My hands clenched into fists at my sides, my nails digging into my palms to keep myself from breaking apart. “You don’t get to be scared, Kody. I’m the one who’s drowning. I’m the one who doesn’t belong here. And yet, you look at me like I’m supposed to be the answer to something I never asked to be a part of.”
Tears burned at the corners of my eyes, but I refused to let them fall. I refused to be weak.
Kody stood frozen, his entire body tense, his jaw locked. But his eyes—those hazel-green eyes that had always held warmth—were now filled with something else entirely.
Guilt. Pain. And something deeper. Something I couldn’t name.
For a long moment, neither of us spoke. The weight of my words hung between us, heavy and suffocating.
Then, Kody finally took a slow, steady breath, his voic
