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She grabbed my hands, crushing them in between her tight grip. “I loved it.”
“I was so stupid to walk away from you. I thought I’d never?—”
The studio door crashed open.
Peter stood in the doorway, his face twisted into an expression that made him almost unrecognizable. His eyes darted between us, landing on our intertwined hands. “So it’s true?” he spat, each word dripping with accusation and disdain.
Tris’s fingers tensed in mine. I squeezed back, a silent promise to stand by her side.
“Peter—” Tris started, already taking on that placating tone she always used with him. The one that made my blood boil.
“Three days,” he cut her off. “Three fucking days you’ve been avoiding me.”
Tris flinched.
I positioned myself in front of her. “Don’t be a dick. She doesn’t owe you an explanation.” It was only Monday. Peter the asshole didn’t have a monopoly on her free time.
Peter laughed, the sound hollow. “Of course you’d say that. Getting what you want finally, aren’t you Killian?”
Tris stiffened behind me.
“Don’t,” I warned.
“Peter, stop it,” Tris said, moving to stand beside me.
“Why, Tris?” Peter asked. For a moment, I glimpsed the scared kid beneath the superstar façade. The same kid who’d always been able to charm people to get what he wanted, including Tris’s unwavering devotion. “After everything we’ve been through. Don’t forget how he’s the one who leftus.”
“I love how you’re throwing that inmyface.” My words escaped before I could stop them, the years of resentment bubbling over. “You mean after you took that contract with Umbria, knowing they were screwing me over? After you let them pit us against each other and didn’t say a word?”
“It wasn’t like that,” Peter snapped.
“It wasexactlylike that,” I countered. “You knew what they offered me. You knew it was insulting.”
“So what? Is this revenge?” Peter gestured between Tris and me. “Taking away the one person who’s always been there for me?”
“She’s not yours to take,” I said, my voice dangerously low. “She never was.”
Tris placed a hand on my arm. “Both of you, stop.”
Peter’s eyes fixed on that simple touch, and something dark passed over his face. “He’s using you, Tris. To get to me. Why else do you think he’s here? He’s trying to drive a wedge between us. He’s always been jealous?—”
“That’s enough!” Tris’s sharp voice rang through the studio. “Peter, you’ve got it all wrong. God, I’ve loved you since we werekids. You know that. Everyone seems to know that. I followed you to every meeting, every gig, every party. I became your assistant so I could be near you. And you never oncesawme.”
Every word she spoke was a physical blow to my heart. Hearing the depth of what she’d felt for him—what part of her might still feel—opened the old, familiar wound.
“So, thisisa punishment?” Peter asked.
“No,” Tris shook her head. “This is me finally finding someone who sees me. Who’salwaysseen me.”
Peter turned to me, his eyes filled with hatred I recognized from years ago—the day I walked away from them. Even if Tris didn’t realize what I was doing that day, he had.
“You’ll ruin her,” he said. “Just like you ruin everything. You couldn’t handle that I was better, that they wanted me more than they wanted you. And when you couldn’t compete, or get your way, you ran.”
The accusation hit a little too close to the fears that still haunted me. Had I run because I couldn’t bear to lose?
Or because I knew deep down he was better?
“I left because I couldn’t watch her love you anymore,” I admitted, the truth tearing from somewhere deep inside. “Because every time she took your side, it broke something in me. So yeah, I ran. I’m not proud of it. I regretted my decision every day.”