Maddy's POV
The ride home passed in silence — not the cold, awkward kind, but the thick, charged silence between two people who've said too much and not enough all at once.
Outside, the city was a blur of gold and shadow. Streetlights streaked past like shooting stars, and I lost between disbelief and wonder. My fingers brushed against the ring on my hand, the diamond catching faint glimmers of light as if mocking the chaos of my thoughts.
The applause, the flashes, the words — his words — kept looping through my mind like a dream I was terrified to wake up from. And then there was Max. The look on his face when Nate had slipped the ring onto my finger… that mixture of shock, regret, and something darker. He'd stormed out, leaving Alissa to stand there, humiliated, daggers in he
