught in the back of my throat. Theo’s name flashed up on the screen. My heart slammed so hard against my ribs I thought it might crack them. My chest constricted, barbed wire tightening with every ring.
It had to be a trick. A glitch. But it wasn’t.
He called again.
And again.
I should’ve let it ring. Iwantedto let it ring. But my thumb moved anyway. “Hello?”
The line was quiet, thick with tension, just the sound of our breathing—uneven, fragile, broken in all the same places.
His voice came through—wrecked, raw, an apology whispered through blood. “Sin…”
I closed my eyes. My throat closed with it.
“Don’t.” My voice cracked around the word. “Don’t say my name like that.”
“I know I fucked up,” he rasped. “I know. But please. Let me explain. Just one chance. Just—one. I don’t care if you hate me after, I just... Ineedto see you. Please.”
The silence stretched taut between us, razor-thin, dangerous. I clenched my jaw so hard it hurt. I wanted to scream, to cry, to throw the phone and tear my chest open and show him exactly what he did to me.
But all I could do was sit there, bleeding from the inside out. I wanted to say no.
Ineededto say no. But my heart was already running ahead, sprinting toward him, traitorous and stupid.
I opened my mouth—and the line went dead. I stared down at the screen.
No service.
The silence that followed wasn’t empty. It was loud. Deafening. A roar of everything I hadn’t said, everything I still felt, everything I had no idea how to survive.
And worst of all... I knew I would answer again if he called.
CHAPTER 15
THEO
The engine was still running. I hadn’t turned it off since pulling up in front of the building where he shared an apartment with Thalia and Claire. The hum beneath me was constant, like a second pulse, steadying and maddening all at once. My fingers beat a manic rhythm on the steering wheel, nerves and anticipation gnawing at each other in my chest like rabid dogs.
Everything was ready. The jet was fueled. The suite on the island prepped. The staff briefed to give us space and paid off to never speak a word.
Almost everything.
I just needed him.
I stared at his contact on the screen for a full minute before pressing the call button. My thumb hovered like it could feel the weight of every wrong choice I’d made. When the line connected, and I heard his voice, it felt like being sliced open.
“Theo?” Wary. Guarded. Like he didn’t know if it was really me or if this was just another trick.
“Come outside,” I said, my voice raw. Silence. “Please, Sin… just come outside.”
The seconds dragged on. Then the front door creaked open. When he stepped into the night, my breath tore from my lungs.
He looked like fury sculpted into flesh. Jaw clenched, arms folded tight across his chest, rage painted in the harsh line of his brow. Heartbreak hiding in the corners of his eyes.
“You’re seriously just showing up here? After a week of silence?” His voice sliced through the night, sharp and trembling. “No texts. No fucking calls. No explanation. Justpoof.You disappeared like I didn’t mean a goddamn thing.”
