Brielle’s POV
I couldn’t move. My breath hitched in my chest as I stared into the face of someone I wasn’t supposed to be seeing. The boy in front of me—no, the man—was the ghost of every lie I had ever been fed. Gregory had always spoken about him in past tense. Said he died in a fire. Said he was too fragile, too soft for this world. But here he was, standing in the moonlight, very much alive. Very much real.
“I thought you were—” My voice cracked before the words could form. “Dead.”
His face was sharp in the night’s glow, tired eyes that held too much knowledge for someone his age. “That’s what he wanted everyone to think. Including you.”
I took a step back, my mind trying to make sense of it all. “But why? Why lie about something like that?”
He looked away for a moment, his jaw cl
