Page 106 of Next to Everything We Wanted

And here I thought they’d been criminals.

Gavin had been hiding his whole identity from everyone for two years. Fromme.

I’d been dating someone I didn’t even know.

Holy—

“How good is that article?” Emma said, her brown eyes trained on us from the table. “I want to read it.”

“It’s nothing.” Adam snatched the article from me and clutched it to his chest. “It’s, um . . .” He gave me ahelp melook, but I had nothing. My brain was swirling around the truth that loomed over us.

“Is everything okay?” Gavin asked, his eyes wide with concern as he stood up. The Pacific waters in them turned into a hurricane, sucking me into the storm. “I-Is something wrong with the magazine?”

I wrestled the magazine from Adam, who held onto it for dear life, my heart thundering in my chest. “No.” I kept my voice steady, despite being anything but. “This isn’t okay.”

The blood drained from Gavin’s face as if he already knew what was about to happen. “What’s . . . what’s in there?” His chest rose and fell faster. “Is it . . .”

I held the page open, releasing Gavin Hanville, the person behind Ivan Hicks, into the world again. “You. It’s you.”

CHAPTER 25

Gavin

In a few seconds, I’d turn into a human Jell-O. Seriously, you’d be able to package me and ship me off to the nearest grocery store. My legs were seconds away from melting onto Sienna’s living room floor as a picture of the guy I thought I’d left behind flashed a plastic smile on a magazine page.

There was no excuse for this. I could rack my brain for a crafty lie, but she wouldn’t believe me. She could see past the bleached hair and the freckled cheeks.

Every fear I had was unraveling right in front of me.

“Listen.” Tears pricked my eyes, threatening to escape at any second. “I didn’t think this would happen. I?—”

“You didn’t think I’d find out you used to befamous?” She stood up, chucking the magazine onto the couch. “You were going to hide it from me forever?”

“You wouldn’t understand anything about this.” I gestured to the magazine with my trembling hands. “I had everything on display for four years of my life. It shouldn’t be wrong for me to want privacy. It had nothing to do with us.”

“Then why did you hide it?” She folded her arms over her chest. “What did you do while you were famous that would makeme change my mind about you? Did you expect me to betray you?”

I closed my eyes, trying to control my breathing. It wasn’t working. I didn’t know how to put everything into words, give the perfect explanation for what I’d expected.

“You can’t have a good relationship without trust, Gavin,” Sienna said.

I opened my eyes, my muscles tensing. “If you want to break up with me, go right ahead.”Even though it’ll tear me apart. “Though if you liked someone but had a past that could completely warp their opinion of you, would you tell them?”

She put her hands on her hips, biting hard on her lip.

“See, you wouldn’t.” Nausea pounded in my head, in rhythm with my thundering pulse. “This was going to ruin everything. And now it has.”

“What ruined things is that you lied to me!” Her voice broke, tears filling her eyes. “I was dating someone who I didn’t know. I questioned your identity, but I stopped because I trusted you. I didn’t want to doubt someone I cared about so much.”

The past tense nearly made me crumble to the floor. “You don’t get it, and I knew that you wouldn’t. I should’ve thought long-term. I should’ve planned this out. I should’ve—” My stomach quivered, bile running up my throat. I covered my mouth with my hand.

Sienna’s expression softened, her eyes widening as she reached for my shoulder. “Gavin?”

“Don’t touch me.” I brushed her hand off my shoulder and grabbed my bag. “Just burn that magazine. I’ll fix the rest.”

“Please stop fighting,” Emma whimpered, tears streaming down her cheeks as she reached down to hug the dog. “You’re scaring Bailey.”

Adam stared back and forth between us, his expression completely blank.