The room tilts.
“You wouldn’t,” I say, though part of me knows she absolutely would.
She steps closer, lowering her voice. “You think she’ll stay when she finds out you caused the accident? That you left her injured in her car?”
“I didn’t know it was her,” I snap. “And I didn’t leave her?—”
“But you left the scene without stopping,” she says simply. “And she’s starting to wonder why you feel so guilty all the time.”
I feel sick.
“You tell her by the end of the week,” Talia continues, satisfied now. “Or I do. And I won’t be kind about it.”
She turns toward the door, pauses, glancing back at me. “You should have stayed with me. I kept your secrets.”
The door closes behind her with a soft, final click.
I sag against it, breath coming too fast, too shallow. My phone buzzes in my pocket and Rose’s name lights up the screen. I can’t do this.
By the time I pull myself together enough to move, the sound of an engine outside catches my attention. Through the window, I see Talia getting into her car, movements sharp and angry.
And then I see Rose.
She’s across the street, half-hidden by the shadow of a tree, frozen in place. She watches Talia drive away, her posture stiff,guarded. She doesn’t move toward the building. She just stands there, taking it in, like she’s piecing together a puzzle she didn’t ask for.
“Rose,” I breathe, already reaching for the door.
But she doesn’t come closer.
Instead, she turns and walks away. Away from the building, away from me. I call out her name as I run down the steps towards the gate. “Rose, wait!” She doesn’t stop, in fact, her pace quickens.
The sound of her footsteps fade, and with it, something inside me fractures completely.
Realising my efforts are futile I head back inside. I slide down the door until I’m sitting on the floor, head in my hands, the weight of everything crashing in at once. Lukas’s words echo in my skull.If she finds out from someone else.
I’ve been trying to protect her. That’s what I told myself. But all I’ve been doing is protecting me. And now I might have lost her anyway. I press my forehead to my knees, breathing hard, guilt clawing its way up my throat. I love her. God help me, I love her more than anything.
And tomorrow, or the next day, or the one after that, I’m going to have to choose.
Tell her the truth and risk losing her.
Or keep lying and deserve it when she walks away for good.
Either way, the reckoning is coming.
CHAPTER THIRTY-EIGHT
ROSE
Idon’t remember deciding to walk away.
One second, I’m standing across the street, my body stiff with cold and something worse, watching Talia leave Callum’s flat and slides into her car like she belongs there, and she’s done this a hundred times before. The next, my feet are moving, carrying me down the pavement before my brain can catch up and stop them.
I don’t look back. Not even when I hear him calling my name.
If I do, I think I might break apart right there on the street, fold in on myself until there’s nothing left but embarrassment and hurt and the sickening certainty that I’ve finally misunderstood everything.
The cool air feels too sharp in my lungs. Every breath scrapes. My hands are shaking, jammed deep into my coat pockets like that might hold me together. Behind me, Callum’s flat glows warm through the windows, a place that’s felt safe every time I’ve stepped inside it. Apparently not anymore.
