Even if he acted like I was a walking eye roll.
Even if our history was basically a series of mutual annoyances.
He didn’t deserve this. No one did.
And I’d been completely, embarrassingly wrong about him.
Something inside me pressed upward—an urge I didn’t want, hadn’t asked for, and certainly didn’t authorize.
Sympathy.
Ugh.
I backed up, heart pulling in two different directions.
I didn’t want to feel for him.
Not Ledger.
Not the guy who’d made freshman year a competitive blood sport. Not the guy who still managed to rile me up with one raised eyebrow. Not the guy who clearly didn’t think twice about me unless I was blocking his path.
But he was hurting.
And it wasn’t a small hurt. It was the kind that rearranged someone’s life.
He deserved to be knocked down a peg sometimes, sure, but this wasn’t that.
This was him drowning.
And me, standing on the shore, pretending I didn’t see it.
I forced myself to turn around and keep walking, my steps shaky, my chest tight.
It wasn’t my business. It wasn’t my responsibility.
I barely had control over my own life—rent, a job I was losing patience with, a mother who reminded me weekly that my trust fund was one signature (and one marriage) away.
I didn’t have room to worry about Ledger Hayes.
I didn’t.
But even as I crossed the courtyard and left the Wilson Center behind, his voice followed me—frustrated, exhausted, scared.
And for the first time in the eight years since we’d met, I didn’t want to win our rivalry.
I just wanted him to be okay.
CHAPTER 5
LEDGER
The letter was waiting for me when I got home from morning training a couple days later. Thin, official-looking, and wedged under my apartment door like even the mailman wanted to be done with me.
I recognized the logo before I even bent down.
My sponsor. The company that had been covering my housing stipend and lane access for the past two years.
My stomach dropped so fast, it was a miracle it didn’t punch through the floor.
