Page 114 of Blackwood

We both rise instantly. I catch her hand. “Bella, wait.”

She stops but she’s not looking at me. Just him. Cade. And he fucking freezes. Doesn’t say a word. And that’s all it takes.

Her chin trembles. “The way you’re looking at me right now, Cade, like the girl you’ve been kissing, sleeping with, and laughing with these past few weeks just ripped her mask off and underneath is something dark and twisted. Like I’m a stranger or worse, some kind of monster.”

Cade’s jaw tightens. His fists clench like he wants to scream, but he doesn’t.

“This is what I was afraid of,” she whispers, like it’s the last secret she has left. “This is why I never told you. Not in Nashville, not ever. I just knew the second I fell in love with you, Cade, I was just biding my time.”

Cade flinches. Like the words physically hit him.

“Because every time I let myself love someone… really love them, I lose them.” Her voice is barely a whisper now. “Zeke. Dylan. My parents. Every damn time I choose love. It gets ripped away from me.”

Cade’s voice cracks the silence. “Bella, I don’t think you’re a monster.”

But he won’t look at her.

Her arms fold tight, but her voice stays calm. Too calm. “Yes. Yes you do, Cade.”

He still wont meet her eyes.

“You know how I know?” she says, stepping back. “Because you haven’t looked me in the eyes once since I told you I left Carlos in that chair.”

Cade drags a hand through his hair, pacing like he’s trying to outrun the truth. “I’m sorry, Bella. But what the hell did you expect? That I’d just nod and say, ‘cool, you killed a guy,’ and go back to kissing your shoulder while you hum yourself to sleep?”

She barely flinches, but I see it.

He keeps pacing. “Jesus, how am I supposed to process that you’ve… that you murdered someone?”

I take a step forward. I’m one more dumbass sentence away from throwing him into a wall, but Bella lifts her hand without looking and stops me cold.

Her voice cuts the air. “I didn’t kill him, Cade.”

Silence.

“I maimed him. For what he did. For what he would’ve done. And then I walked away. Left him alive and bleeding.”

It’s sharp. Brutal. Honest.

And Cade still can’t shut the fuck up. “What happened to Carlos after you left, Bella?” he asks.

She blinks. “What do you mean?”

“You know what I mean.” He’s not yelling but the heat is there. “You said you left him but I know you. Maybe better than you think. What really happened after you and Sabine walked out?”

“Cade,” I snap, low and dangerous. “Enough.”

Bella stops me again. She looks at him, flat and tired.

“You want the truth?” she says. “Fine.”

Her voice is fire and ash. “We walked to the door. He asked what would happen to his kid. I told him the truth, that his wife and daughter would live a long, happy life without him. Then Sabine’s men walked in behind us and they burned the fucking house to the ground.”

Cade’s expression hardens. He looks wounded. Deep. Like this version of her doesn’t fit the memory he’s been holding onto.

“And in case you somehow forgot, Zeke was murdered. Dylan took his own life all because of that man.”

She steps toward Cade, gaze locked. No more fear. Just fury and grief and that terrifying strength that only comes from surviving hell.