“Then why are you still shaking?”
Her breath caught, just slightly.
“You think this doesn’t affect me?” I asked, my voice rough now, the last of my restraint burning through. “You think I spentall this time looking for you just so I could stand here and watch you walk away from me again?”
“I didn’t ask you to look for me.”
“No,” I said. “You disappeared and expected me to accept it.”
“I expected you to understand it.”
“I understood one thing,” I bit out. “You were gone, and I was nowhere near done with you.”
The air between us felt too close, charged with everything we had buried and everything she kept trying to deny.
“You can’t decide that alone,” she said, though her voice had weakened.
“Maybe not.” I held her gaze. “But you sure as hell can’t decide it without me either.”
Her lips parted, but nothing came out. That small silence, that crack in the wall she kept putting between us, was enough.
“Get in the car, Edwina.”
The words came quieter this time, which somehow made them worse. I was finished standing outside the parts of her life she kept locked away, finished pretending I could accept distance when every inch of her still reacted to me.
She kept pulling against me, fury sharpening when she realized I was not bluffing. “Hayden, stop. This is insane,” she snapped, twisting her wrist again. “I’m serious. Let me go right now.”
“Get in.”
“No.”
The refusal came fast, but something strained lived beneath it, something that made my grip tighten for half a second.
I did not argue. I guided her toward the passenger side, firm enough to keep her moving but careful not to hurt her, because she was still the one thing I had no intention of breaking.
She stepped inside with anger written across her face, and the moment she was in the seat, I shut the door.
Then I walked around the car, slid behind the wheel, and locked the doors.
The sound made her turn toward me at once.
“You’ve completely lost your mind,” she said, her voice lower now, though the anger in it had not faded. She looked at me as if she could not decide whether to scream or hit me again. “Do you realize what you just did?”
“I do.”
“That was not okay.”
“I didn’t say it was.”
Her eyes widened. “Then why would you—”
“Because you wouldn’t have come with me otherwise.”
That only made her angrier. She dragged a hand through her hair and turned fully toward me, frustration written across her face. “I swear to God, Hayden, if you don’t let me out of this car right now, I will call the police.”
I glanced at her before starting the engine. “Go ahead.”
Her brows drew together. “I’m serious.”
