24 #4
“That isn’t me being angry,” I continued. “It isn’t punishment, and it isn’t an invitation for everyone to start negotiating once I’ve calmed down. I’m done.”
Aura’s eyes filled, but she nodded anyway. “All right.”
Bliss returned from the lower level with Briggs behind her. She heard enough to understand where the conversation had landed.
“Can we ask you one thing?” she said.
“No.”
Her eyebrows lifted.
“I know what you want to ask. You want me to remember how deeply her parents conditioned her. You want me to understand she froze because she was scared, and you want me to give her a chance to explain once everyone stops crying.”
Bliss pressed her lips together.
“She told us more last night,” Aura said carefully.
“I don’t want it.”
The words came out colder than I intended, and both women flinched. I forced my hands to remain open at my sides.
“I spent six months learning what they did to her. I held her through panic attacks. I watched her tear herself apart over every phone call. I went into that house knowing exactly who Lance was because Charm taught me. None of it changes who she became when he turned it against me.”
“She loves you,” Bliss whispered.
“I know.”
Her eyes searched my face as though the answer confused her.
“Love doesn’t change it,” I said. “That’s what all of you need to understand before she arrives. I know she loves me, and I’m still done.”
Silence settled through the lodge.
Cade moved closer until he stood slightly in front of Bliss. He wasn’t blocking her from me as much as reminding both of us where the emotional lines had been drawn.
“She won’t corner you,” he said.
“Thank you.”
Easton nodded. “If the girls want to talk to her, they can do it in the second cabin.”
Aura looked at him. “She’s our friend.”
“And Ryan’s our brother.”
“I know that.”
“Then we’re clear.”
There was no cruelty inside the exchange. Easton loved Aura enough to understand why she wanted to protect Charm. He also knew I had spent my entire life surviving people who expected me to accept pain because the person causing it had reasons.
Rider took a beer from the case. “I’m still available for sled enforcement.”
Vivi looked at him. “What does that mean?”
“Nothing legal.”
“That doesn’t answer the question.”
“It usually doesn’t,” Skylar told her.
The conversation broke apart around us. Cade began unpacking groceries.
Bliss and Aura carried bags upstairs while Easton and Rider argued over who got the room nearest the game area.
Vivi asked me to show her the second cabin, and I walked her through the snow to confirm that the upstairs room with the blue blankets still suited her.
Normal life filled the spaces Charm had been meant to occupy.
By the time we returned to the main lodge, music played softly from the kitchen.
Bliss had arranged food across the island while Cade tried to stop Briggs from opening everything before dinner.
Aura stood near the fireplace unfolding one of the blankets she brought, and Easton had challenged Rider to pool before either of them unpacked.
The lodge looked almost exactly like what I imagined, and that was the cruelest part.
Everyone I loved was there. The fire burned while snow fell beyond the windows. Laughter traveled from the lower level, and the kitchen smelled like coffee, bread, and whatever Bliss had started cooking. I built the weekend for my family, and it should have felt complete without Charm.
It didn’t.
Her absence remained visible in every room. There was a space beside Bliss on the couch, an empty stool near the island, and the closed door of the master suite upstairs.
I didn’t mistake the emptiness for hope. A missing limb still hurt after the body accepted it was gone.
Briggs came to stand beside me near the windows. “She replied.”
I kept watching the snow settle across the deck. “What did she say?”
“She’s twenty minutes away.”
My chest locked. “Do not let her near me.”
“I’ve got you.”
“Briggs.”
He turned toward me.
“If Bliss or Aura asks you to move, don’t.”
“I won’t.”
“If she cries, don’t.”
“I won’t.”
“If she says she only needs one minute, the answer is still no.”
“I know.”
I finally looked at him. The bruising along his jaw had darkened, and he carried the evidence of everything I couldn’t survive alone the night before. There wasn’t a trace of uncertainty in his face.
“I’ve got you, Ry.”
I nodded.
Across the room, Cade looked up from the kitchen. Easton followed his gaze, and Rider set down his pool cue.
They knew.
The change passed silently through the lodge as the guys positioned themselves without making a spectacle of it. Cade remained between the front entrance and the kitchen. Easton moved closer to Aura. Rider came upstairs and leaned against the railing. Briggs stayed beside me.
Bliss noticed first. “She isn’t coming here to attack him.”
“No one said she was,” Cade answered.
“Then stop acting like Ryan needs a security detail.”
“I do.”
Every face turned toward me, but I didn’t soften the admission.
“I don’t trust myself not to react if she touches me.”
Aura’s expression changed. “React how?”
“Not physically.” Anger cut through the question before I could stop it. “I would never put my hands on her.”
“I know that.”
“Then don’t look at me like that.”
“I wasn’t.”
“You were.”
Easton stepped between us before the conversation could sharpen. “He means he doesn’t want to break in front of her.”
The accuracy silenced me.
Briggs’s shoulder pressed briefly against mine. Bliss looked down, and Aura’s face crumpled before she turned away.
I stared through the windows and forced my breathing to remain even. “She doesn’t get to see what this did to me. She doesn’t get to use my pain as proof there’s still something she can reach.”
No one argued.
The room slowly began moving again, but the lightness didn’t return completely. It waited beneath the tension, postponed until everyone knew where Charm would settle inside this new version of us.
I checked the clock. Nineteen minutes remained.
I carried my gear bag to the entryway even though practice remained hours away. I could leave before she arrived, but that would make Charm responsible for driving me from another place I paid for.
I was done surrendering ground.
Rider and Easton returned to the pool table. Briggs joined them and immediately began changing rules nobody agreed to. Cade unpacked groceries while Bliss leaned against the counter beside him, quieter than she had been before. Aura carried more bags to the second cabin with Vivi and Skylar.
I stood in the center of everything and felt separate from all of it.
Ten minutes passed, followed by fifteen. At twenty-two, headlights swept through the front windows.