"He's trying to take you from me," Kairo says through his teeth, eyes still locked on Storm. "Everything he's saying is designed to …"
"A man is dead because of me!" I scream it loud enough that the security team shifts on their feet. "You can't punch that away. You can't fuck that away. Someone had a life, and you ended it because he didn't stop me from making my own choices. I need you to hear how insane that sounds."
Kairo’s dark brows pull together. "It's not insane in my world."
"Then maybe I don't belong in your world," I snap back. The words come out before I can stop them. They hang in the air between us, and I watch them gut him. His face doesn't crumble, it empties. Like someone reached inside him and scooped out everything warm and left the shell standing there in linen pants with bloody knuckles.
Storm straightens, pressing a hand to his split lip. "Summer, come home with me. Just for a few days, clear your head. If you still want to come back to him after that, I won't stop you."
"Don't listen to him," Kairo says quietly. "He doesn't care about you. He never has."
Tears fall down my cheeks. "Unlike you, who cares about me so much you killed someone to control who I slept with? You care about me so much, you watched me cry, feeling unlovablefor seven years, and never once dared to say hello?" My voice breaks. "You had seven years, Kairo. Seven years where you could have just talked to me. Instead, you built a cage and waited for my father to put me in it."
He doesn't answer, and I watch as his jaw tenses at the same time his fists do.
“Nothing, you have nothing to say?” I scream at him through my tears.
He stands there like a fucking statue.
"I need to go," I say, looking over at my bloodied brother.
"Summer, please don't," Kairo says.
"I need to think. I can't think here,” I tell him as tears stream down my face.
“You’re doing the right thing,” Storm says as he walks forward and slides his arm over my shoulder.
Kairo looks devastated. "If you walk off this island with him, I can't guarantee your safety."
“And that would be a first.” My eyes narrow on him.
“Summer, I did this, all of this for you,” he declares.
And I hate how he looks at me. "I need space."
"Space?" He repeats the word like it's in a language he doesn't speak.
"Yes, space. I need room to breathe without you." My hands are shaking.
“I love you, Summer,” he states loudly in front of my brother and his security team.
“I know, but loving you doesn't mean I can swallow everything you've done without choking on it."
He stares at me, and the silence is unbearable. I can hear Storm breathing behind me, can hear the waves crashing somewhere beyond the trees, can hear my own heartbeat loud and uneven.
"Take my plane," Kairo says finally, his voice is dead, flat, devoid of emotion. "It will take you wherever you need to go.”
16
KAIRO
Iwatch her walk away.
Every step she takes down that stone path carves an ache out of me. Her sundress catches the late afternoon light, Storm's arm is around her shoulders, and I want to rip it off him at the socket.
But I don't move.
She looks back once, and those eyes are red-rimmed, wet, searching my face for anything but I don't know how to give it to her. Instead, I give her nothing because if I open my mouth, I'll tell her she can't leave, and that's not what she asked for.
