Page 59

Movement at the far end of the corridor caught my attention, and my stomach lurched when I recognized Doryu coming through the doors. He was looking down at his phone, probably on his way to meet Keegan, but I had no idea how much he'd heard before I'd noticed him.

“I have to go.”

Dad started to say my name, but I ended the call and shoved my phone into my pocket, trying to pull myself together before Doryu reached me.

He glanced up as he approached. “Hey. You seen Keegan?”

“Not since video.”

“He said he'd meet me down here.” Doryu's gaze moved briefly toward the doors behind me before coming back to my face. “Everything okay?”

There was probably a perfectly innocent reason for the question. I was standing alone in a corridor looking as though I'd just been threatened with the destruction of my entire life, for one thing.

“Yeah. Just family shit.”

Something flickered across his face too quickly for me to identify, but he didn't ask anything else. Relief loosened some of the tension in my shoulders as he continued toward the dressing room.

I waited until he'd disappeared through the doors before breathing properly again.

He couldn't have heard much.

At least, that was what I told myself.

I nearly made it back to video without running into Max, but he came through the doors at the opposite end of the corridor just as I started toward them. The second he saw me, his expression sharpened.

“Ash.”

I kept walking because stopping felt dangerous. “We're going to be late.”

“Is your father threatening you?”

That stopped me more effectively than if he'd grabbed my arm.

I turned to find Max watching me, concern already replacing the careful distance he'd maintained all morning.

“Why would you ask that?”

“Because every time he contacts you, you look like you're about to crawl out of your own skin.”

I glanced away, wishing he'd go back to pretending I didn't exist because apparently that had been easier than having all his attention focused on me again.

“I'm fine.”

“Ash, you're really fucking bad at lying.”

The quiet frustration in his voice made me look back.

Max wasn't angry, or at least that wasn't all of it. He was worried, and knowing I'd put that expression on his face made everything harder.

For one reckless second, I nearly told him everything. I could've told him my father had a video, that I'd spent most of my life believing I'd killed my mother and that the man standing in front of me was now the person Dad intended to send the proof to.

The words crowded behind my teeth, desperate to get out.

Then I imagined Max watching the video, and that was enough to stop them.

“I think we need to slow this down.”

Max went very still, and the silence stretched long enough for me to hear voices somewhere beyond the doors.