I force my voice past my tightening throat. “Who are you?” I say directly to Jake.
Sienna already asked, but she asked Brett.
Jake looks at me for a split second until he returns his gaze first to Brett and then to River.
No one answers.
Brett’s entire body is rigid, every muscle tense like a coiled wire ready to snap.
Sienna’s fingers are curled tightly around Brett’s, and she looks just as lost as I feel.
River exhales sharply, raking a hand through his hair. “It’s complicated.”
My heart clenches.
It’s complicated.
I take a step forward, voice shaking. “That’s not an answer.”
River finally meets my gaze, and something in his expression shifts—regret, maybe? Guilt? I don’t know. But whatever it is, it’s not the look of a man who is simply happy to see me again.
And I hate that.
“Emily—”
“No.” I shake my head. “You don’t get to come back with a stranger that seems to have both you and Brett in a tizzy—and I’ll just say it, a stranger that looks uncannily like one of the women here—and say it’s complicated like that’s supposed to mean something.” I’m fueled by too many unanswered questions, too much confusion, too much everything. “You left, River. You left, and now you’re back, and after I told you?—”
River flinches before I can finish the statement.
Good. I don’t want to say it in front of everyone here anyway.
Jake clears his throat. “I’m Jake.” His voice is deep with a hint of sadness in it, an exhaustion that makes me pause.
He’s thinner than Brett and River, and there’s something hollow behind his piercing blue eyes.
His resemblance to Misty is undeniable.
I glance at Brett. His entire body is shaking despite Sienna holding onto him. His jaw is locked so tight I swear I can hear the grinding of his teeth.
This isn’t just shock.
This is devastation.
The kind of devastation that comes from losing something you never thought you’d get back.
No one moves.
No one breathes.
A pause. A beat.
Then Brett lets out a ragged breath, his voice barely above a whisper. “He’s Jake,” he says again. “And he’s supposed to be dead.”
The words hang in the air, heavy and final.
Sienna gasps.
River closes his eyes, exhaling slowly.
