Page 214 of Rush

“Come in,” I murmur.

She sits on the end of my bed and sets the flowers down gently beside me.

Yellow carnations.

“For me?”

Riley raises a brow, expression unreadable. Her silence says everything.

The scent hits hard—too sweet, too fake. My stomach flips.

“There’s a card,” she adds, pointing to the envelope wedged between the blooms.

I fish it out and open it.

A typed message. Just six words:You are always on my mind.

My hands clench around the edges. My throat burns.

That line. That voice. That same poison-laced sweetness.

Of course it’s him.

“It’s Alex,” I whisper, tears threatening again. I guess he doesn’t respect my wishes—even after I asked.

Riley’s face drops. “Seriously? When will he quit?”

She’s trying to stay calm—but I can feel the annoyance simmering beneath every word.

I shrug.

“Did something happen?” Riley asks, her voice gentler now. “Since Atlanta…you haven’t been yourself.”

I look away, fingers twisting in the blanket. “Yeah.”

She waits, patient. Watching me with the energy she turns on when she knows I’m circling the drain.

“He showed up,” I say finally. “Backstage. After the show.”

“Voldemort?” She blinks. “Wait,he did what?!”

I nod.

“Oh my God.”

“Said the same shit, he missed me. Said he couldn’t sleep, couldn’t think—said I was always on his mind.”

Riley groans, collapsing back onto the pillows. “Jesus Christ, thenerveof that man.”

“And then he…” I trail off. I can still feel it—the wall against my back, his breath on my skin, the way everything in me turned inside out. “He cornered me. Got in my face. Said some shit.”

Her eyes go sharp. “Did he hurt you?”

I shrug. “Not physically. But he knew what he was doing. He knew exactly how to get to me.”

“What a shit.”

“Was upset about Broderick,” I sigh, feeling the shame and guilt of it all. How quickly I’d moved on. Trading one man for another. I understood why Alex would be hurt.