Griff’s eyes harden. “Sierra.”
I breathe out, shaking. “I’m done holding this secret in, it’s hurting so many people.”
Griff leans in, voice low and dangerous. “And you think detonating a bomb makes that better?”
“No, but it makes me honest,” I whisper.
His gaze flicks away, jaw working. When he looks back, his eyes are wet, and that almost breaks me more than his anger.
“You tell them,” he says quietly, “and you don’t just hurt people. You devastate them. You blow Jace’s life apart. You shatter whatever fragile balance Knox is standing on. And you don’t get to pretend you walk away clean from that.”
His jaw tightens. “Fuck how Mom and Dad take it. They’ll survive. You might not.”
I nod slowly. “I know.”
“And you still want to do it?”
My throat tightens. “I don’t want to. I have to.”
Griff stares at me like he’s trying to find another option in my face.
“There isn’t one, Griff,” I whisper, reading him before he says it.
His hands clench into fists in his lap.
Finally, he exhales hard. “Okay,” he says, and his voice sounds defeated. “If you’re doing this… you’re not doing it alone.”
I blink. “Griff…”
He points at me like a warning. “You don’t get to run off and be the martyr. You tell the truth, you do it with me there. Do you hear me?”
Tears sting my eyes. I nod once. “Okay.”
Griff swallows hard, staring straight ahead through the windshield like he’s bracing for impact. “Who first?” he asks.
The answer comes instantly.
Because I already know where the truth needs to land.
“Jace,” I whisper.
Griff’s jaw tightens immediately. “Yeah.”
“But if I’m being honest, I’m scared and need to build up my courage first.” I add quietly.
I look down at my hands, trembling in my lap. “I destroyed his life without giving him the full truth. I let him build a life on top of a lie, and told myself it was protection when really, he was just the solution.”
I used him to keep myself and Knox from being exposed.
My throat burns. “I can’t keep carrying this lie, knowing I built it to keep the truth buried.”
Griff turns toward me.
“If I do this in private, I’ll try to contain it,” I say quietly. “I’ll minimize it. Reframe it. Find a way to make it survivable.”
My throat tightens. “And that’s how I let this go on as long as it did.”
My voice drops. “I just know Jace has to hear it from me first. Before anyone else does. Before it turns into something even uglier.”
