Chapter 1

The night Julian went public with the new cheer captain, everyone expected me to crash the party and completely lose my mind.

But the confession ended, and I never showed up.

What Julian didn't know was that at that exact moment, I was wearing his cousin's oversized shirt, sitting on the edge of his mattress, asking with perfect innocence:

"I just got your sheets wet. Where are we supposed to sleep tonight?"

......

Whistles and cheers erupted across the party.

But every single person in that crowd kept glancing toward the entrance.

The entire social circle at St. Clair had gotten the memo: Julian was going public with Madison tonight, and he'd specifically told people to keep it from me.

But that kind of thing never stays secret. The gossips couldn't wait to pass it along.

Everyone knew how much I loved Julian.

And the former cheer captain getting her man stolen by the current one—nobody at St. Clair was going to miss that show.

They were all waiting for me to storm in and lose it.

Julian had his arm around Madison, but the smile on his face wasn't quite right.

He pulled out his phone and checked.

No missed calls. No messages.

His thumb hovered on the screen for a second, then he locked it and slid it back into his pocket.

That's when I stepped out from the shadows by the side door.

Someone spotted me first, voice sharp enough to cut glass: "Chloe's here!"

"Told you she couldn't help herself."

The second Julian saw me, his lips twitched into that instinctive little smirk.

I knew that look too well—he was certain I'd come, certain I couldn't stay away, certain that no matter what he did, I'd come crawling back.

"Chloe."

Julian pulled Madison closer, his tone lazy. "You can't force feelings. Stop embarrassing yourself."

"We've known each other long enough. I don't want to make this uglier than it has to be. If you ever need help with anything on campus, you can still come to me. I'll treat you like a friend."

"Julian."

I cut him off.

He frowned. "Chloe, don't."

I smiled, reached up, unclasped the necklace he'd given me, and held it out to him.

"I came to return this."

The smirk froze on Julian's face.

He stared at the necklace, then his eyes darted to the crowd hanging on every word. Something snapped behind his expression—loss of control, instant rage.

"What kind of game are you playing now? If you don't want it—"

He scoffed. "Then throw it away."

"Sure."

I laughed softly, turned, and tossed the necklace into the trash can beside us.

Everyone froze.

"All those gifts I gave you," I said without looking back, already walking away, "toss those too."

Julian stood rooted to the spot, watching me disappear. His knuckles went white.

His boys jumped in immediately: "Come on, Chloe's just saving face."

"Give it tonight. She'll regret it."

"Bet you the second we leave, she'll be crying and digging through that trash can."

Julian's response was ice cold.

"If it weren't for our families, I wouldn't waste a second on her."

"Julian, forget that psycho…" Madison reached for his arm.

Julian shook her off and yanked at his collar. "Let her do whatever she wants. Once it hits her, she'll come begging like she always does."

Because in his mind, by tomorrow I'd be right back where I always was—blocking his car, clinging to him on the way to class.

That's how it had always been.

The rain started after I left Alpha House.

The rooftop had no shelter. Wind tore through, plastering my dress against my legs.

I thought about the dreams I'd been having.

In those dreams, I completely fell apart after Julian dumped me in public.

That same night, I stood in this exact spot, sobbing into my phone, begging Julian to break things off with Madison, threatening to jump.

And then I actually fell.

But Julian only muttered "she's out of her damn mind," and left with his new girlfriend.

I didn't die—just ended up broken beyond repair, crippled for the rest of my life.

My adoptive parents said I'd disgraced the family. They tossed me out like garbage, shipped me back to my birth parents—back to that hellhole of gambling debts and beatings—and left me to waste away until I drew my last breath on some hopeless winter night.

At the very end of that wretched dream, someone showed up.

He dealt with the aftermath. All of it. He sat alone in a room with my ashes for a very long time.

It wasn't Julian.

It was the person I'd always avoided—the one I couldn't even make eye contact with.

Julian never appeared. Not once.

The dreams had been coming true. One by one.

Without them, right now I'd be hysterically dialing Julian's number, begging him to leave Madison, and then stepping off this ledge.

These dreams saved me.

Like someone up there handed me a second chance.

A chance to take that predetermined ending and cross it out, line by line.

I gripped my phone. Rainwater ran down my fingers.

Third try. The call finally connected.

I pressed the phone to my ear. The rain was so loud it drowned out everything.

Alexander's name sat on the tip of my tongue. I turned it over several times before I finally said it.

A beat of silence on the other end, then his voice came through—low, edged with the roughness of someone just pulled from sleep.

"…Chloe?"

"Alexander, it's pouring."

"I'm on the rooftop. Can you come get me?"