Evelyn kept her distance after that morning.
The girls had been kind—sweet, even—but something inside her had shifted.
She couldn’t sit at their table, listen to their laughter, and pretend she believed they had her back.
Not really.
Not after sitting beside them all this time without knowing the truth they’d all carried so easily.
She needed a different kind of space.
That’s how she ended up here—with Kai.
They’d found a quiet spot tucked away at the far edge of the compound, an old storage loft above one of the garages where no one bothered to go.
It was their space now.
The one place where she could finally breathe without feeling like the walls were closing in.
She sat on the old, worn couch they’d dragged up there weeks ago, knees pulled to her chest as she told him everythi
