Page 155 of Sudden Death

The lamp in the living room glowed softly.

Mila had fallen asleep on the couch with a blanket pulled around her shoulders, one of my hoodies wrapped loosely around her.

Her sketchbook rested open beside her. I set it carefully on the table before crouching beside the couch.

I just watched her. The girl who had walked back into Blackwood carrying more truth than anyone in that town wanted to face. The girl who refused to let me become the man my family expected.

She stirred slightly when I brushed a strand of hair away from her face.

“Luke?”

“I’m here.”

Her eyes opened halfway. “How was it?”

I thought about Drew. About what he’d taken on so I didn’t have to—and what that meant for both of us.

Then I answered simply. “It’s over.”

She sighed sleepily and curled closer against me. I lifted her carefully and carried her upstairs.

The room smelled faintly of autumn air drifting through the open window.

When I got into bed beside her, Mila shifted instinctively beneath my arm, settling against my side the way she always did.

Outside, the quiet campus stretched into the distance. Blackwood felt very far away now.

Down the hall, someone laughed quietly in their sleep. A floorboard creaked beneath the weight of another late-night wanderer from the team.

Blackwood had taken almost everything from us. But it had also given me the one person I would never walk away from.

The house was full. Loud. Chaotic. Ours.