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His eyes hardened, staring me down. “Yeah? Well what about you? Huh?”

“What about me?”

“If you thought we were still a thing,” he pointed a finger at the door, his voice slowly rising, “then why did you agree to marry him?”

“I didn’t have a choice—”

“That’s bullshit, Mara. That’s total BS and you know it.”

“You think I want to marry Wes?For real?”

His eyes narrowed, brows pinched. “Sure looked like you guys were getting close as you prepped for that mission.”

Oh. My. God.“Seriously?” I threw my hands up in the air, taking several steps away from him. “You could have volunteered for that one too, Matias. Last time I checked, you left me out to dry.”

He huffed, crossing his arms. “Yeah, to save the asshole that sent Chelsea to the Institute.”

“He’snotan asshole. He did what he thought he had to to save me.” This conversation was deteriorating fast.

“Whatever…”

“Ugh!” I ran my fingers through my hair, the bun loosening, resisting the urge to pull it all out. “You don’t get to judge, Matias. You don’t get to judge him, and you sure as hell don’t get to judge me. You’re picking Chelsea because you care about her, right? And you’re sacrificing what we had for her?Fine,” I spat out. “I get that, I really do. But you don’t get to turn around and cast stones at me for doing the same thing.”

My anger, laced with hurt and frustration, bubbled and boiled within me. I wasn’t happy about the choice I made, but I didn’t regret doing what needed to be done to secure help in rescuing my brother. But Matias showing up, telling me he was dumping me, and then turning around and throwing shade wasnotgoing to fly.

If there was one thing I was quickly learning from this rebellion, it was that you couldn’t trustanyone. Everything was a freaking ruse, a trick, a scheme meant to peg you in a corner and trap you, only to benefit their own cause. Oh no…I didn’t think so.

Silence fell between us, and all we did was stare, holding each other’s gazes, with shallow breaths and wildly beating hearts. And it hurt, because as mad as I was at him, it pained me to know that he felt betrayed byme. But it also pissed me off to no end. Because I wasn’t the one that backed out of the relationship first. I wasn’t the one that disappeared, never to be heard from again. I wasn’t the one that watched the other go off on a mission—quite possibly to theirdeath!—and didn’t so much as say goodbye or wish them luck.

No…that wasn’t me.Hedid that. He did that all on his own. And I wasn’t going to take ownership of crap that didn’t belong to me. I had enough emotional baggage to carry around for a lifetime, and enough demons to haunt my soul for years to come. This was on him.

The energy in the room felt like it was crackling, like any slight bit of friction would cause the entire space to combust. And then, as tense and as hot as it was, it all just collapsed with a simple phrase spoken from the boy that captured my heart on day one.

“That’s it, isn’t it.” It wasn’t a question.

I blinked, feeling the tightness in my chest grow. “Yeah, I guess that’s it.”

He chewed on the inside of his cheek as he shook his head, eyes flickering with so many emotions, I couldn’t possibly catch them all. But I caught one…

Resolve.

Matias took a step backward, his arms still crossed. “Well, then I guess this is goodbye.”

Was this really it? Was this really how it was going to end?

Before I could muster a single sound, Matias was gone, leaving me alone with all my demons.

20: Burden

Istood there for what felt like an eternity.

It was over.

Whatever Matias and I had, it was officially done, and my heart withered inside. Some part of me knew it would never work out, not when everything happened with Chelsea, but I had hoped. I had hoped that she would get better, and that things would be different. But that’s the problem with hope…it was empty. Nothing but an illusion of something that never existed in the first place. Just your mind playing tricks on you, making you think that there was something better on the other side.

I closed my eyes as tears rolled softly down my cheeks. My heart slowed, finally coming down from the rush of my encounter with Matias as the sorrow piled into it, weighing it down like bricks of grief. I inhaled slowly through my nose and held my breath. There wasn’t much I could do now. Matias made his choice, and mine was made for me. It was done.

With a sigh, I breathed out the weight I felt in my chest, opening my eyes. I glanced around the room, my eyes landing on the clock. It was almost time for dinner, and I still had to get ready. The last thing I needed was a pissed off Marissa on top of all the other crap. I would need to grieve my loss later. Right now, I had bigger problems—I had to focus on playing the part of the doting fiancé, and that role didn’t line up with being heartbroken over a recent break-up.