جميع فصول : الفصل -الفصل 114

The tranquil elegance of Samantha's home had been a temporary haven, but her words had been a catalyst. I drove away, my mind no longer held any resentment.In its stead was a storm of guilt and regret. Alex. Nico. My two best friends. I had turned my back on them when they needed me most, all because of a truth I had completely misunderstood. Even if I had misunderstood it, I was right to be angry. Tristan had broken my sister's heart but he had done his best to make up for it with her and had given her a shot at happiness.Samantha had let go of the anger and pain that I was still stubbornly holding on to all these years. It was the reason that Alex must have been so scared to tell me the truth about what was happening.I thought back to the way that I had come at him that day. The awful names that I had called him. It made me flinch the more I dwelled on it. I was angry and I had said some very cruel things.I wish I could take them back.I wish that I could take care of Alex now.

[Four years later....]The descent into the familiar sprawl of Los Angeles felt surreal. For four years, our lives had been framed by the endless blue of the Pacific from a different hemisphere, the sun rising on a new day while America slept. Now, the sprawling grid of city lights below us was a promise, a beacon of a life we had worked so hard to reclaim. I felt Tristan’s hand tighten around mine, his thumb tracing a slow, steady pattern on my knuckles."Home," he whispered, his voice a low rumble that vibrated through me.I just nodded, my throat tight. The last time we had left, it had been an escape. A frantic, humiliating flight from a life that had been ripped to shreds. The scandal that had consumed Heldon University—and our lives—had forced us to rebuild from the ground up. Tristan had lost his job, his reputation, his life's work. I had lost my scholarship, my future, and the trust of my friends that I had thankfully managed to regain before we left.Australia had been our