Celeste's POV
His eyes were still on mine and the room was still quiet and I was still deciding.
There was a version of this moment where I told him everything. The files. The names. The way my stomach turned over when I thought about walking into that building and finding Aiden and Jayden Carter sitting across a desk from me like none of it ever happened.
I looked at Jason's face and thought about saying all of it.
Then I thought about what comes after. The concern. The careful conversations. Mason being measured about it and Jason being perceptive about it and both of them treating me like something that needed protecting when I was trying so hard to be a woman who did not need protecting from her own past.
I did not want to do that tonight.
"I'm fine," I said. "I promise. It was j
