REINA

Calestino tensed up hard beside me, his shoulders going rigid like he was fighting every instinct to smash Andrew into the pavement, but he did not move an inch. He just stood there like a coiled spring, ready to explode if needed.

Andrew took a long, shaky breath, his hands still up like he was surrendering. His face looked pale and haunted. "That night. Prom night. I did not just disappear because I got bored or because I wanted to hurt you."

Lies. All this bastard does is lie.

"Yeah, tell me what I don’t know." I grumble, rolling my eyes. This conversation hadn’t even started and I was already bored out of my mind.

"No, it’s..." He paused, then sighed, swallowing hard before continuing. "It was not like that at all. Tessa made me date you in the first place. She is my cousin, you know that, Reina. My own cousin."

I felt my stomach drop. The words hung in the air between us.

"She came to me and begged me as a huge favor," Andrew went on, his voice dropping lower. Perhaps he intended for Calestino not to hear. Which was basically impossible.

"She said she loved you way too much to let you end up with anyone else. She wanted to keep you all to herself, close and under control. Dating you was supposed to be fake, just for show. Sex was never supposed to be part of it."

My hands started to tremble at my sides. I could not believe what I was hearing.

"But I caught real feelings for you," he said, stepping just a tiny bit closer, eyes pleading. "Deep, real feelings. That night we slept together, it meant everything to me. When Tessa found out, she completely lost her mind. She went crazy and threatened to expose a secret of mine. Something really bad from my past that could ruin my entire life if it came out. I had no choice. She forced me to leave you without a single word, without any explanation."

He let out a shaky breath, his voice cracking now. "I had to break your heart in the cruelest way possible. But I never stopped loving you, Reina. Not for one single day. I still love you with everything I have. I am so sorry for destroying you like that. I want to fix this between us. I want to make it right if you will let me."

Every single word hit me like a hard slap across the face, one after another, stinging deeper each time. Tessa. My best friend. The one person I had trusted more than anyone in the whole world. The girl who had held me tight while I cried for weeks straight after he vanished, rocking me and whispering that I deserved better. The same one who had cursed Andrew’s name with me over and over, calling him every horrible thing she could think of. The friend who had been my rock, who listened to every tearful rant.

I did not believe a single word coming out of his mouth. Not even for a heartbeat.

"You are lying," I spat out, my voice shaking wildly with pure rage that made my whole body tremble. "You are a filthy liar, Andrew."

I took a step back, shaking my head hard. "Tessa would never do something like that to me. Never in a million years. She is my friend. My only real friend. She has always been there for me when the whole world turned its back."

Andrew took one careful step closer, his eyes pleading even harder. "I swear on everything I am not lying to you, Reina. Ask her yourself."

He paused, searching my face like he was begging me to see the truth. "She will probably deny it all and act shocked, but deep down you know something has always felt a little off about the whole situation. The way she hovered around us, the way she got jealous when we got too close. It was all her plan from the start. She manipulated everything because she could not stand the thought of losing you to anyone else."

"Get away from me right now," I snapped back, my words slicing through the air like knives. My hands clenched into tight fists at my sides, nails digging into my palms until they hurt. "I do not want to hear one more disgusting word from your mouth. You are pathetic for even trying this."

I whipped around to face Calestino, my heart pounding so loud I could hear it in my ears. "Take me to Tessa’s lodge right now. I need to see her face to face. Please."

Calestino did not argue or hesitate for even a second. He just gave one firm nod, his jaw set tight, and led me straight to the car without another glance at Andrew.

The entire drive to Tessa’s place was dead silent. I sat there staring out the window, my fists still clenched hard in my lap until my knuckles turned white. My mind would not stop racing, spinning faster and faster. Tessa could not have done any of that. She could not have pushed Andrew to date me as some twisted favor. She could not have threatened him with some dark secret just to force him to abandon me.

She was my best friend, the one who had stuck by me through the worst times. She had wiped my tears, made me laugh again, stood up for me when no one else would. She had been there celebrating my little wins and comforting me through the pain.

But now the doubt was planted deep inside me. Small at first, but poisonous and spreading fast like a weed that would not die. It grew bigger with every passing second, twisting everything I thought I knew about my friendship.

When we pulled up outside Tessa’s lodge, I turned to Celestino. "Stay in the car."

His brows pulled together immediately. "That’s a bad idea." 𝕗𝕣𝐞𝐞𝘄𝐞𝚋𝚗𝗼𝘃𝗲𝗹.𝚌𝕠𝚖

"I’ll be fine. I’m just going in to see my friend."

He exhaled through his nose, clearly not convinced, but he leaned back anyway. Watching me.

I shut the door and walked off before he could change his mind.

I walked up the path toward the front door, my heart hammering wildly against my ribs like it wanted to burst out. The door was slightly ajar, just a crack, which felt strange. I pushed it open slowly, stepping inside.

Loud moaning sounds immediately drifted out from the living room. They were intense, breathless, and coming from multiple voices all tangled together. Tessa’s voice mixed with Shane’s and Tripp’s, raw and unmistakable.