CHAPTER THREE- He knows.

Knox:

I said it six years ago that I’d be back like a thief in the night. And now I am.

Exactly like a thief, with the kind of grin you earn from years of knowing you were right.

Fifteen minutes.

That’s how long I spent making sure he understood. That I wasn’t just back. I was inside his carefully rebuilt life, already peeling it apart.

I didn’t need to raise my voice. I just watched until fear started to set in behind his eyes. The kind of fear I live for.

We reached the building. The elevator dinged like a countdown. The doors slid open with a hiss, and he stepped in first. Of course he did. Some things just don’t change. Not even him.

His dark hair was still messily styled to look unintentional and casual. Always trying so hard to look like he wasn’t trying at all. And the scent, the exact same one from back then, it hit me in the gut. Six years, and it still clung to him like it belonged to him.

Cherry.

All that time he spent running, hiding, pretending… and he still smelled like six years ago. He’s either cursed or too stupid to pick a new cologne, definitely the second option.

I breathe it in like a fool allergic to it, but unable to stop. It triggers everything I’ve spent years burying. Every promise I couldn’t keep and every night I whispered that name and hated myself for it.

He doesn’t know how hard it is to look at him. Not yet but, he will. But that face is still soft around the jaw, still the same goddamn tilt of the nose — it’s the exact face I swore I’d die to protect. Now it’s the face I’d kill just to understand.

The urge to slam him into the wall and press my knife to his throat was there the second we stepped out of the elevator. I wanted to drag the truth out of him, all of it! No lies. Just blood, breath, and fuckin’ answers.

But I don’t move without a plan. There’s no satisfaction in chaos. Not when patience burns hotter.

Besides, I didn’t come here to kill him.

Not yet.

“Shoes,” I said, already walking past him. “You’re bleeding hospital into the floor.”

“I’m not—”

I stopped, turned and gave him one look and that’s all it took.

He shut up. Mouth clamped shut like he just remembered who the hell I was.

I took two steps towards him and he stepped back a little like the fucking coward he’s always been.

“What was it again?” I asked, watching his throat tighten. “Carson? Ezren Carson?”

The smirk curled across my face without effort.

I stopped in front of him. Took my time to sling my jacket over one shoulder with one arm, the other buried deep in my pocket like I had all the time in the world, like I wasn’t standing in front of someone I’d fantasized about ruining for years.

“Don’t you think you were a little too desperate?” I murmured. “You really thought that weak little restart wiped the slate clean?”

His jaw twitched again and I watched it closely.

“New name. New school. New friends. Same pathetic coward underneath!”

I stepped in closer. Close enough to smell the hospital on him. Antiseptic, painkillers and that faint stench of fear under his skin.

“If you came here to start something, then dream on! It's never working!”

His voice was flat and forced. He couldn’t even fake it right.

I stared at the necklace around his neck. The same one my Cherry used to wear, wearing it like he’d earned the right.

“I didn’t come to start something, little cherry,” I said, my voice low. “I came to finish it.”

His teeth ground together. “You don’t even know me!”

“Oh, Ezren.” I said his name slowly. Watching his pupils contract like I’d struck something deep.

“I’ve known you for years. I’ve watched you live his life like it’s yours. Every move, every damn detail. The smell. The hair and that fake laugh you still can’t get right.”

He scoffed, hard. “You’re insane!”

And when he tried to shove past me, I moved faster. Cornered him with ease. I wasn’t letting him breathe through this.

“You want me to snap? Is that it?” he barked. “Say something real, Knox. Say what the hell you actually want!”

What I want?

I'd give anything to know what it feels like for him to say my name without fear like that.

But I prefer this version of him too, broken, trembling, and fuckin’ trapped.

He looks exactly like I want him to. Like someone whose world is about to collapse.

This is just the beginning though and the plan’s quite simple; shatter his control, burn down his golden-boy act, and make sure every single thing he’s built crumbles under the weight of what he’s pretending not to remember.

I’ve been watching him for years. Studying every move and every flaws. The asshole is organized in a way that makes it almost creepy — too neat, too precise, like he’s trying to erase chaos by pretending he’s not part of it.

Naive too.

Naive enough to believe structure can fix guilt. Naive enough to cry when his girlfriend cheats on him, beg her like it’s some twisted game, then goes back to her after she promises him heaven.

Fuck him sideways.

He even takes shortcuts to avoid crowds, keeps his head low, throws around “please” and “sorry” like they’re magic words that undo things. Including the past. Especially the past!

And yes, I know all that because I’ve spent years hunting him down.

Years.

I know his routine better than he does. I’m still watching, still tracking, and still fucking waiting.

So without hesitation, I said that one name I knew would hit the nerve he’s been trying to bury.

“Lior... does that name ring a bell?”

I saw it happen, his eyes shifted and that fake calm cracked for a second. Then he forced himself back to neutral like he finally caught on to everything I’d been saying. He looked nervous too, like he already knew I wouldn’t give him answers if he asked anything, but the idiot still asked.

