And I knew—
I knew it couldn’t last.
Things like this never do.
And I was right.
The night it ended—
It was my fault. I should have been more careful, more controlled.
But obsession doesn’t work like that.
It makes you reckless. And I was reckless when it came to him.
Our, well, just his parents now, found out. Not everything, but enough.
The shouting started immediately.
Both Harley’s mother and my father looked like they wanted to kill me right there.
“You’re sick,” she said.
“You’ve been taking advantage of him.”
I laughed. I shouldn’t have but I did.
Because they didn’t understand. They never would.
“He’s not a child,” I told them.
“And I didn’t force him to do anything he didn’t want or was comfortable with.”
That made it worse.
My father stepped in then.
“You’re leaving.”
I looked at Harley. He was standing at the top of the stairs, watching. He looked hurt by what he had just heard.
And for a second—
I almost said something. Almost told him. But I didn’t. Because if I did…
They would’ve destroyed him. And I couldn’t let that happen. So I left. Without saying goodbye, without explaining.
I walked out of that house and never looked back. At least that’s what everyone thought.
“Pierce?”
His voice pulls me back, back to the present, back to him.
He’s sitting across from me, watching me carefully. Like he knows I went somewhere else.
“What are you thinking about?” he asks softly.
“Us.”
