Chapter 26

Lila Moreno had a thousand things she wanted to say.

They stacked up in her chest the moment she saw Rowan stiffen, the moment Evan leaned in too close, the moment Rowan’s smile turned thin and practiced, like armor she’d worn too many times before.

Lila recognized it instantly.

That smile wasn’t confidence.
It was survival.

What Lila wanted to do was simple. Violent in its simplicity.

She wanted to step between them fully, shoulder to shoulder, and say, You don’t get to stand this close to her anymore.
She wanted to tell him, You already lost the privilege of knowing her.
She wanted to ask, Do you have any idea what you did to her?

She wanted to say Rowan’s name like it was sacred. Like it belonged to someone who loved her properly now.

But she didn’t.

Because Rowan was right there.

And Rowan wasn’t braced for a fight, she was braced for fallout.

So, Lila swallowed it.

She measured her breath. Relaxed her shoulders. Softened her face. She hated how practiced it felt, how easy it was to switch into the version of herself that kept things calm at the cost of honesty.

Instead of Get away from her, she wanted to say, “You’re making her uncomfortable.”

Instead of You hurt her, she almost said, “Too close.”

Instead of She deserves better than you ever were, she said nothing at all.

And that restraint? God, it burned.

Because standing there, Lila wasn’t just jealous. She wasn’t even angry in the way she’d expected to be. She was furious in a quieter, deeper way, the kind that settled into your bones when you realized someone you cared about had been taught to make herself smaller for someone else’s comfort.

Lila watched Rowan out of the corner of her eye the whole time.

The way her fingers flexed.
The way her weight shifted back half an inch, like she was preparing to retreat.
The way she didn’t interrupt, didn’t correct, didn’t say don’t touch me even though everything in her body said she wanted to.

That hurt worse than Evan’s presence ever could.

What Lila wanted to say to Rowan this time rose sharp and desperate in her chest.

You don’t owe him kindness.
You don’t owe anyone silence.
You don’t have to disappear to be loved.

But what she actually said, when Evan finally walked away, was quieter.

“Hey,” she said. “You, okay?”

Rowan nodded. Too fast. “Yeah. I’m fine.”

Lila wanted to say, No, you’re not. I can see it.
She wanted to say, You don’t have to lie to me.
She wanted to say, I see you even when you’re pretending.

Instead, she just squeezed Rowan’s hand.

Because pushing right now would’ve made Rowan pull away. And Lila had learned painfully that sometimes loving someone meant knowing when not to press too hard.

Still, her thoughts wouldn’t quiet.

She kept replaying the conversation she would have had if fear wasn’t a factor.

She would have looked Evan dead in the eye and said, You don’t get to linger in her life like a ghost.
She would have told him, She is not something you get to revisit when it’s convenient.
She would have said, You taught her how to doubt herself—and I’m still undoing that damage.

She would have told him that Rowan laughed louder now. That she took up more space. That she looked people in the eye again.

That she was wanted.

Instead, Lila stayed calm. Controlled. Civil.

And later, when the noise of the party faded into something distant and Rowan finally spoke about it, quietly, carefully, Lila listened.

She listened to what Rowan said out loud.

And she listened even harder to what she didn’t.

Rowan talked about not wanting to make things awkward. About not wanting drama. About how it “wasn’t that bad.”

And Lila thought, It was bad enough if you’re still carrying it.

She wanted to reach into Rowan’s chest and pull the truth out gently, like splinters you didn’t realize were still there.

She wanted to say, Why did you ever think you had to settle?
She wanted to say, Why didn’t anyone tell you you were enough from the start?

But instead, she said, “I’m here.”

And she meant it in every possible way.

Because maybe she couldn’t say everything yet. Maybe Rowan wasn’t ready to hear all of it. But Lila knew one thing with terrifying certainty:

She wasn’t going to be quiet forever.

And when Rowan was ready, when she finally stopped asking herself whether she was worth choosing Lila would say every word she’d been holding back.

Out loud.

Without fear.