“No. Listen to me. Please. Tristan was safe because he was never really mine. He was a fantasy. A crown. A stupid, shiny proof that I was the kind of girl who could be chosen by the boy everyone wanted. Losing him hurt my pride. It humiliated me. It made me feel second place.” My voice cracked. “But he did not have my heart. Not the real one.”
Drew’s throat moved.
I kept going.
“You did.”
The words came out smaller than I wanted.
Truer than I could survive.
“You had it before I knew what to call it. When you brought me coffee. When you carried my bag and pretended it was because I was incompetent. When you fed me noodles and took care of my leg and made me laugh when I was so tired of being looked at like damage.” I pressed a hand to my chest. “You found the part of me I didn’t perform with. And that terrified me.”
His eyes shone now.
But he didn’t move.
“You could break my heart, Drew.”
The words shook.
So did I.
Snow fell around us, quiet and relentless.
“No one has ever had the power to do that before. Not really. Not Vale. Not my mother. Not the gossip pages—you.” I swallowed hard. “And I know that sounds backwards. I know I should have been brave with the man who deserved it and careful with the one who didn’t. But I got it wrong. I was willingto hand almost everything to Tristan because there wasn’t much to lose. With you, there was everything.”
Drew looked down.
His hands flexed at his sides.
“I don’t know how to trust that,” he said.
“I know.”
His eyes lifted again, sharper now. “Do you? Because my whole life, people have wanted pieces of what I came with. Richard’s name. Richard’s money. Football. My body. The way I look beside them in a room.” His voice cracked once, and he hated it. I saw him hate it. “I thought you were different.”
“I am.”
“I thought you saw me.”
“I do.”
“Then why did you let her say it?”
Pain cut through me.
Clean.
Fair.
“Because I froze,” I said. “Because I was a coward. Because some part of me still hears my mother’s voice and turns into a little girl trying not to get corrected.” I wiped one tear fast, angry at it. “But I’m done being trained.”
Drew stared at me.
“I’m done,” I said again. “I’m done letting her call ambition love. I’m done letting her call status safety. I’m done pretending I don’t want you because wanting you gives you the power to hurt me.”
The back door creaked.
