“Jenna? Are you—what is going on? Where are you?”
Something in my chest cracks and I choke on a breath that turns into a sob I can’t swallow back.
“I am…” Another hiccupped breath, useless, humiliating. “At home.”
“What happened?”
I try to answer, I really do, but it comes out wrong. It always comes out wrong. Another sob tears through me and I clamp my hand over my mouth all over again like that might fix it. Like that might undo it.
“Solnyshko…”His voice shifts—softer now—dangerous in its calm. “Tell me what’s going on.Please.”
And that’s it.
That’s the moment everything inside me gives out.
“I walked in on Matthew cheating on me.”
A loud bang hits the door behind me.
“Jenna! I swear to God, if you don’t open this fucking door right now?—”
“Is he the one screaming at you like that in the background?” Colton says, his voice suddenly sounding harsh.
“Yes,” I whisper, shaking. “I locked myself in, but he keeps punching the door.”
Another hit. Closer this time. I cry out again. I’m useless. I know.
“Stay where you are,” Colton says immediately. His voice turns razor-sharp. “I’m coming. Don’t turn your phone off.” A pause—barely controlled. “That bastard better pray he’s still breathing when I get there.”
SIXTEEN
Colton
Iend up ringing Jenna’s doorbell more times than I mean to.
My knuckles sting against the wood, but I can’t bring myself to care. Not after that phone call. Fuck, her voice was so small and broken in a way that reminds me too much of Livy.
The moment I spotted her name lighting up my screen, I knew something was wrong. I felt it in my bones That same instinct that tells me when an opposing player is about to blind side me on the ice.
I shift my weight, ready to ring again when the door flies open.
But it’s not Jenna standing there—it’s him. Fucking Matthew. The manchild who can’t be bothered to wash his own underwear.
“What the hell are you doing here?”
His voice is slurred at the edges, like it can’t quite keep itself together. Beer hangs off him in waves and it fills the hallway before he even steps fully into it.
And God.
He looks cringe.
Like he stopped caring weeks ago and just never started again.
Not a man. Just… a mess pretending to be one.
Jenna was too good for him.
Always was.
