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Until everyone else’s phones start chiming the same way, a chorus of tones repeating, insistent.

Colt pulls out his phone, reads something, then he lifts his gaze cautiously, locking it on mine.

Nothing else moves, not even our breaths. Just my hand, sliding into my pocket. I draw out my phone, glancing at the latest notification.

“Good luck finding the right man to be your husband,” I say, moving my gaze to Thalia’s.

Serious. Piercing. Unflinching.

I slam the glass onto the bar—hard, final, echoing through the room.

“I’m done here.”

The only time I ever put anything above work, I shattered my company.

And the loss I face today is far greater than any contract, any victory could ever cover.

The Hardy Company is on its knees. In mourning.

FORTY-SEVEN

Thalia

Do you know what it’s like to have something without even realizing it, and still manage to lose it?

And only after it’s gone, to understand you had it all along?

No?

Me neither.

Because I have no idea what I’m saying. Even I don’t understand myself.

It’s one in the morning, and I’m alone in my room. The guys and Sierra have gone, after I reassured them for the hundredth time that it’s fine, that I can stay alone.

But it’s not fine. Not even close.

All I can think about is Ethan. I can’t shake the way he looked at me when he confronted me about the date with John. A date he discovered through the press. A date I never intended to mention, because I didn’t believe I was doing anything wrong.

He asked me not to sleep with another man, and I didn’t. But he knew I wanted to find a man I could build a future with, a man I could start a family with.

And I know he doesn’t want those things.

I keep replaying the repulsion in his eyes when he snapped that I forgot to tell him we were free to see other people.

I never thought I was wrong for staying at that dinner with John. So why does it feel like I was? Why does it feel like, in trying so desperately to protect myself from Ethan, I somehow crossed a line?

I lie curled in the armchair, phone in hand. I deleted all my mother’s messages, blocked her number, and scrubbed every follower list on every platform, determined to erase any trace.

All my accounts have always been private, but I needed to make sure I hadn’t accidentally let someone slip through who could feed the press.

They want information about the guys and Sierra, and I’m the easiest point of access.

After Ethan left, I stood frozen for minutes before collapsing to my knees in the middle of the living room, crying until numbness swallowed me.

I heard the others talking around me, but none of it made sense.

Not until I heard the weight in their voices, the seriousness, the anger, the pain beneath every word. They were trying to comfort me while their own world was shaking apart.