Chapter 7
SEVEN
Ariana
My heart pounded wildly in my chest as I turned toward him, slowly, though every part of me told me not to. And then I saw him. Saw his face. And that beautiful, all-too-familiar face hit me with full force, almost knocking the breath right out of me.
We stared at each other in silence. I couldn’t look away.
I drank in the sight of him, the man I had loved more deeply than anyone, and the one I had come to hate just as fiercely.
He stood there with his hands in his pockets, his eyes drifting over my face, then down to my feet.
The way he looked at me was as if nothing had changed.
As if the past three years hadn’t happened. As if none of it had ever mattered.
And yet, here I was, still carrying the pain he left behind.
It had never really stopped.
“What?” I said. “Am I not allowed to set foot in this town anymore?”
“That’s not what I said,” he replied, his voice surprisingly calm. I could only hope I sounded just as steady. “I asked what you’re doing here.”
“Is that still your business, Grayson?”
He shook his head slowly. “It’s not.”
“And yet, you still asked.”
He took a step closer, walking slowly toward me, his eyes never leaving mine. I forced myself not to flinch, not to step back.
“Because I want to know,” he said, now standing so close I had to tilt my head to meet his eyes.
His scent drifted between us, the one I used to love so much, the one that used to calm me. I had spent so many quiet moments with my nose pressed to the crook of his neck as I held him close, just breathing him in. Now, it made my chest tighten.
Up close, I could see the tiny silver flecks in his gray eyes, the way they softened when he looked at me. They were still soft now, and I didn’t know what to make of it.
“You don’t have the right to know,” I said as I held his gaze. “And I don’t owe you an explanation.”
I saw the flicker in his eyes, but I didn’t stop.
“I know this town hates me. You made sure of that. And you let them believe what they wanted. You let them tear me apart. Tear my family apart.” My voice caught for a moment, but I pushed through it.
“You probably thought I’d be too ashamed to ever come back. That I’d hide somewhere far away, out of sight, out of memory. That I’d be too broken to walk these streets again.”
I took a breath and stepped closer, my chin lifting just slightly.
“But here I am, Grayson. I came back. I’m not afraid of their whispers or their judgment. And I’m certainly not afraid of you.”
His face shifted, but I didn’t let it move me.
“You think I should feel small. That I should carry the weight of something I didn’t do. But I’ve carried it long enough. And now I’m here to challenge every last one of them.”
He didn’t say anything for a long, stretched moment, just stood there looking at me closely. We were locked in a silent standoff, daring the other to speak first.
“I think you should leave now, Grayson,” I finally said, nudging my chin toward the door.
His brows drew together slightly. “Why did you let me in, Ari?”
Grayson’s voice wasn’t angry. It was confused. Genuinely confused.
“I thought you were someone else,” I said. “I didn’t check.”
He took that in, then said, “That’s a dangerous thing to do. You should always check who you’re letting into your home.”
I frowned, not sure where he was going with this.
“Yes,” I said, my tone flat. “Now I understand how important that is.”
His eyes studied my face, and when he finally spoke, his voice was soft. “You still look the same… and yet, there’s something different about you.”
“A lot has changed in me, Grayson,” I said. “Especially after everything I went through.”
He didn’t say anything for a moment, then spoke softly. “I tried to look for you.”
I stared at him, stunned—then let out a short, bitter laugh.
“After you threw me out of your house in front of everyone? After your sister dumped all my things in Hannah’s parking lot?”
“I left that night,” he said. “I drove out of town. Didn’t know where I was going, just kept driving. I didn’t come back for a week. And by the time I did, you were already gone.”
I remembered what Payton told me once. He said Grayson had shown up at his workplace and asked if I was still staying with them. Payton told him I had already left, but he didn’t know where I had gone.
I remembered the anger that rushed through me when I heard that.
After everything he had done, it still wasn’t enough. He had humiliated me, broken me in front of everyone. What more did he want? Did he come looking for me just to make sure I was still in pieces?
Grayson’s eyes searched mine.
“What my sister did, I never asked her to do that. I didn’t even know until it was too late.”
He looked at me like he wanted me to believe him, like that would somehow change what had already been done.
“Why were you looking for me, Grayson? What for? Hadn’t you already done enough?” My voice trembled slightly, but I didn’t look away.
A flicker of sadness crossed his face. Grayson had always been expressive with me, and I used to be able to read him like a book. I could tell exactly what he was feeling just by looking at him.
And now, I didn’t understand him at all.
“To say I was sorry,” he said softly. “I was blinded by rage, and I wasn’t thinking clearly.”
This time, I took a small step back, stunned. Of all the things I thought he might say, that wasn’t one of them.
“It wasn’t right, what I did to you,” he went on, his voice cracking a little. “Dragging you out like that. Hurting you physically. None of it was right.”
I was still silent. Still stunned.
“You broke my heart, Ari. You shattered it. You betrayed me with my best friend. You tainted the home that was supposed to be ours. On our fucking engagement night. But even after all that, I shouldn’t have done what I did to you. I know I fucked up badly. And for that, I’m sorry.”
My hand flew to my mouth briefly as I stared at him, completely speechless. I forced the words out through the tightness in my throat.
