Page 251 of Before We Were

Inside, I spot Ollie laughing with Mia, their joy a stark reminder of how quickly happiness can shatter. I snatch the Jeep keys, mind racing ahead to every possible scenario, each one darker than the last.

Please, I think as I run, let me reach him before the damage becomes irreparable.

"Nora!"

Jake's voice freezes me mid-stride. I turn to find him approaching, his expression a battlefield of frustration and raw need.

"Where are you going?" His tone is sharp but refined.

The keys bite into my palm. "I need to go."

"Where?" Each word lands like an accusation.

"To find Nate." His name hangs between us like smoke signals.

Jake steps closer, taking my hand. His palm is warm but wrong. "You don't need to follow him every time he goes rogue. Stay," he pleads, voice honey-sweet. "Stay here. With me."

I close my eyes, because some truths are easier to deliver in darkness. "Jake, I can't. I can't let him do this alone."

His jaw works beneath perfect skin. "Number seventeen on my list… it was to tell you how I feel." He looks up through those unfairly long lashes, the perfect Sullivan son with his perfectly wrong timing. "About you."

My chest aches with the familiar pain of inevitable heartbreak. "Jake, stop."

His fingers dig into my shoulders with desperate intensity. "Nora, I love you."

The words hit like shrapnel, and I feel the moment everything changes. "Jake, I… I can't do this with you now."

"Because you have feelings for him?"

"Because I love him." The truth explodes between us like fireworks. "And I have for a long time."

"You don't have a future with him. But you could have one with me. That's why I said yes to the position with Dad."

The words land like a slap. "You what?"

"I said yes because I wanted to build something for myself, for you??—"

"No." Rage erupts in my chest, volcanic and violent. "Don't you dare use me as a reason. You knew this would happen and you went along with it anyway." Seventeen years of protected silence shatters like fine china. "You're delusional if you think Scott cares about you, Jake. He wants pawns he can manipulate, and you fell right into his hands like the perfect little soldier you've always been."

"Why do you let Nate get in your head like this?" His voice rises with frustration.

I laugh, the sound sharp enough to draw blood. "You still don't see it. All Nate has ever done is protect you. Every time you were sent away, it was to protect you. From seeing your dad abuse your mom. Abuse him. Your brother gave up everything so you could have a childhood he never got."

The color drains from Jake's face, his perfect world cracking like thin ice. "You're lying."

"I wish I was." My voice softens despite my anger, because watching someone's reality implode isn't something you can do without feeling it. "Nate sacrificed himself so you could have what was stolen from him. And now, I have to go before we lose him completely."

I push past him, chest burning with fury and regret. In my rearview, Jake stands alone in the dark, shoulders curved inward like a wounded child discovering his castle was built on quicksand, and the brother he resented was his shield all along.

The highway stretches before me like an obsidian river, empty except for distant taillights burning like dying stars. My knuckles bleach white against the steering wheel as I hit redial again, each unanswered ring another nail in my chest.

My phone chimes, sharp as breaking glass.

Nate

I'm coming back now. I'm sorry.

Relief floods my system—and then.

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