Chapter 24
Birdie
“It’s just you and me now, Reagan. I’m yours and you’re mine. Forever.”
The words crawl under my skin, replaying like a broken record. They’ve been said before—whispered, promised, sworn—and every time, they meant something different. Perhaps they never did.
When Shane said it, I was the one whispering, “Forever.” I can’t remember a time when I was happier. Happiness is the prettiest lie we tell ourselves before the truth wakes up.
When Blake said it, we were two people clawing their way out of a mess too deep to name. We were partners in ruin, bound by priceless stakes. I chose to believe it. I thought he was saving me. We all know how that ended.
Then there was Mason…
Yes, he said it, too. He wasn’t lying. He didn’t do it to get something out of it. He meant every word. He meant the pain and hate that he put behind every letter.
His forever was different. It wasn’t love or choice. It was a sentence. We were trapped together, tied by lies neither of us told but both had to live with.
Now, hearing it again from this monster, my pulse no longer races at the possessive obsession dressed as love, the kind I’ve learned to crave in the darkest of my fantasies.
Because those words… Goddamn you words… They’re nothing but a two-player game of survival, where one must kill the other to win.