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“I lied to Guy. Told him you needed an operation that cost three grand.”

“Not just any operation.”

“No. I told him you needed an abortion.” I leave out how that conversation went down, because really, she doesn’t need to hear that. She thinks I’m a piece of shit? Guy Humphries…that motherfucker’s way worse.

“You told him I was pregnant and aborting our baby,” she cries.

I’m not even sure my head moves when I try to nod. My entire being is breaking right now.

“Why? What did you even do with the money?”

Landmine, straight ahead.

This is the part where I have to stop talking. She won’t understand. Not fully.

I’m not even sure I do.

My silence stretches, both of us watching the other through watery eyes, until Kota says, “I don’t know who you are.”

“You know me.”

“Get away from me.”

“Kota, please.”

“Get away from me! Forever!”

“No.” Now I know my head’s shaking. Shit’s about to fall off. I won’t stay away from her forever. “I can’t,” I admit.

She moves for the driver’s door, and I try to take it from her.

“No, Kota—”

“I mean it. If I ever see you again, I’ll tell our parents what you did. I already promised Guy I would, so he wouldn’t go the cops, but…I won’t. Not if you leave me alone.”

Cops. That one word flips a switch inside me, killing all the fucking lights—and fight—in me at once. This shit has consequences. Serious ones. And not just for me.

“All Guy wants is his money back. As soon as I pay it, he’ll drop the whole thing—”

A flicker of hostility flares, making me say something I probably shouldn’t but feel the need to anyway. “I’ll pay it.”

“With what? You expect me to believe you conned Guy out of three thousand dollars and then did nothing with it? You just saved it?”

Every word is hurled at me like a dagger. I know what she’s doing, hoping that if she pokes enough holes, she’ll find what she’s looking for.

She won’t. She can’t. Ever.

“I’ll figure it out. It’s not on you.”

The betrayal on her face is painful to even look at but I make myself. I did this to us, to her.

“It’s all on me,” she argues. “Because I trusted the wrong person.”

That’s why I tried to stay away because I am the wrong person for Kota. All wrong.

But that wasn’t enough to keep me away. Nothing was.

“I did love you, I do love you, and I’ll never not love you, Dakota Lynsi Stack Rhodes.” My voice cracks halfway through, that embarrassing fucking sob making an appearance.