I clenched my jaw.
Stop.
But the thought had no weight.
Candace’s words echoed next—steady, certain.
What’s the harm?
Something squeezed inside me.
I had been ready, at least I thought I was.
Ready to choose him.
Ready to tell him.
Ready to claim him like he’d asked, gentle and sincere over breakfast.
But now—
Ava’s hesitation.
The missing pieces.
The past I’d never asked about.
And that old wound—the onehehad carved into me—split open again, raw and pulsing beneath my ribs.
He’d hidden who he was for weeks. Let me pour my heart out to “Read” while Damien Holt watched from the other side of the screen.
I forgave him for that.
Ichosehim anyway.
And now there was more. More he hadn’t told me. More doors he’d kept locked while I handed him every key I had.
He’s hiding something. He’s hiding someone. This is exactly how it starts. One secret. Then another. Then the moment you realize you never knew him at all.
Something stuttered in me.
Rationally, he hadn’t done anything wrong.
But rationality wasn’t here.
Only fear.
Only humiliation.
Only the ghost of a betrayal I’d never fully healed from—disguised as truth.
I stood so fast the barstool screeched.
Ava turned. “Emma?”
“I—” My voice cracked. “I should go.”
“Oh. Is everything okay?”
