Page 19 of Glass Jawed

Lucian

The park is suddenly bathed in headlights.

They slice through the darkness, but I barely react. The low hum of the engine tries to drown out the ringing in my ears. I don’t even turn to confirm it’s Liam.

Then the engine cuts. A car door slams.

Darkness returns.

I blink slowly, still sitting in the dirt like a fool. My body is stiff, cold, useless . I should move. I should pull myself away from this place. From the echo of her panic. But I can’t.

I hear his voice before I see him.

“No, I’m trying to find him,” Liam says, frustration crackling through each word. “C’mon... You can’t be serious. Just tell me. Please .”

He’s closer now. I catch him in my periphery, phone clutched tight to his ear. His shoulders are tense, jaw locked.

“Because!” he snaps. His eyes meet mine—and I flinch. “Vee, just—please. Tell me if she’s okay? She’s not picking up.”

He crouches down in front of me, and I brace for pity. Or disappointment.

But what I get is fury .

It simmers beneath his expression, sharp and unflinching.

His grip tightens on my shoulder as he speaks into the phone. “I’m near her place, Vee. I can—”

“Don’t fucking call me that!” a woman yells on the other end. Loud enough that I hear it even through the speaker.

Kashvi .

Liam winces, pulling the phone back as it blares in his ear.

Shit. Part of me hopes she wasn’t joking about knowing a hitman.

“Babe—” he tries again, voice softer.

But it’s too late. The call drops. His screen lights up with the home screen, mocking him with its stillness.

He exhales hard. The sound is part exasperation, part heartbreak.

Then his eyes settle on me again.

“Get up,” he says, voice low and seething.

When I don’t move, he steps back and says it again—harder this time. “Get. Up, Lucian.”

“I can’t,” I croak, the word barely escaping my throat.

Liam exhales sharply, then crouches behind me. He hooks his arms under my shoulders and hauls me up with more strength than I expected.

All while muttering, “First Aarohi, now you. What is it with people falling apart on me?”

That makes me frown.

But I don’t get to question it—he’s dragging me toward his car like I’m a goddamn drunk, muttering under his breath the entire time.

“I don’t even know what you did,” he grits out. “But I’ve got a pissed off woman ready to have me castrated for even knowing you.”

Despite everything, I huff a broken laugh.

Yeah. That sounds like Kashvi.

Jesus . I don’t know if I’ll ever crawl out from under this cloud. My limbs feel heavy. The weight of what I’ve done is lodged in my chest like lead.

The drive is silent. Tense. Liam only breaks it to text at red lights—probably updating Kashvi before she burns my building down.

By the time we pull up to my place, I feel like I’ve aged a decade.

We settle onto the couch in a thick, suffocating silence. I don’t know where to start, so I just... let it all out.

Everything .

From the moment I walked into the lecture hall where I saw Rohi again, to the moment I kicked Tim out of my apartment this afternoon.

My half-baked plan for revenge. My refusal to talk about that night. My obsession with keeping things controlled—and how that spiraled into me losing everything. Losing her .

Liam doesn’t interrupt. Doesn’t offer me false comfort or ask the obvious question: What the hell were you thinking?

He just listens.

He grunts in places. Sighs during others. His fingers tighten into fists when I tell him about Tim’s visit—what he said... or implied .

When I finally stop talking, the silence feels deafening. And I’m terrified of what he’s going to say.

“Say something,” I rasp, voice frayed. I can’t look at him—shame has me pinned to the couch.

“I...” he clears his throat, but it comes out tight. “I’m having a hard time sitting through this, Lucian. And you haven’t even told me what the hell went down tonight.”

I squeeze my eyes shut, head falling forward like it’s too heavy to hold. “I-I found some random woman at Rosalie’s and—”

“Stop!” he cuts me off like the words physically burn. “Jesus. Please. Stop .”

“Liam...”

“You recreated that night,” he says, eyes narrowing, voice shaking. “Didn’t you? You stupid, fucking asshole.” His jaw clenches hard when I nod. “Tim lied , Lucian.”

I mumble brokenly, hating myself more than he ever could. “I know.”

But he’s not listening anymore. He’s pacing the room, fury radiating off him in waves. He pulls out his phone, tapping quickly, then shoves it in my face.

“He fucking lied,” he repeats, face red with rage. “Aarohi never knew. She never knew he wasn’t single!”

“I know,” I snap, louder, swatting the phone away without even looking. “I fucking know !”

“You idiot,” he hisses, practically shaking. “How could you believe him? Tim—who’s lied to you, who cheated on you, who—”

“I KNOW!” I roar, and it’s not just a sound—it’s a rupture. A violent, guttural crack that tears straight from the pit of my chest. “Fuck. I didn’t believe him, okay? I didn’t! I was conflicted for maybe a few minutes, but then...”

