Chapter 3

Elijah’s POV

The door slammed behind me, and the sound cracked through my chest like a gunshot. I barely made it to the elevator. My legs were shaking so badly I had to press my palm against the wall to keep from collapsing. The polished mirrors showed me exactly what I was—a wreck. Red eyes. Disheveled hair. The face of a man who had just ripped his own heart out and thrown it on the floor.

I’d done it. I’d looked her in the eyes and called her a nuisance. I’d pretended I didn’t care where she went. I’d let her believe I traded her for ice time. Ice time. Like she was nothing. Like fifteen years of friendship, of late-night talks, of her drawing little frogs on my notebooks and me stealing her hoodies—like all of it was disposable.

The elevator doors slid shut, and I couldn’t hold it back anymore. A sob tore out of me, raw and ugly, and I pressed my fist against my mouth to muffle it. I squeezed my eyes shut, but all I could see was her face when she read those texts on Raiden’s phone. The way her expression shattered. The way she whispered, 'He traded me.'

I had done that. I had broken the only person who ever truly saw me.

But she was safe. That’s what mattered. She was with Raiden—a guy who, as much as I hated to admit it, had been watching over her for years. He was an asshole, but he wasn’t a killer. I didn’t trust him with her heart, but I trusted him with her life. For now.

What if Raiden digs too deep, though? What if he uncovers who she really is—the secret heiress to a fortune, with a target painted on her back? What if he keeps her close, here in the city, and Vienna finds her?

Panic clawed up my throat. I’d pushed Kaleena away to make her run, to force her to disappear somewhere safe. But instead, she’d run straight into Raiden’s arms. He wouldn’t let her go easily. I’d seen the way he looked at her tonight—like she was the only source of oxygen in the room. That kind of obsession was dangerous. That kind of love could get her killed.

My phone buzzed. Hayley.

Hayley: They’re on their way back to the apartment. She knows you were in on Raiden’s plan. She’s furious.

I stared at the screen until the words blurred. She was coming back. Kaleena was coming back to the apartment, and she knew I’d made a deal with her bully. She was furious, and she had every right to be.

Good. That was good. Anger was better than hurt. Anger would make her leave. Anger would make her hate me so much she’d finally get on a bus or a plane and vanish into some safe corner of the world where Vienna Donovan couldn’t find her.

But anger wasn’t enough. Not yet. If Kaleena was coming back, I had to be ready. I had to be crueler. I had to make sure she never looked back.

I wiped my face with my sleeve, straightened my shoulders, and stepped out of the elevator. By the time I got into my car, the mask was back in place. The mask of the cold, heartless bastard who didn’t give a damn about the girl he’d kicked to the curb.

The drive to the apartment was a blur. Rain hammered the windshield. My knuckles were white on the steering wheel. I repeated the lines in my head like a prayer: 'She’s clutter. She’s a nuisance. She doesn’t matter.' If I said it enough times, maybe I’d start to believe it.

I didn’t.

...

I parked half a block away and walked the rest. The rain had turned the front yard into a soggy mess, and the porch light flickered weakly. Hayley was already there, standing on the porch with a box in her hands. She’d changed into dry clothes—of course she had. Her platinum blonde hair was perfect, her cold green eyes gleaming with satisfaction.

“Took you long enough,” she said as I climbed the steps. “They’ll be here any minute.”

“Good.” My voice was flat. Hollow.

Hayley tilted her head, studying me. “You look like shit, Elijah. You sure you can pull this off?”

“I’m fine.”

She smirked, tapping the box with her nails. “I grabbed the last of her things. Sentimental junk, mostly. Old jewelry. A music box. Perfect for a little show.”

My stomach turned. I knew what was in that box. The little ballerina jewelry case that had belonged to Kaleena’s mother. The silver locket with her parents’ photos inside. The charm bracelet I’d given her when we were twelve, with a tiny frog charm because I knew she loved them. I’d told her back then that I’d always be there to catch her, like a frog catching flies—stupid kid logic—but she’d smiled so wide and clipped it on and never took it off.

And now Hayley was going to dump it all in the mud.

“Don’t look so tragic,” Hayley said, reading my expression. “You’re the one who agreed to this plan. You wanted her to hate you. So let’s make sure she does.”

I said nothing. I just turned and faced the street, waiting.

The headlights cut through the rain first. Then the low rumble of Raiden’s engine. The car pulled up, and the passenger door opened, and there she was—Kaleena, wearing a giant black hoodie that was definitely not hers, her chestnut hair still damp, her honey-brown eyes red from crying. She looked small. Fragile. Mine.

But she wasn’t mine anymore. I’d made sure of that.

Raiden stepped out beside her. His grey eyes found me immediately, and something dark flickered across his face. He was already protective of her. Already staking a claim. It made my blood boil even though I had no right.

