Page 329 of Power Play

Briggs shifted one shoulder against the frame. “They love Charm. So do I. That doesn’t mean anybody in that room thought what she did was defensible.”

“She had reasons.”

“She did.”

“I know what they are.”

“I know you do.”

“They don’t matter.”

“They matter,” Briggs corrected. “They don’t change your decision.”

My grip tightened around the mug. “That’s different.”

“Yeah, it is.”

He said nothing else. He didn’t remind me that her fear was real or use the history I had taught him to understand as a weapon against my boundary. He allowed both truths to exist because he understood one didn’t erase the other.

Charm was trained to freeze, and I was still the man she left standing alone.

“What did she say about her parents?”

“Not much before I left. Bliss and Aura started explaining the Harlens to Cade and Easton. They talked about how her father controls her without raising his voice, how her mother makes her feel guilty for upsetting him, and how every decision turns into a threat against her future even when Lance never calls it one.”

“I know all that.”

“I know.”

“I spent six months trying to teach her how to see it.”

“I know you did.”

“I told her she was trained.”

“Yeah.”

“I didn’t agree to let her destroy me while she unlearned it.”

“No.”

The answer came immediately, and something cold settled deeper inside me.

“Is she coming today?”

Briggs lowered his mug.

“That’s a yes.”

“She told the group she was.”

“I left the group.”

“I noticed.”

“I’m not asking how you know where the fucking button is.”

“It was surprisingly intuitive.”