Page 53 of North

I felt like I couldn’t breathe.

Everything I thought I knew—everything I built my anger, my hatred, my revenge on—

It wasn’t real.

I had spent weeks punishing Quinn, tormenting her, humiliating her for something she had no control over. For something her father had already taken the fall for.

And all this time, my own father had been guilty too.

Quinn finally spoke, her voice small but steady.

“You… you were drunk?”

Aiden turned to her, his expression softening. “Yes. And I’m sorry. For all of it. For what happened to Lila. For what they’ve done to you because of it. None of it was fair.”

She looked at him for a long moment. Then she nodded.

Just like that.

Like she was ready to accept his apology, even though he had played a part in the thing that ruined her life.

But me?

She still hadn’t looked at me.

She still wouldn’t.

And I knew—right then, right there—

That I had done something much worse.

And I didn’t know how the fuck I was going to fix it.

The room felt like a pressure chamber, the air thick with tension, the weight of unspoken words pressing against my chest.

Connor slouched on the couch, wiping the blood from his nose with the sleeve of his hoodie, scowling like he was the victim. Victor sat stiffly beside him, his arms crossed, his face unreadable. And me? I stood frozen by the window, staring at the floor, at the cracks forming in everything I thought I knew.

And Aiden stood in the middle of it all, breathing hard, his fists still clenched, his face twisted with barely contained rage. His injured leg trembled under the weight of it, his jaw tight like he was holding back everything he wanted to say.

Connor let out a strangled noise, shaking his head. “No.” His voice wavered, his confidence from earlier splintering. “That’s not true. You weren’t driving. They told us—”

“They told you what they needed you to believe,” Aiden cut him off, his voice sharp as a blade. His eyes flickered with something I didn’t recognize—something raw, something broken. “Because the truth would have ruined everything. And you? You let them turn it into this crusade, this fucked-up revenge story.”

I felt like I was standing outside of my own body, watching the walls of everything I’d built start to crumble.

No.

This wasn’t how it was supposed to go.

Aiden had been the victim. His leg had been shattered in that crash. He had lost everything. That was the story we’d been fed. That was the truth we’d all sworn by. That was the reason we justified what we did to Quinn.

But now—

“I don’t believe you,” I muttered, the words automatic, mechanical. “My father didn’t have anything to do with that fucking accident.”

Aiden scoffed, shaking his head. “You really think that?” His voice was tired now, as if he’d been carrying this secret for too long like he was finally too exhausted to keep it buried. “Then phone him.”

Evie looked like she’d been struck, her voice barely a whisper. “Aiden, what are you saying?”

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