His raised hands are trembling visibly now. His whole body vibrates with the effort of not doing what every instinct must be screaming at him to do.
The sound of him breaking hurts worse than any other pain I’ve known. The sob that rips out of me is beyond my control.
I feel Nadiyah's reaction before I hear it. Her heart pounding against my back, her breathing going erratic and rapid. She's not as controlled as she seemed. His raw grief has found something in her, has hit a vulnerable place beneath her resolve. I can feel it through her body pressed to mine, the faint tremor running through the arm clamped around me.
But whatever cracked doesn't break.
"Did Omar beg you too?" Her voice is rough. Raw. The words aimed at Nick like weapons. "I'll bet he did. My proud man. I'll bet he pleaded with you to let him keep the business he built from nothing. But that didn't stop you, did it?"
She drags me another step backward. Toward the edge. The gun trembles against my temple. Just slightly, just enough for me to notice the unsteadiness.
Nick steps forward again. One more desperate step, hands still raised.
"Stay back!" Nadiyah shouts.
The gun presses harder against my skull. Every nerve in my body ignites. Nick freezes.
One wrong move. That's all it would take.
I can see the realization wash over him, desperate hope draining out, replaced by the bleak understanding that nothing he's said, nothing he's offered, has changed a thing. His eyes find mine across the impossible distance.
The look he gives me. God.
Regret. Apology. Love. Terror. A thousand things he can’t say out loud. A lifetime of promises we made to each other, all of them balanced on this moment.
I hold his gaze, trying to pour everything I’m feeling into that connection.I love you. I’m not giving up. We’re going to get through this somehow. We have to.
He drags his gaze from mine and looks at Nadiyah.
"Nadiyah, I swear to you, I wish I could change what happened that day." His voice is quieter now, stripped of everything but honesty. "I never intended… I never imagined things would go the way they did."
He pauses. When he speaks again, the words are barely more than a whisper carried on the wind.
"I know you won't believe me. But I'm sorry. I'm so fucking sorry."
It’s not a tactic. It’s genuine remorse for something he can't undo. Nick, standing on a rooftop, openly acknowledging harm, apologizing without defense or justification.
But Nadiyah's grip doesn't loosen. Her breathing doesn't slow.
Regret isn't the currency she's trading in. Justice is. And nothing Nick says will ever feel like justice to her.
"You're sorry." She says the word like it's something rotten. "Sorry doesn't give me back the man I loved. Sorry doesn't give my son his father. Sorry doesn't undo eighteen months of watching you live your life while mine unraveled into nothing."
She stops short, inhaling deeply. "This ends today."
I can feel the crack in her resolve, emotion bleeding through, the months of grief and rage finally finding their outlet. But feeling things doesn't mean she'll stop. If anything, it means she's closer to the edge herself. Closer to finishing what she started before the weight of it breaks her.
Another drag backward. The edge of the rooftop is only a few feet behind us now.
Nick's face is ashen. He's too far away. Even if he charged, even if Nadiyah's finger didn't move on the trigger, there's no way he'd reach me in time.
His voice shifts. Harder now. Trying a different angle.
"Think about what happens next." He's fighting to steady himself, to find something—anything—that might break through. "If you do this, if you hurt Avery, you won't get away with it. The police are already coming. I have an armed security team minutes away. You'll be arrested, Nadiyah. You'll spend the rest of your life in prison."
I know what he’s doing. He’s trying to give her rational a reason to stop. Reminding her of the price she’ll pay. Instead, her body tenses against mine.
No. My stomach drops. He's just put her on a clock. A woman who's already made peace with killing someone doesn't fear prison. But she might rush toward the finish line if she thinks time is running out.
