I couldn’t stop thinking about the note in my locker. “Evelyn didn’t listen either.” The words haunted me, playing on a loop in my mind, each repetition heavier than the last. Every glance, every word from the Cross brothers now felt loaded with hidden meaning, and I couldn’t shake the feeling that I was being watched.
So when Aiden approached me at lunch, his easygoing smirk in place, I was instantly on edge.
“You look like you could use a break,” he said, leaning against the cafeteria table like he didn’t have a care in the world.
I glared at him. “If this is your attempt at small talk, don’t bother. I’m not in the mood.”
He raised his hands in mock surrender. “Hey, relax. I’m just saying you seem stressed. Come on, let me take you for a drive. You need to clear your head.”
“Why would I go anywhere with you?” I shot back, crossing my arms.
Aiden’s smirk faltered just slightly, and for a brief moment, he looked… sincere. “Because you trust me more than you trust the others,” he said quietly. “Don’t you?”
I hesitated. Did I trust him? Probably not. But something about the way he was looking at me made it hard to say no. Against my better judgment, I nodded. “Fine. But if this is some kind of trap—”
“Relax, Lila,” he said, his smirk returning. “You’ll survive. Probably.”
The drive started in silence. Aiden had the windows down, letting the cool breeze whip through the car as he navigated the winding roads outside of town. I stared out at the passing trees, my arms crossed, trying to ignore the gnawing feeling in my chest.
“I know what you’re thinking,” Aiden said suddenly, his voice cutting through the silence.
I glanced at him, narrowing my eyes. “Oh, really? What’s that?”
“You think I’m just like Grayson,” he said, his tone light but his jaw tightening. “Cold, calculating, a liar. Right?”
I didn’t answer.
He laughed softly, shaking his head. “I’m not like him, Lila. I hate all of this just as much as you do. The secrets, the lies, the… legacy. It’s suffocating.”
“Suffocating?” I repeated, unable to hide the disbelief in my voice. “You’re rich, powerful, and untouchable. What part of that is suffocating?”
Aiden’s hands tightened on the steering wheel, his knuckles turning white. “You don’t get it,” he said, his voice sharper now. “None of this is ours. The money, the power—it’s all controlled by him. By Victor. He decides everything. What we do, who we’re allowed to care about… who lives and who doesn’t.”
The bitterness in his voice caught me off guard. For the first time, Aiden didn’t sound like the arrogant, carefree guy I’d gotten used to. He sounded… trapped.
“Then why don’t you leave?” I asked quietly.
He let out a bitter laugh. “You think it’s that simple? We don’t leave the Cross family, Lila. We survive it.”
I studied him, my heart tightening. “You’re still lying to me,” I said softly. “All of you are. You act like you’re protecting me, but you’re not. You’re just protecting yourselves.”
Aiden glanced at me, his expression unreadable. “Maybe you’re right,” he said after a long pause. “Maybe we are selfish. But if you think it’s that black and white, you don’t know us at all.”
I scoffed, the frustration bubbling over. “You’re all the same. You keep saying you’re different, but you’re just like Grayson. Liars. Manipulators. Cowards.”
Aiden’s foot slammed on the brake, and the car skidded to a stop in the middle of the empty road.
“What the hell, Aiden?” I shouted, clutching the door to steady myself.
He turned to me, his eyes blazing with a mix of anger and something I couldn’t quite place. “You think I’m a liar?” he demanded. “You think I’m a coward? Then why the hell are you here with me, Lila? Why didn’t you stay away?”
I opened my mouth to respond, but no words came out. The tension crackled between us like a live wire.
“You don’t get it,” he said, his voice quieter now, almost breaking. “I can’t walk away from this. I can’t walk away from you.”
Before I could process what he was saying, Aiden leaned in, his lips crashing against mine. The kiss was reckless and desperate, full of frustration and fire.
For a moment, I forgot everything—the curse, Evelyn, the danger. It was just us, the world spinning around us, the air electric with emotions too intense to name.
But then, just as suddenly as it started, the moment shattered.
Bright headlights flooded the car, blinding us. Aiden barely had time to turn his head before a deafening crash filled the air.
The impact threw me forward, the seatbelt digging into my chest as the car spun wildly. My scream was lost in the chaos, glass shattering and metal groaning as the world tilted violently.
And then, silence.