Then he looked at Declan. “Coach. My office in twenty.”
“Yes.”
Whitaker walked off.
Tessa pointed at me. “Do not call anyone from the hallway.”
“I know.”
“I mean it.”
“I know.”
She looked at Declan. “You too.”
Declan nodded once.
Then she left us there, three feet apart in a corridor where we could not touch.
For a moment, neither of us moved.
I wanted to put my face against his chest. I wanted to laugh. I wanted to sit down on the floor. I wanted to call my dad and Roman and Harper and also never speak again.
Declan looked at me with all of it held back in his face.
“We have a path,” he said quietly.
I nodded, my throat tight. “Yeah.”
It wasn’t freedom. Not yet.
It wasn’t forgiveness.
But the secret had left our hands, and the world had not ended when it touched the table.
I folded my statement once, then again, because my hands needed something to do.
“I’m going to go not call anyone from the hallway,” I said.
The corner of his mouth moved. “Good plan.”
I took two steps toward the players’ side, then stopped and looked back.
He was still there.
Still steady.
Still staying.
For the first time all day, the noise in my head dropped low enough for one thought to land cleanly.
We had told the truth before it could be taken from us.
And somehow, impossibly, we still had something left to protect.
Epilogue
Epilogue
