Then he turns to me. His eyes are full of contempt.“You’re a cop? All this time, you’ve lied to me?”
“Cole—”
But he’s already running.
COLE
I don’t even remember leaving the garage. But suddenly I’m outside, running, the need to get away from all the lies fueling my steps. The pavement blurs beneath my feet. My lungs burn, sharp and raw, but I barely notice.
My mind is a thunderstorm of what the hell, how dare you, and is anything real with him?
Footsteps behind me. “Cole!”
I don’t stop. I do the opposite of stopping: I push harder. I might not be a runner like him, but no way in hell do I let him— He catches up.
I spin. My hands are shaking.
“Don’t you dare,” I snap, furious.
Xaden’s face twists. “Cole,” he says, low and urgent. “Just listen.”
“Listen? To what, Xaden?” I laugh like a maniac. Isn’t there a song about being a maniac? Yeah, well, that’s me. Maniac on the pavement. “You want me to listen to how everything with you is one lie after another?”
He opens his mouth, then closes it.
“You let me think you’d become one of them. That you’d given up on… everything.”
On me, you idiot.
I don’t let him speak. “And meanwhile, I had to hear people whisper things like, poor Cole, he must be devastated — Xaden robs banks now. Or libraries. Or Earl’s cinnamon rolls.”
“Cole, listen—”
“I don’t want to hear another word, because it’ll just be another lie.” I turn my back and start walking.
“Please,” he says.
His voice is small, almost breaking. Smaller than I’ve ever heard him.
I stop.
“I wanted to tell you. From the beginning. Ever since I was able to come back. But I couldn’t.”
My heart is pounding so loud it hurts. I turn back, slowly.“Do you have any idea what it’s like,” I whisper, “to constantly doubt yourself? To feel like the one person who ever really saw you is just another lie?”
His eyes soften, but his voice is low, rough. “I do. More than you know.” Silence. It feels endless. He takes a single step toward me. Slow, careful. Like I might shatter.
“What happened to your dad?” My throat closes, but I force the words. “Was my dad involved?”
He hesitates. Then: “Dad made the fatal mistake of always being honest. And Willard couldn’t stand that.” His gaze is steady. “But your dad wasn’t part of it.”
It still hits me like a blow.So it wasn’t an accident. Eli Bailey was murdered.
And Xaden’s carried that alone for all these years.
I lift my hand to touch his cheek, and he crumbles. He pulls me into his chest, arms locked around me, and I let him.
For a while we just stand there, holding on to each other, our connection the only thing keeping us from collapsing.
