Sharp. Insistent. Wrong.
I blink hard, disoriented, and Sloane stirs beside me with a small, confused sound.
The screen on the nightstand lights up.
CAMERON
My stomach drops.
Sloane’s eyes crack open just enough to see the name, and her whole body goes tense like she already knows.
“Why is he—” she whispers, voice rough with sleep.
I grab the phone before it can ring again and answer, keeping my voice low like that matters.
“Cam?”
There’s a choked inhale on the other end. Silence that feels like a cliff.
Sloane sits up fast, eyes wide now, staring at me like I’m holding a gun.
“No,” she starts, shaking her head, panic blooming. “No, no, no…”
Cameron’s voice comes through, wrecked and shaking.
“Uh—hey. It’s Cameron, and uh…I need…”
Sloane’s hands fly to her mouth.
“No,” she pleads, already crying. “Please—no?—”
Cameron breaks.
“He’s gone.”
Sloane’s scream fills my room like it’s trying to split the walls apart.
And just like that?—
A Thursday morning becomes the worst thing that’s ever happened in my life.
38
LOGAN
The Rhodes’ house is too quiet for a day like this.
Not empty—there are plenty of people here, the occasional murmur from the living room, but the quiet is the kind that comes after something has been ripped out and everyone is afraid to bump into the hole it left.
My phone has been vibrating nonstop with texts from Beck, Carter, and Jaxon that I just can’t bring myself to respond to quite yet. Beck stopped by a few days ago, and I let him know about the arrangements. Outside of that, I’ve just been in complete survival mode, trying to navigate this new version of “normal.”
Eleven days.
I’ve been counting without meaning to. Like if I keep track of time, I can make it behave. Like numbers can change the reality that we’re living in.
I’m in the small bathroom off the hall, tie looped around my neck, staring at myself the way you stare at a problem you can’t solve. The mirror shows me a version of Logan Brooks I don’trecognize—suit jacket, jaw tight, eyes tired in a way rehab could never cause.
I pull the knot down. Too tight. I loosen it. Try again.
