And somehow, that’s the line that undoes me.
Not the threats.
Not the accusations.
That.
Because it sounds like a confession.
A line he’s been swallowing for days, maybe longer. A truth he didn’t mean to say out loud.
And I?—
I can’t.
Not right now.
So, I grab the handle anyway.
And when his hand covers mine again, I let it sit there for a second longer than I should.
“If I leave now, you can still salvage this,” I say softly. “You can tell them it was a favor gone too far. That you didn’t know. That I lied to you.”
I make it halfway out the door.
Then I feel his voice, low and taut behind me.
“If you walk out that door, Tessa, don’t pretend it’s for me.”
Chapter Thirty-Four
Rowan
She left.
With the dog.
My hand drops from the doorframe, fingers flexing once before going still, and my jaw tightens as I stare at the space she walked through.
To her, this counts as restraint, and leaving before things get complicated gives her the illusion of control, as if distance changes the outcome instead of delaying it. A cleaner version of events, something easier for her to justify. She thinks that she’s protecting me.
My teeth press together as that idea locks into place.
I just stood in front of an entire room and made a decision that could cost me everything, and I did it without hesitation.
If it came down to it again, I would make the same choice.
And somehow, she’s decided she gets to determine what I can afford to lose.
I exhale slowly, my gaze still fixed on the doorway.
No.
That was never her decision to make.
If she understood me at all, she would know there is nothing she could do, no mistake she could make, that would ever make me choose those men over her.
I drag a hand down my face and let it settle at my jaw for a second before dropping it.
