Page 186 of Tessa and Nash

And entirely my fault.

I glance around the chamber.

Faces stare back at me… curious, skeptical, impatient.

The eyes on me feel like daggers. Every single one of them. They’ve already made up their minds about me. I can see the judgment in their stares. They think they know who I am. They think they know what’s been going on.

And I’m so damn angry that they don’t.

They have no idea how much I’ve screwed up. No idea how hard I’ve tried to keep this damn town from swallowing me whole.

“Well?” the mayor prompts.

I can feel my heart pounding in my chest, the anger surging in waves. I open my mouth, but the words don’t come out the way I want them to. It’s like the pressure in my head is building and building until it explodes, and I have to spit it out before it chokes me.

“The engagement,” I say, my voice cutting through the air like a blade.

I don’t even care that I’m about to drag everyone into this mess with me. It’s too late. The damage is already done.

The reaction is immediate. People lean forward. Chairs creak. Someone whispers Tessa’s name.

“The one between me and Tessa Long.”

Behind the crowd, the door to the hallway opens.

I don’t see her at first.

Then, movement at the back of the room catches my eye.

Tessa slips through the doorway quietly because she’s not supposed to be here. She stops just inside, her coat still on, braid falling over one shoulder, anxiety dancing over her face.

I see the room stiffen. The silence hits like a slap to the face, and I can’t breathe for a second. Every single person in this room is waiting for the bomb to drop. And here I am, just handing it to them on a silver platter. My hands are shaking as I force myself to speak.

“That engagement,” I force out, my teeth clenched so hard it feels like they might shatter, “started as a lie.”

The room erupts.

“What?”

“You’re kidding.”

“I knew something was off…”

Mayor Caldwell bangs the gavel hard enough to echo. “Order!”

The sound cuts through the noise, but the tension stays thick in the air. I keep going before I lose my nerve.

“I panicked,” I say, forcing the words out before doubt can catch up to me. “The council wasn’t taking my plans seriously, and I thought if people believed that I was engaged and settling down in life, and if the McCoys and Longs were working together, maybe they’d finally listen.”

The admission burns on the way out.

“So I asked her to pretend.”

Silence spreads through the chamber as a shockwave. Even the whispering stops.

But then her eyes lock on mine, and everything in me freezes. Her face is pale, like she’s been slapped. That’s when it hits me, cold as ice…what the hell did I just do?

This wasn’t supposed to be about her. I never meant for this to come back to her, but here we are. And I’ve just dragged her into it. She looks like I’ve betrayed her, and maybe I have.