All Chapters of The Boy I Wasn't Supposed To Want. : Chapter 41 - Chapter 50

Marcus rubbed his hands together, staring at the coffee table between them like the answer might be written there instead of in whatever he was about to say out loud."I was following him because I was scared of what he might do," he said. "Not to himself. To Diane. Or to me. He'd said things at her apartment that night, threats, the kind of thing that's easy to write off as drunk anger until you're driving home wondering if you should have taken them more seriously.""What kind of threats?" Reagan asked, voice tight."He said he wasn't done fighting. Said if the court wouldn't give him what he wanted, he'd find another way to make sure Diane paid for what she'd put him through. I didn't know what that meant, specifically. I didn't want to find out by ignoring it." Marcus's hands twisted together. "So I followed him. Kept enough distance that he wouldn't notice, just wanted to make sure he actually went home instead of doubling back toward her apartment, or doing something worse.""An

Reagan arrived at the house just after noon, dressed plainly for once, none of the polished Delta Row armor Ivy had grown used to seeing her in. She stood on the porch for a moment before knocking, like she was gathering courage for something bigger than the doorbell.Marcus answered, and something passed between them, wary but not hostile, before he stepped back to let her in.They gathered in the living room again. Diane sat close to Marcus. Callum sat beside Ivy. Reagan took the single armchair, isolated slightly from the rest of them."I spent most of last night and this morning thinking about what I actually want," Reagan said, hands folded tightly in her lap. "Not what would feel satisfying in the moment. What I actually want, going forward.""I'm not going to report what happened that night," Reagan said. "The accident, Marcus following him, leaving the scene. I thought about it. I even drafted an email to a lawyer at two in the morning. I deleted it before I sent it. I realize

The celebration dinner turned into celebration dessert, then a slow walk back toward Ivy's apartment under a sky finally clear of the gray that had hung over the wedding weekend, both of them still riding the high of good news that belonged only to them."I have something to tell you too," Callum said, once they were settled on her couch, his voice carrying a note of hesitation that made Ivy sit up a little straighter."That sounds ominous after a celebration dinner.""It's not bad news. I don't think. It's just complicated." He rubbed the back of his neck. "My internship supervisor called this afternoon. The firm wants to talk about extending an offer for after graduation. A real position, not just the summer internship.""Callum, that's incredible.""It is. Except the position isn't here." He met her eyes. "It's in Chicago. Their main office. They mentioned it almost in passing, like it was assumed I'd already know that's where the actual jobs live, not the satellite office I've bee

Ivy's internship at Hargrove began the first week of June, three weeks after finals ended, and she spent her first morning in a blazer she'd bought specifically for the occasion, palms sweating despite the office's aggressive air conditioning.Her supervising attorney, a sharp, no-nonsense woman named Renata Cho, handed her a case file within the first hour with the casual expectation that Ivy would simply know what to do with it."Start with the discovery documents," Renata said. "Flag anything relevant to the breach of contract claim. I want your notes by end of day."Ivy spent the next eight hours buried in paperwork, forgetting to eat lunch until nearly three, and left the office that evening exhausted in a way that felt entirely different from the exhaustion of the past year, clean and earned instead of frightened and reactive.Callum was waiting outside her apartment when she got home, having let himself in with the spare key she'd given him weeks ago, dinner already cooking on

October brought Ivy her first weekend trip to Chicago, three months into the distance, both of them counting down the days with an eagerness neither bothered hiding anymore.Callum met her at the train station. Ivy saw him across the platform and forgot every sensible thought she'd had about playing it cool, breaking into a run for the last twenty feet."Hi," she said, breathless, as he pulled her into a hug that lifted her briefly off her feet."Hi yourself." He set her down but didn't let go, forehead resting against hers. "I forgot how much better this is than a phone screen.""Same." Ivy laughed. "Show me your city."They spent the weekend doing nothing particularly remarkable, walking through neighborhoods Callum had only recently learned himself, eating at a diner he'd discovered near his apartment, sitting on his small balcony with cheap wine watching the skyline change color as the sun set."This is really yours now," Ivy said, looking around his apartment properly for the fir