Jason’s POV
I was not angry that she left. Anger is too shallow a word for what hollowed me out the day she walked away. No, it was something deeper, heavier, darker. I was hurt, gutted by the truth that she had left not just anyone, but with him. With Marco. That name alone was enough to poison everything.
For a long time, I told myself Emily was the victim in all of this, another pawn pulled unwillingly into Marco’s twisted world. I wanted to believe she had been forced, coerced, deceived. That she would never choose him over me. But the truth clawed its way through the lies I wrapped around myself. She had gone with him willingly. That knowledge shattered something inside me, something I did not even know could break.
People can call it jealousy if they want. Maybe it was. But when I
