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Not angry this time.

Just fragile.

Exhausted.

“I know you’re hurt,” I murmur. “And I know I’m the reason for it. But don’t stand here and tell me I betrayed you when the moment you became mine, every other woman stopped existing.”

Her lips part slightly, though no sound comes out.

I watch the battle playing out behind her eyes, the war between the anger she can’t let go of and whatever still exists between us beneath all the pain.

“You don’t get it,” she whispers eventually, her voice trembling. “I can’t erase what I saw.”

A tight ache spreads through my chest.

“I know,” I admit.

And I do.

There are images even I wish I could rip out of my head now.

“I’m not asking you to erase it,” I continue softly. “I’m asking you to understand that it happened before us. Before you. Before you became the only thing I fucking think about every second of my life.”

Her lashes flutter, and for one fleeting second, I think she might cry again.

Instead, she slowly opens her eyes and looks up at me.

The anger is still there.

So is the heartbreak.

Accusation.

But also disgust.

And that hurts far worse than anything she’s said to me tonight.

THIRTY-EIGHT

Selene

“I can’t understand how you could think I cheated on you, Selene,” Zayn says softly, though there’s a trace of reproach in his voice. “Have I ever done anything that made you think I’d betray you? Anything that gave you a reason to doubt me?”

His question takes me back to that party—the one thrown by the father of one of the women from that video. The same woman who, even then, tried to make me believe there was something going on between her and Zayn.

I had planned to ask him about her right after we left Ethan and Thalia’s that day, but I never got the chance.

“You disappeared from the ballroom for over half an hour that night,” I answer sharply. “And when you came back, you smelled like her perfume. You wouldn’t look at me, you were tense, and on the drive home you acted seriously weird. Distant.”

This time, I’m the one who walks over and sits on the bed.

I was exhausted before I even got to the hotel, but this conversation drains whatever energy I have left.

“I was sure something happened between you two, especially with the way she talked to you.”

“Nothing happened,” he says quickly. “She tried to find out how long we’d been together, then told me she’d wait for me as long as I wanted and that she didn’t mind… fuck, that she didn’t mind that I was in a relationship. Said we could have whatever I wanted.”

“You can tell her she doesn’t have to wait for you at all, Zayn.” My voice comes out so faint that I’m surprised he even hears me. My gaze drifts toward the window, unfocused, as I struggle to process this new reality.