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“The Beast had a bone to pick with me. He was going to execute me, eventually.”

Scar lifts a bloody finger. “But he would have let you live longer if you hadn’t defied orders for her.” His mouth twists. “Too bad I can’t ask if it was worth it since you get to have your ass saved by your precious family and then sail into the fucking sunset with her while I take the fall.”

The bitterness in his voice cuts deep. “Derek, listen, you have your own—”

“Derek?” Scar spits the name like poison.

“Derek!”He thunders, making Saint flinch. “Fuck you, Pretty! Derek Sullivan is dead. You killed him. We killed him together.” His voice breaks. “All that remains of him is Cade Quinn.”

I snap, finally letting my frustration show, “Well, current events require Cade Quinn to move the fuck on!”

“Oh yeah, to your saccharine-sweet small town.” His voice drops to something lethal, something familiar. I taught him that tone. “The only place I can’t follow you.”

“Unfortunately.”

Scar nods. “I see. Can I ask you something, Pretty? Why not Chicago? Vitelli made you a brilliant offer. I could be useful to you there. Luna lives in Chicago; you could even be with her there if that’s what you want.”

Scar takes a step forward. “But no, you deliberately chose the backends of nowhere just to get rid of me.”

The truth sits raw, and I can’t bring myself to deny it. I chose Harmony precisely because Scar can’t follow. Because I want Luna to myself, without my shadow hovering at the edges of our life.

“Derek, listen—”

“CADE!” His roar bounces off the walls.

I move toward him, maneuvering around Saint’s frantic resistance. “Derek. You can have another life. Take everything—money, bonds, properties. Take Kat, take all I have, and go. Leave Cade Quinn behind.”

He scoffs, and it almost sounds like a broken sob. “I can’t. It won’t be enough.”

“Yes, it is. Kat loves you—not Cade Quinn—the real you. Derek Sullivan.”

He stares at me, and Christ, the anguish in his eyes guts me. His hands shake as he pinches the bridge of his nose—a gesture so familiar it hurts. “You gave me everything, Cade—a name, a purpose, a life.” His voice cracks. “And now you want to take it back?”

“I’m not taking anything. I’m setting you free.”

“Free?” His laugh splinters like the glass he crushed. “You still don’t get it, do you?”

I move closer. “Then help me understand. You can have a new identity, your own woman, your own—”

“My own what? My own life?” His eyes shine with tears I’ve never seen before. “Everything I am exists in your shadow. Being you was never the goal, Cade.”

Something in his voice makes my blood run cold, but I reach for him anyway, pulling him into a hug like I’ve done a hundred times before. “Derek—”

“I love you, Pretty!” The words come out raw and broken. “You stupid, blind bastard. I’ve always loved you.”

Theconfession feels like a knife to the gut. My entire body goes rigid as understanding suddenly crashes on me, merciless and unforgiving.

All these years, I thought . . . Christ.

“You really didn’t know?” His laugh comes out sharp and bitter, each word dissecting the years I thought I understood him. “Being you was never enough.Havingyou . . . that’s what kept me going. And now you’re choosing her.”

My stomach lurches, threatening to empty itself. Three years of loyalty. Three years of camaraderie. Every glance, every subtle brush of his hand . . . and I never saw it. Not this. Nothim.

And yet, a memory breaks through my denial like an icy finger. The day I had Luna on her knees before me. Scar was there, watching me—not her.Me.The intensity in his gaze . . . it makes sense now. All of it does. I just refused to see it.

But a flash of lust doesn’t always mean truth, does it?Does it?

A chilling realization grips me: Scar no longer sees Luna as a distraction to me. He sees her as a rival.An obstacle standing in the way of what he wants.