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“Five minutes?! You and your friends ruined my life!”

My stomach drops.

“Because of you, I lost my job. I lost my wife and kids. I lost everything.”

“Max.” Sienna grabs my arm from behind me, trying to pull me away, but I shake her off.

He needs to know. He needs to know I didn’t do this to him.

“It wasn’t my fault.” My voice breaks. “I’m so sorry for what happened to you, but it wasn’t my fault.”

He looks at me like I’m the enemy. Like he hates me.

And maybe he should.

“Because of you, I missed the birth of my daughter. Because of you, I only see my boys every other weekend. Because of you, I can’t teach anymore.” His eyes shine with barely contained rage. “So tell me, Max. How is none of that your fault?”

Hot tears blur my vision because nothing I can say can ease his suffering.

He’s right. This is all my fault.

“I’m sorry,” I whisper.

“Just…” He drags a hand over his face. “Stay the fuck away from me.”

“Mr. Collins—”

“Leave me the hell alone.”

He turns and walks away, and all I can do is stand there and watch him go.

“Give him time,” Sienna says after he’s gone. “He’ll realize eventually that none of what happened to him was on you.”

I wipe angrily at the tears spilling down my cheeks.

“But that’s not true, is it?”

“Max—”

“He’s right.”

“No, he isn’t.”

“All of it happened because of me.”

I can tell Sienna wants to argue. She probably has a thousand reasons why I’m wrong.

But right now, I don’t want to hear any of them.

Everything that happened to Mr. Collins happened because of one girl.

And for the first time, I’m not entirely sure I mean Peyton.

I grab the carrot cake from the cart and shove it into the freezer.

“You know what? Fuck cake. I need to get drunk.”

The corner of Sienna’s mouth lifts.