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Chapter 19 - Broken Trust

Noah's fists curled so tight his knuckles turned white. The rain slicked his hair across his forehead, but he didn't even notice. His mind was burning.

"You should've told me years ago," he said, each word sharp as glass. "Instead, you let me grieve in the dark, let me hate myself for not being there that night."

Nicki's lips trembled. "If I told you then, would you have believed me? You worshipped your father, Noah. You'd have called me a liar. Or worse—you'd have gone after Lucas and gotten yourself killed."

Her reasoning only stoked his fury. "So instead you let me build a life on lies?" His voice cracked, a mixture of rage and betrayal. "All this time, every time you looked at me, you were hiding the one truth that mattered most."

Nicki stepped closer, her eyes desperate. "I wasn't hiding it to hurt you. I was hiding it because I loved you."

The word love twisted in Noah's chest like a knife. He wanted to believe her, but the ground between them was crumbling fast.

"Love doesn't feel like this," he spat.

A silence fell, broken only by the steady rainfall. Her eyes welled, but she didn't cry—not yet.

"Noah," she whispered, "Lucas will come after you. Whether you trust me or not, whether you hate me or not… I can't let him take you too."

The streetlights flickered as the storm rumbled above. Noah stared at her, torn between the burning urge to walk away and the dangerous pull of everything they still shared.

Finally, he muttered, almost to himself: "Then maybe I'll go after him first."

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