His gaze snaps to mine.
“He changed,” I say quietly. “That’s different.”
His face hardens instantly. “He walked away.”
“He chose something else.”
“He chose to pretend,” Cole snaps, sharper now. “He put on a clean shirt, bought a bar, and decided that erased everything.”
Once I hear it, I can’t unhear it.
This isn’t about justice. It’s not even really about revenge, not in the clean, dramatic way stories like to pretend revenge works.
This is about rejection.
Ryder changed direction, and Cole took it like a personal betrayal. Like abandonment. Like being toldyou can stay exactly where you are while I go become someone else.
It’s not about what Ryder did.
It’s about the fact that he left, and Cole couldn’t follow.
“Oh,” I say softly.
The word slips out before I can stop it.
His eyes narrow. “Oh?”
I tilt my head slightly, watching him.
“This isn’t about him thinking he’s better than you,” I say. “It’s about him leaving and you deciding that meant you were less.”
The silence that follows is so sharp it could cut glass.
He takes a step toward me.
My entire nervous system lights up like a Christmas tree in hell, but I make myself hold still.
“Careful,” he says quietly.
“I am being careful.”
Behind my back, my fingers keep moving.
Tiny movements.
Tiny miracles.
The loosened tie shifts another fraction against my wrist. My fingers are numb enough that I can barely feel the edge of my own hand, but there’s space there now. Barely. A sliver.
Enough to keep trying.
Cole studies me like he’s deciding whether to admire me or ruin me, and I’m honestly not thrilled with either option. “You thinkyouunderstand him.”
I swallow.
“No,” I say. “I think I understand you.”
He wanted loyalty. Purpose. place. He wanted Ryder to stay the same man, so Cole never had to ask himself what it meant that he couldn’t, or wouldn’t, change too.
