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“But you didn’t explain. Sorry—youcouldn’texplain.”

“Exactly.” I hesitate. Her words sound like she gets it, but her tone tells me she absolutely does not. “I know you don’t do second chances, I know, butbelieve me,I didn’t mean to hurt you. It all happened so fast.”

She takes a deep breath. “Okay. I can believe that.”

“Thank god. Skye, I swear—”

“But,” she cuts in, “when you found out you couldn’t talk to me, you must have known I’d be here not knowing what’s going on. The things I must have been wondering. And I have had. No one. I’ve just been sitting here, playing out every worst-case scenario imaginable, for four days, with no support system, because I can’t tell anyone about us like we agreed we could, because you’re still lying about it. And you decided you were okay with that, as long as it meant you could still get revenge on fuckingJordy.And screw how I feel, or how much I have to go through, for you to get that. Because it’s not happening fast anymore, Maya. It’s happening extremely slowly.”

I swallow as her words sink in. Of course she thought the worst. Of course she’s been suffering over the last few days. Way,wayworse than I have been. “I… didn’t realize it would hurt you this much.”

“Okay. Well. I’m hurt.”

“Skye, I’m sorry.”

“Don’t say you’re sorry. Say you’ll stop it, and you’ll be here tonight. Say you’d rather spend the last few days before I go to London with me, instead of withhim,and we can forget all this. How’s that for a second chance?”

“I’m not saying no,” I say carefully, because jumping into a decision is what got me in this mess in the first place. “But can we hash this out first? I thought you wanted revenge, too?”

“Oh my god, Maya, screw revenge! Who cares about Jordy? Fuck Jordy! Fuck what that asshole did to us two years ago. Would it really have been so bad to let this all go? You still would’ve had me.”

“Are you saying I don’t have you now?”

Her voice is even, but slow. “Are you staying there?”

What choice do I have? If I leave now, Jordy will get away with everything he’s done. Not just to me, to all of us. And I’ll never get to tell my side of the story. I’ll be the evil harpy who hurt poor, innocent Jordy—reviled, while he’s worshipped—all over again. Only this time, it won’t just be within our town. It’ll be in front of the world.

The world willhateme, and it will love him more than ever.

Where is thejusticein that?

That can’t be where the story ends. It just can’t.

But does that mean it’s the end of me and Skye?

“I… I don’t… I don’t see what difference a few days makes. I don’t understand why you’re so mad.”

“I just need you to… choose…” She trails off, and gives a heavy sigh. My chest tightens, and I fumble for something to say, but nothing good comes to mind.

“Just tell me one thing,” she says. “Let’s say something goes wrong at the live event and you can’t reject him there. What will you do?”

I blink, caught off guard. “What will I—I don’t know? I’d… I don’t know. We get a lot of publicity afterward, right? I’m sure there’ll be some sort of public interview I could do it in.”

She takes a long, long time to reply. “This is never going to end, is it?”

“Yes, it is. There’ll be an opportunity at some point. Sooner or later.”

“You hope.”

“Iknow.”

“And in the meantime I just… what?”

“Know that I’m coming back to you.”

“Eventually,” she says flatly. “At some unspecified time.”

“You’re talking about something that might not even happen!”