“What? You—you think I stole his life? You think I wanted this? You think any of this was by choice?”

Isn’t that a lot of thinking for someone who’s always acted without it?

“No... but you kept wearing his necklace.”

His voice came faster, desperate now. “I wore it because I couldn’t forget him!”

“Liar.” My hand was already moving.

Without another word, I grabbed his throat. My grip locked tight, not enough to choke him but enough to remind him that I could.

“You wore it because you wanted to be him.”

“I wore it because I loved him!”

His voice cracked hard on the last part, and his hands clutched at my wrist and I felt it all, the tremble, not from fear though but, from saying too much.

Silence filled the room. Even the damn fridge went quiet like it was listening.

I let go and stood there. Looking him dead in his dark glassy green eyes. Shaken but not hiding anymore. He looked like someone who meant it. Someone who’d just confessed more than he ever planned to.

And yet, none of it changed anything.

“Then you should’ve stayed dead with him,” I said coldly. “So I wouldn’t have to spend the rest of my life hurting... knowing I could’ve done this one tiny thing to make his death mean something.”

His eyes stayed locked on me for a moment. I caught the tear he was trying hard to blink away, but it slipped anyway. Rolled right down his cheek like gravity didn’t give a shit about pride.

He swallowed and I watched his Adam’s apple worked up and then down. “You really think you’re the only one who suffered uhn?” he said, his voice tight. “I buried him, Knox. I lived every damn day wondering what I could’ve done differently. And you...”

He jabbed a finger right into my chest like the asshole had every right. “You wanna act like you’re some kind of judge handing out punishment? You weren’t even there when he needed you most!”

That one hit. I didn’t show it, but it did.

“I was there,” I said, my voice low and flat. “I just didn’t make it in time. And guess what? You don’t get to rewrite that night to make yourself feel better.”

“I don’t need to rewrite it, Knox! Because I live in it. Every. Fucking. Day.”

“Good! I need you to fuckin’ stay there!”

He stood there, breathing like this whole thing was a workout for his soul. We both stayed locked in that silence, until it pressed in thick with everything we weren’t saying.

Then he whispered, “You think hurting me will bring him back?”

“No.” I turned for the kitchen without looking back. “But I believe it’ll make you bleed like I did.”

He must’ve used every of his last brain cell trying to figure out what to say next. Probably thought he had something clever locked and loaded. But all he managed was a scream.

“You’re so sick!”

I opened the fridge. Grabbed the cherry drink, the one I used to convince Eli was his favorite too and he somehow bought it.

“Careful,” I said, cracking it open. “I’m a great cook when I’m in the kitchen. But I’ve been known to accidentally stab things that twitch.”

I turned before he could spit out whatever comeback was choking in his throat.

He didn’t speak at first. Maybe trying to figure out if I was joking. And then, he finally pushed out a question. One that sounded like it got stuck in his chest before it made it to his mouth.

“Are... are you... I mean, were you his friend? The one he used to talk about?”

I took a long sip of my drink and let it sit on my tongue before swallowing.

“Cherry.. I’m calling you that from now on.”

“I don’t fuckin’ care!” he snapped, eyes narrowing. “Answer the damn question!”

“Whether you fuckin’ care or not,” I muttered, walking past him like the room wasn’t on fire.

“You know what? I wasn't wrong to see you as a psychopath. You’ve been acting like you’ve got it all together, saying everything but actually answering the damn questions.”

“And yet, you’re still not denying any of it,” I turned to him and shot back. “So do me a favor, stay calm, and watch how all this plays out.”

He opened his mouth. Maybe he was going to throw out something noble, or some broken-ass defense or anything equally stupid, like he always did but my phone buzzed.

I picked it up. “Knox,” I answered, already walking away from the kitchen, drink in hand.

“Something’s happened,” said a voice I hadn’t heard in months. My other dad. “It’s Eli.”

I froze mid-step. My hand tightened on the glass bottle.

“What about him?”

A beat of silence. Then chaos in the background, shouting, something crashing, panic riding the line like static. I didn’t even blink.

“Say that again,” I said.

“He’s not safe, Knox. It’s happening again. They’re—”

I didn’t need more. I cut him off.

“Nothing will happen to Eli, Gareth Pa. I’ll be right there.”

I saw Ezren shift closer from the corner of my eye, but I didn’t bother looking at him.

I kept the phone to my ear. “And tell everyone to stay the fuck inside. Do not let that damn idiot leave the block. I’m coming.” I ended the call.

Ezren stared at me. Confused, pale and shaking slightly.

“What happened?” he asked.

I looked at him, calm as hell. “Remember that night you ruined everything? We’re about to relive it… together.”

I stepped toward him, grabbed him by the arm and dragged him with me because I wasn’t giving him a choice this time around..