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“Logan…”

“Exactly. You know who you are. You’re Meredith Whitlock, daughter of the Whitlocks, and you’ve had everything handed to you your whole life.”

I open my mouth to protest and then close it, huffing a breath through my nostrils. “Maybe. I guess you’re right.”

“I didn’t have that. My mother was dead. My father was in and out of prison. All I had was my room at Aunt Beatrice’s and... well, you and Grayson.”

“But you would have had me forever, Logan. You have to know that.”

“How could I know that, huh? You have everything, Meredith. You always had. I wanted you, but I didn’t want everyone to think...”

“To think what?”

“To think that I was in it for the money. To think I was in it because I got something out of it. I was with you because I was crazy about you, Meredith. I… I still am.”

“Sure have a funny way of showing it, leaving the way you did. So, what are you telling me? You were poor, so you had to break my heart?”

He sighs. “It’s not just because I’m poor, Meredith. It’s because I was anobody.”

“We never saw you as a nobody.”

He snorts. “Your brother asked your mother once why it was okay that you and I could go on walks, but he couldn’t take out Rebecca Shaw. Your mother said it was because I was a nobody, and Rebecca Shaw’s father owned an oil rig.”

“She didn’t.” But I believe it, and I think he knows I do. I know my mother well enough that it isn’t that big of a shock to hear she said that.

“It wasn’t the first time she said something like that, but it's the one I remember most. And then suddenly, when we were older, she started keeping us apart. Getting upset when we’d be out past your curfew, things like that. She didn’t want us together, Meredith.”

“She didn’t know we were together. It’s different.”

“Can you look me in the eye and tell me you think your mother would have accepted me? Us?”

I try, but then look away, biting my lower lip. “I guess you’re right.”

“That’s the thing, Meredith. I’ve never been enough for you. I never will be. I’ll never come from money or have a backup. There’s only me. I’ve only ever been able to rely on me.”

“And me! You could always rely on me. You just didn’t know it.” My voice breaks.

I realize I'm crying again, and I want to punch myself in the face. I’m so tired of crying, of appearing weak, of all of this.

“You always had me, Logan.”

“Nothing’s changed, princess.” He gives me a sad half-smile that makes my heart ache. “You’re still the princess, and I’m just the tattered boy looking at the castle from afar, knowing he’ll never amount to anything. Or worse, the troll under the bridge.”

I scoff. “You don’t look much like a troll.”

Then I’m laughing, and I can’t seem to stop.

Logan laughs too, hugging me with one arm.

“So, when you broke up with me, it was like, some kind of self-sacrifice?”

Logan looks at me for a long moment, looking tired. “I guess so. I wanted you to go to college, grow up to be the amazing, successful woman I knew you could become if you weren’t stuck with a nobody like me.”

He shrugs. “I know your parents liked me, but just as the poor boy they could feel good about helping. They never made me feel bad to my face, but your mother’s words cut deep.”

“But you could’ve grown with me.”

“No, princess. I needed you to move on and focus on yourself. Focus on being who you were always meant to be. At the time, I knew I was just a mistake away from ending up in a cell next to my dad.”