Page 102 of Face Off

“Ryan and I were never wrong together. We were buried beneath everything I was too afraid to confront.” I looked at the door, remembering the fury and want in his eyes before he carried both of us through it. “He thinks this weekend will prove what we could’ve been.”

“And you?” Aura asked.

“I’m going to remind him what we still are.”

Neither of them told me I was wrong.

We remained on the bed until the water bottles were empty and tomorrow no longer felt like something waiting to ambush me. Bliss eventually checked the time and announced Cade would begin searching the castle if she didn’t return soon. Aura said Easton had already sent eight messages, including one asking whether Ryan had climbed through my window.

“He used the door,” I said.

Aura looked toward it. “Aggressively.”

Bliss collected her phone. “You’ll call us if the anxiety starts tonight?”

“I will.”

“You won’t lie and say you fell asleep?”

“I won’t.”

Aura stopped at the door and studied me. “And if Ryan comes back?”

“I won’t lie about that either.”

“That was not the answer I wanted.”

“It was the honest one.”

Aura’s mouth curved. “Progress is irritating.”

Bliss caught me in another hug. “I love you.”

“I love you too.”

Aura leaned around her. “I also love you, but I want the handprint confirmed in daylight.”

“Good night, Aura.”

I closed the door against their laughter and returned to the bed.

The room became quiet, but I didn’t feel alone inside it.

Ryan had come here seeking an ending he could control. He believed giving us three days without fear would settle the question that followed him to Milwaukee and allow him to leave with certainty.

Maybe he would.

Maybe Sunday would arrive, and Ryan would board a plane knowing we had been everything he once believed—then decide what I did still made trusting me impossible.

I would survive that answer.

I simply didn’t believe it was the one waiting for us.

I turned off the light without asking the darkness who I needed to become by morning.

I already knew who I was.

The woman who would finally choose Ryan where everyone could see.