“And you think an apology is enough to erase everything? That I’m just supposed to pretend it was all okay?” I swallowed hard, trying not to let the tears rise. “Your apology won’t fix any of it.”
Grayson didn’t speak right away. His jaw clenched, and for a moment, he looked like he was struggling to hold himself together. “I know,” he said finally, his voice rough. “I know it won’t change anything. But I still owe you an apology.”
When I didn’t respond, he added quietly, “Ari, I’m trying here. I want us to be okay. You hurt me, and I hurt you, too.”
But I didn’t hurt him. I was the one who had been violated, and yet I was the one they burned. I was supposed to be protected and believed, but instead, they cast me aside.
He should have trusted me. Stood by me. Chosen me. But he didn’t.
He accepted the worst without even asking for the truth. And then he asked the question I knew had been burning inside him for a long time.
“But I need to understand why, Ari. Why did you have to break me like that?” His tone suddenly rose with every syllable, raw and uncontained. “I gave you everything. My heart. My devotion. My whole goddamn life. And you just shattered it.”
He stepped forward again, slowly this time, but I still backed away, unable to stop myself. His anger wasn’t violent, but it was fierce, born from years of heartbreak and confusion, and it lived in the way his hands clenched at his sides and in the tremor that ran through his body.
“I trusted you. I believed in you. I pushed away every doubt, ignored the whispers, defended you with everything I had, because what we had, what I thought we had, meant everything to me.”
I could feel the sting behind my eyes, the pressure of everything I’d kept buried for so long threatening to rise, and for a brief moment, I wanted to give in. I wanted to tell him everything, to finally explain, but I didn’t. I couldn’t.
Because deep down, I still feared the possibility that he wouldn’t believe me, that he would twist my truth into something ugly and cruel, and I wasn’t sure I could survive being broken by him again.
And I still couldn’t forget that, when it mattered most, he chose not to trust me. That he truly believed I was capable of doing something like that to him.
He kept going, his voice thick, as if the words were dragging pieces of him out along with them.
“Why did you agree to marry me if you wanted someone else? Why did you move in with me, promise me a future, make me believe every single thing you said?”
He took a breath, and I saw it. Hatred in his eyes. Anguish in his expression. And it was harder to take than I wanted to admit.
“You looked me in the eye so many times and told me you loved me, and you were so good at it, Ari. You made it all feel real. You made me believe that I was safe with you.”
He looked down for a second, like he couldn’t hold the weight of it, before lifting his gaze again.
“Then you left. Just like that. You betrayed me and walked away without a word, without even trying to deny it. You didn’t explain. You just disappeared.”
Then his voice dropped, quieter now, but somehow even more raw.
“And now you’re here,” he said. “Walking into my life again, just when I’ve finally managed to piece myself back together. When I’ve finally found someone who makes me feel whole again. Someone who actually loves me.”
I felt the tears building, blurring my vision, then falling, warm against my cheeks. I couldn’t stop them. It hurt to hear him say those things.
I had promised myself that no matter what happened, I wouldn’t cry in front of him. That I would stay strong, hold my head high, and never let him see the damage he caused. But the tears came anyway, and I had no power to hold them back.
It was just too much. His words hurt too much.
I drew a breath and forced myself to steady. He had already seen me cry, already seen the cracks in the armor I worked so hard to rebuild. There was nothing I could do about that now.
But that didn’t mean I would break.
I had come too far to let this moment undo me. I had fought too hard to let everything unravel because of old feelings or a familiar ache. I had a plan, one that I had shaped and sharpened for years. I needed it to work. I needed to win.
He didn’t deserve my tears. He didn’t deserve forgiveness.
What he deserved was to feel what I felt. And he needed to pay for what he did to me.
I didn’t owe him anything. Not an explanation, not forgiveness. He made his choice, and he would have to live with it.
“Grayson.” I paused, collecting myself. “I appreciate you coming here to say that. But it doesn’t change anything, and we both know it. So let’s just leave it there.”
I stepped away from him, walked to the door, and opened it.
“Please leave.”
Grayson stood there, unmoving. From the look on his face, I knew it tore at him that I refused to explain myself. That I gave him nothing. No answers. No closure.
He wanted peace, but I refused to give it to him.
Then, after a long moment, he took a step. Then another. And as he passed me on his way out the door, he murmured, barely above a whisper,
“Seeing you again hurt me so goddamn much, Ari. I sincerely hope you stay the fuck away from me.”
When he finally left, I closed the door behind him and leaned against it, my hand still clutching the handle. Then I broke.
I slid down to the floor and let the tears come, hard and fast, crashing over me like a wave I had held back for too long. I cried until my chest ached and I couldn’t breathe, until the sobs shook my entire body.
All of it spilled out of me at once: the anger, the heartbreak, the past I had carried too long and too quietly.
The bell rang again. It was probably Kaye this time. But I didn’t move. My body felt heavy, my legs unwilling. I just sat there, staring at nothing.
It wasn’t until midnight that I finally found the strength to move. I went to the bedroom, curled up beneath the blanket, and closed my eyes, hoping sleep would come quickly.
And in my dreams, only in my dreams, I let the memories of Grayson and me come back. There, and only there, I allowed myself to feel it all.