Page 207 of His Reckoning

My head lifts slightly. “What?”

Melissa nods. “They told her they can’t promise to hold her place if she walks away from this.”

Silence fills the room. I glance down at the book in my hands.

“She said she would never trade your trust for a book.”

“She said that?” I ask quietly.

Melissa watches me. “Pretty much.”

I exhale slowly. Now everything feels off, as if I’ve been looking at this from the wrong angle entirely.

Colton shifts slightly. “Let me ask you something,” he says.

I don’t look up.

“Do you think she needed to stay with you to finish that book?”

The question lands hard. I think back to the late nights and the way she wrote like someone who was obsessed and focused.

“No,” I admit.

“Then why do you think she stayed?” he presses.

I don’t respond because I think I already know the answer. I just didn’t want to say it before.

“She cared about you,” Colton says plainly. “And she still does.”

Melissa leans forward slightly. “She didn’t write that book to expose you, Sawyer. She wrote it because she finally understood you and you had inspired her. But she knows what she did was wrong too. She knows she should have talked to you about it.”

I can’t argue with that anymore. Not after what I just read and what they’re telling me now.

“And when she realized it hurt you?” Melissa continues softly. “She walked away from everything without a second thought. She pulled the book the moment she left your place. It didn’t even take her a full five minutes to make that decision.”

The words settle deep. Heavier than anything else. That’s not something you do casually.

I exhale slowly, then set the book down on the desk. Carefully this time, like it matters … because it does. A lot more than I thought it did.

“I told her she used me,” I say quietly.

Melissa doesn’t respond right away. She just lets that sit.

“And now?” she asks.

I stare at the book, then shake my head once.

“Now I think I didn’t have the full picture.”

The admission feels … different.

Colton nods slightly. “Yeah.”

Melissa’s expression softens. “Good.”

Silence settles again, but this time … it doesn’t feel heavy.

It feels clear, like something finally clicked into place.