“Then what ?” Liam throws his hands up, exasperated, shaking his head like he can’t even look at me. “What happened after those few fucking minutes, Lucian?”

I pause, my throat burning. “Then... I don’t know. I just... shut down.”

Because it’s true. I felt something coil and snap inside me. Something primal. Something mean . I couldn’t think, couldn’t breathe. I didn’t want to feel anything anymore. So I found the nearest emotional grenade and yanked the pin.

He exhales sharply, stepping back like he’s distancing himself from whatever the hell I’ve become. “You need serious help, man. Because I don’t know what kind of pain makes anyone do... this.”

And I know. The answer is none . There’s nothing that should’ve made me do this.

“Liam...” I look at him, my face crumpled. “There’s no pain that can justify this. Even if she knew and slept with a taken man—she didn’t deserve what I did. It wasn’t her responsibility to not make him stray. So... you’re right. I need help.”

He pinches the bridge of his nose. “Glad to know you know that now.”

We lapse into silence. It’s not comfortable, not even close. It’s the kind of silence that leaves a taste in your mouth. Like metal. Like blood.

And then I remember. His comment at the park.

“You said something earlier. In the park,” I mutter, voice hoarse. “Something about people falling apart on you. What did you mean?”

Liam furrows his brow. “What?”

“You said, ’first Aarohi, now you.’ What happened with her?”

He hesitates, like he doesn’t want to pile anything else on top of my already shattered conscience. “You really want to hear this?”

I nod. It’s the only punishment I can still take standing. Barely.

“You sure?” He sits again, his face drawn. “I’m not gonna lie. There’s probably no worse version of you than right now.”

I let out a weak, humorless breath. “That bad, huh? Fuck. I think I need a drink.”

As I move to get up, his hand shoots out, iron-tight on my shoulder. “I think the fuck not .”

And he’s right. Alcohol won’t help. Booze is why I ended up in that bar. Why I couldn’t think straight. Why Rohi saw what she saw.

But no—that’s not true.

I did all that.

I made the decision.

Alcohol didn’t wreck my life. I did.

Liam leans back, rubbing his jaw before finally speaking. “I saw them. Rohi and Tim. At that little café we use for low-stakes client meetings.”

My pulse stutters.

“I was about to walk in, but when I saw who she was with—fuck, Lucian. She told me she was the same girl who—I was pissed. I turned to leave. Thought I’d confront you.”

He pauses. And then his voice softens with something I can’t name. “And that’s when I saw it.”

My heart’s thudding so loud it’s nauseating.

“She panicked. Started stumbling through her words. Her hands were shaking , Lucian.”

My chest caves. “Fuck.”

“She was rambling. Saying you were going to make her the villain again. That she was a homewrecking sl—” He cuts himself off with a clenched jaw, but I already know what he was going to say.

And the image hits me full force. Rohi, on the bench, with her oversized tote and anxious smile. Sitting there, falling apart in real time. Haunted by a version of me I can’t imagine I ever was.

Tears rise unbidden and I press my palms to my skull, clawing at my scalp like it’ll force the guilt out of me. “Fucking hell.”

Liam exhales slowly. “Yeah.”

And there’s nothing else left to say.

A few hours later, Liam’s still crashed on my couch—one leg dangling off the side, his arm thrown over his face.

I’m in the armchair, unmoving. Staring at the ceiling. Hollow.

I can’t go back into that bedroom. Not anymore.

Not with the echo of her desolate voice still staining the walls. Not with the scent of another woman clinging to my sheets like shame.

Sleep won’t come either. My head’s pounding but I won’t take anything for it.

Pain feels deserved right now.

Then—a shrill ring slices through the silence. Liam jolts upright, disoriented, scrambling for his phone.

The second he sees the name on screen, his shoulders drop, relief flooding his face.

“Yeah?” He answers, already pushing himself off the couch. “Yeah, okay—no, I’ll go.” A pause. “Oh, not long. I’m at... his place. I’ll be there in ten... fifteen tops.”

I frown, gesturing toward him with a stiff hand. Who is it?

Liam catches my look but doesn’t say anything. Just pins me with a glare sharp enough to gut.

Then turns back toward the call.

“Yeah, of course,” he says softly. “I’ll do that. I promise. I’ll call you when I’m there, Vee.”

Vee.

Kashvi .

It hits me like a brick to the chest.

She’s sending him... to Rohi.

My throat closes.

Is she okay?

Of course she’s not! Why else would Kashvi be sending Liam to her at fucking five in the morning?

Shit.

Rohi deserves to be with someone who knows how to be there for her. Someone who doesn’t ruin everything he touches.

Someone who’s not me .

I sit there, motionless, as Liam grabs his keys and heads for the door.

He doesn’t say a word to me. Doesn’t even look at me.

And honestly?

I deserve it.