"I said drop it."
"And I said no." He steps closer, blocking my path to the showers. "You're screwing up your career. You're screwing up our playoff chances. And you look like you haven't slept in a week. So, talk."
My hands curl into fists at my sides. The anger simmering beneath my skin begs for a target, but Jake's steady gaze doesn't flinch.
"It's Ivy," I finally say, the words tasting like ash.
"Yeah, I figured."
He leans against the lockers, waiting.
"She broke up with me on Friday. She said I abandoned her when she needed me most." I run a hand through my damp hair, the admission dragging itself out of me. "And she's right. I did."
Jake's eyebrows rise. "You didn't call her or text her?"
I stare at the lockers.
"Gregory had my phones for days. By the time I got them back, my siblings convinced me that contacting her would prove the ethics complaint about my influencing her research right and make everything worse." My voice drops. "So I stayed away. And she thinks I chose my career over her."
"Did you?"
The question hits like a blade between the ribs. Anger rises within me.
"What?" My voice is sharp.
His eyes narrow. "Did you choose your career over her?"
"No. I was trying to protect her. I was building a case against Gregory, gathering evidence…"
"While she was drowning alone," he says, shaking his head. "Dec, I get what you were trying to do but she didn't know that. She just knew you disappeared."
"I know, and I hate myself for it." The words come out broken. "But what was I supposed to do? Show up and make everything worse?"
"You were supposed to fight for her." His tone gentles. "You should have stood beside her and told the world to go to hell. Instead, you hid."
The truth of it crushes me.
"I texted her as King after Gregory returned my phones," I admit quietly. "I couldn't text her as myself, but I couldn't just leave her completely alone. So I used the King number."
Jake stares at me. "You what? King what?"
I explain the King situation, then say, "I had to do something because she was devastated."
"So you lied to hermore?" His voice rises. "Damn it, Declan. You’re pretending to be someone else while she thinks you abandoned her?"
"It's the only way she'll talk to me."
"It's manipulation." He shakes his head. "You're lying to her face while comforting her behind a screen. How is that better than just telling her the truth?"
"Because the truth will destroy what little I have left with her." My voice cracks. "As King, she trusts me and opens up. She tells me things she'd never tell Declan now. If I confess, I lose even that."
"You don'thaveanything, Dec. You have a lie." He exhales slowly. "Look, I don't know what the right move is here. But I know this; you need to tell her the truth now before this gets worse."
"It can't get worse."
"It can always get worse." He grips my shoulder. "Stop being a coward and tell her everything. All of it. Then let her decide if you're worth forgiving."
He walks out, leaving me alone in the locker room. I pull out my phones from my bag and open the messages. Under Declan's number, our last conversation still shows her unanswered calls and texts from the days Gregory had my phones. Then her final message after our confrontation:
