Kingston
“A nd then he took that barely beating organ and…Right when I decided to have faith in myself. Faith that made it possible for me to let him in…”
Quinn’s voice filtered through the door to Max’s room, the pain she’d experienced bleeding into her words.
“Right after choosing me instead of all this bullshit.”
I closed my eyes, rubbing at the brand on my chest.
It should’ve healed by now, but I couldn’t leave it be. Not while I still needed to speak with her. Not while she was in pain.
I refused to let it heal until I made things right.
For both of them.
As if my thoughts had summoned him, Landon appeared in the hallway, stepping out of his room instead of hers. My eyebrow rose. He’d barely left her side since the drugging.
“You didn’t stay with her last night?”
Landon narrowed his eyes, keeping his voice down. “Why does it matter? And how can you even ask in the middle of that?”
He pointed at her door, glaring at me.
I kept my voice low, my tone gentle. “Landon, please... I need you to trust me.”
Stepping toward him, I held my hand out. Like he was an animal—wild and dangerous—who needed to be steadied.
I dropped it immediately, but it was too late.
He tore past me, racing down the stairs to leave the house.
I followed him out back, trying again. “Landon, please.”
“I am trusting you!” he roared, whirling around to face me. His voice hoarse and broken. “Don’t you get that? I’ve been trusting you this whole time. Following you my whole life. No questions asked.”
I shook my head, my face twisting under the strain as I fought to stay calm. “I didn’t ask for this.”
“But you allowed it!”
“No,” I said sharply. “I didn’t want any of it to be like this. I didn’t ask for this, Landon!”
He didn’t understand.
He couldn’t understand unless I told him everything.
But I wouldn’t.
Landon dragged his hands through his hair, yanking at the strands as if doing so might hold him together. “I know that’s not all on you. It’s what I wanted, too. But fuck, !”
My eyes burned. My throat ached under the force of trying to keep this secret.
“You’re my best friend, . Can’t you see this is killing me? Every minute I don’t tell her the truth, it’s breaking something inside me. It’s killing me to do this to her. To make her believe—She thinks?—”
He stormed out farther across the lawn and away from the house. From the prying ears that were always watching. Even though they were gone for the moment.
I chased after him, raising my voice.
Finally asking for the truth.
“So, you’re still not ready to admit it, then?” When we were far enough away, I shouted, “How is that possible, Landon? Honestly! How can you possibly believe that I don’t see it? That I don’t know the truth.”
He whirled around to face me. “Of course you know!”
I stumbled back a step.
“You know everything, ! You see everything. Even more than I do.” He pressed forward. “You probably knew I fell in love with her as soon as I did, right? Unless you knew even sooner.”
I dropped my head, my mind racing. He’d been refusing to tell me because he assumed I knew, but why?—
“How long have you been testing me, huh?”
My head shot up. But I didn’t know what to say because…
I had been testing him. Scared of losing him. Needing the answer but not wanting it at the same time. Wishing he’d tell me so I’d know he was mine—still loyal to me —first.
My anger deflated as I shook my head, and I focused on what he said initially. What he said about when I started waiting for him to tell me he belonged to her now. Because it wasn’t what he thought.
“It wasn’t like that, Landon. I only st?—”
“Did you know when I met her? The first night I came into your office, did you see it then? Have you just been waiting for me to fail you?”
“Stop that. You know that’s not true.”
It was never about failing me, but I had no idea how to tell him that without sharing everything he didn’t want to know.
So, I said nothing.
For the first time, not speaking because I couldn’t. Instead of how it usually went. When I wouldn’t.
He’d hate me for that, too. And I had no idea what to do.
We stood there in silence, and finally, he stared up at the house. He stared at where she was, and my heart clenched.
I reached for him.
But he wasn’t mine anymore.
He was hers.