Hayley didn’t wait. She hoisted the box and tipped it over the porch railing.

“No!” Kaleena’s scream cut through the rain.

The contents tumbled out—necklaces, earrings, the little ballerina box—and splashed into the mud below. The locket landed face-down. The charm bracelet skidded into a puddle. My heart stopped.

Kaleena dropped to her knees in the dirt, scrambling to gather the pieces. Her fingers sank into the cold mud, and she was crying—not the silent tears from earlier, but deep, gut-wrenching sobs that tore through the rain. She clutched a broken chain to her chest and looked up at me.

“These are my mother’s things!” Her voice cracked. “Elijah, please. Make her stop. Please.”

I wanted to die. Right there, in that mud, I wanted the ground to open up and swallow me whole. Every instinct screamed at me to run to her, to wrap my arms around her, to tell her the truth—I’m doing this to save your life, I love you, I’ve always loved you—but I couldn’t. Hayley’s father was watching. Vienna was watching. If I slipped, even for a second, Kaleena was dead.

So I walked down the steps. Slowly. Deliberately. I stopped a few feet from her, close enough to see the devastation in her eyes, and I forced my face into a mask of stone.

“Don’t cause a scene,” I said. My voice was so cold it didn’t sound like me. “It’s just clutter, Kaleena. You left it behind, so it’s not our problem.”

She stared at me like I’d slapped her. Like I’d reached into her chest and ripped out whatever was left of her heart. The hatred in her eyes was absolute.

And then Raiden moved.

He didn’t shout. He didn’t threaten. He just walked up to me, grabbed me by the shoulder, and shoved me down into the mud. My knees hit the ground with a sickening squelch. Cold water soaked through my jeans instantly.

“Pick it up,” Raiden said. His voice was low, lethal. “Every single piece. With your hands.”

I should have fought back. I was the rival hockey captain. I had a reputation to uphold. But I didn’t fight. I couldn’t. Because Raiden was right. Because Kaleena was still crying, still clutching her mother’s broken things, and this was the least I could do. This was the only way I could touch those pieces of her life without breaking cover.

So I did it. I reached into the mud, my fingers scraping through the muck, and I picked up the locket. The chain was tangled. The clasp was broken. I pressed it into my palm and kept going, finding earrings, the little frog charm, the ballerina box caked in dirt. My hands were shaking so badly I could barely hold them.

I looked up once—just once—and met Kaleena’s eyes. The hatred there was a physical blow. She looked at me like I was a monster. Like I was the villain in every nightmare she’d ever had. And she had no idea that I was doing this for her. She would never know.

Raiden pulled her to her feet and guided her back toward the car. She didn’t look at me again. She just climbed into the passenger seat, wrapped her arms around herself, and disappeared behind the rain-streaked window.

The car pulled away. The taillights faded. And I stayed there, on my knees in the mud, with her mother’s ruined jewelry in my hands.

“Get up,” Hayley said from the porch. Her voice was sharp, irritated. “You look pathetic.”

I didn’t move. My legs wouldn’t work. My chest felt like it was caving in. The rain kept falling, mixing with the tears I couldn’t stop. I whispered an apology into the empty night, knowing Kaleena would never hear it.

“I’m sorry,” I breathed. “I’m so sorry.”

...

Eventually, I made it inside. I don’t remember walking. I just remember standing in the dark apartment, dripping water onto the floor, surrounded by the ghost of everything I’d destroyed.

The salted caramel cupcake stain was still there. Right where she’d dropped it. The frosting had dried into a dark, ugly smear, but if I squinted, I could still see the faint outline of the pink candle.

I collapsed to my knees in front of it. My hand pressed flat against the stain, as if I could reach through time and undo what I’d done. I saw her face in that hallway, nervous and hopeful. I saw the cupcake in her hands. I saw the moment she realized she wasn’t walking into a birthday surprise—she was walking into a betrayal.

She was gone. Kaleena was gone from my life, and she hated me with every fiber of her being. She would never know I sacrificed everything—our friendship, my happiness, my reputation—to keep her alive.

A new fear slithered into my chest. Raiden wasn’t going to let her go. He’d keep her close, and keeping her close meant keeping her in the city, and keeping her in the city meant Vienna would find her. I couldn’t let that happen. I couldn’t walk away. I had to stay close, watch from the shadows, protect her—even if it meant watching her fall in love with my enemy.

I pressed my forehead to the floor, right beside the stain, and let the tears come. Silent, this time. There was no one left to hear them.

“I’ll protect you,” I whispered into the dark. “I’ll keep you safe, Kaleena. Even if you hate me forever. Even if it kills me. I’ll never stop.”

The rain hammered against the windows. The apartment stayed silent. And I stayed there, on the floor, with my hand on the dried stain, promising my life to a girl who would never know.