Denver.
The second Zariah walked away, I wanted to run after her. Not because I didn’t expect it.
I did. Hell, I planned for it.
But watching the way her shoulders hunched, the tears in her eyes, and that heartbreak she tried so hard to hide, split something open inside me. Something raw. Something I’d been trying to bury since the moment I realized I was falling for her.
I didn’t want this. I didn’t want her to feel like this.
But I needed her to.
Not forever. Just long enough to do what needed to be done.
The truth was, everything she saw—the smeared makeup, the girl, the scene—it was staged.
All of it.
After the intense moment I shared with Zee in school earlier, I knew for sure she had fallen for me. It was obvious in her eyes, the way she looked at me, the way her smile c
