The room is completely silent now.
"Two weeks ago, I bid a thousand dollars on a girl at the charity auction. Isla Monroe. And everyone assumed I did it to humiliate her. To play some cruel game. To exercise my privilege over someone with less power." I find my father in the crowd.Hold his gaze. "They weren't entirely wrong. I've spent two years being cruel to Isla because she saw through me and I couldn't handle it. Two years of proving I was exactly the heartless asshole she called me."
Murmurs ripple through the crowd.
"But these past two weeks? These five dates? They showed me who I could be instead. Someone real. Someone honest. Someone who doesn't hide behind a legacy and a last name." My voice breaks slightly. "Isla made me want to be better. And tonight, someone tried to destroy that. Fed my father lies about her. Forced me to choose between my family's legacy and the first real thing I've ever had."
My father starts moving toward the stage. Security moves to intercept him at my signal, Marcus is good at anticipating what I need.
"I hesitated. For just a moment, I hesitated. And that was enough to lose her." I look directly at where Isla was standing earlier, though she's long gone. "So this is me not hesitating anymore. Isla Monroe is the best person I've ever known. She's brilliant and strong and deserves better than this school, this world, and definitely better than me. But I'm going to spend however long it takes proving I can be worthy of her. Even if she never forgives me."
I set down the microphone and walk off the stage.
The room erupts. Some people applaud. Others look shocked. My father looks like he's having a stroke.
I don't stay to see the aftermath. Just grab my jacket and leave.
I drive to Isla's dorm and sit in the parking lot for an hour, hoping she'll come back. She doesn't.
Finally, I text her:I'm sorry. I'm so fucking sorry. You were right about everything. But you were also wrongabout one thing—I do choose you. I will always choose you. Even if you never want to see me again.
The text doesn't deliver.
She blocked my number.
I deserve that. Deserve everything that's coming.
But I meant what I said on that stage.
I'll spend however long it takes proving I can be better.
Even if it takes forever.
Even if she never gives me another chance.
Because losing Isla Monroe is the worst thing I've ever done to myself.
And I'm not going to make that mistake twice.
Chapter 13
Isla
I don't go backto my dorm.
Can't face being alone in that small room with my thoughts and my shattered heart.
Instead, Ivy takes me to her room where Lennox is already waiting with wine and tissues and the kind of fierce protectiveness that makes me want to cry all over again.
"Tell us everything," Lennox says, wrapping me in a blanket like I'm a trauma victim.
I am a trauma victim. Just not the kind she's thinking of.
So I tell them. Everything. The overheard conversation, Sebastian's father's threats, the lies someone told about me. And worst of all that moment of hesitation. That "I need to think" that shattered everything.
"He hesitated," I say, my voice hollow. "When his father threatened me, Sebastian didn't immediately defend me. He had to think about it."
"That bastard," Ivy mutters.
