Page 103 of Grizz

“No,” I bite out.“I walk away because this is how people get hurt.”

“I’m already hurt,” she fires back.“I’m standing here anyway.”

“That’s exactly the problem,” I say.“You shouldn’t be.”

She stares at me like she’s trying to see through a wall.“You don’t get to protect me from myself.”

“I’m not protecting you,” I say.“I’m stopping something before it gets worse.”

Her voice shakes.“You don’t believe that.”

I turn away.“I don’t have to believe it.Iknowit.”

“Grizz,” she says, stepping into my space now.“Look at me.”

I don’t.

“You’re scared,” she says.“That doesn’t make this doomed.”

“It does when fear turns into damage,” I snap back.“When it turns into rage.When it turns into saying things you can’t take back.”

She goes still.“You’re talking about yourself like you’re already lost.”

I swallow.“I am.”

Silence crashes down between us.

She searches my face, her voice softer now.“What are you saying?”

I finally look at her.

“I’m saying this ends here.Before it costs you more than you could imagine.”

Her eyes widen.“You don’t mean that.”

I do.

And that’s when it hits me—harder than any hit I’ve taken all season.I look away—at the wall, the floor, anywhere but her—because if I look at her when I say this, I won’t survive it.

“The truth,” I say.“The thing I’ve been running from my entire life.”I battle to put my greatest fear into words finally.“I’m going to become my father.”

The confession drops.

Her smile vanishes.Color drains from her face.“Grizz… no.”

“It’s inevitable,” I say, the conviction in my voice horrifying even to me.“It’s not a question of if.It’s when.”

She shakes her head, already fighting it.“You don’t believe that.”

“I do,” I insist.“Because I see it now.The rage and unhinged volatility.The way I lash out when I feel cornered.The way I hurt people when I don’t know how to sit with my own pain.”

She takes another step toward me.“That doesn’t make you him.”

“It means I’mbecominghim,” I say, bitter.“I’ve spent my whole life telling myself I was different.And maybe I am—in the details.But the core?”I tap my chest.“It’s the same.”

She looks stunned.“What are you saying?”

“I’m saying no matter what I do, I leave damage behind me,” I say.“And the closer someone gets, the worse it is.”