Fear doesn’t always look like running. Sometimes it looks like staying still too long.
The minute Jasper closed the door, I knew the storm was coming. He didn’t speak, but the way he walked, shoulders tight, jaw set, told me everything. I stood by the window, watching the garden below where the press had started circling again. He waited just long enough for silence to stretch like rope between us. Then he spoke.
“You’re not actually considering this.”
I turned slowly. “I haven’t signed anything.”
“You haven’t burned it either.”
His voice wasn’t raised, but it landed like a slap.
“I’m handling it,” I said.
He stepped closer. “He’s handling you.”
That pushed something loose in me. “You think I want him?” I snapped.
“I think you’re scared,” he said, quiet.
The words landed harder than the accusation. I took a step back like I needed space to keep breathing. “I’ve faced worse than him.”
“Not while carrying a crown,” Jasper said. “And not alone.” I crossed my arms, biting the inside of my cheek.
“I’m not alone.”
“You’re acting like it,” he shot back. “You’re shutting me out, pretending this is politics. But I know what this is doing to you.”
“You don’t know anything,” I said, too fast.
He stepped closer. “I know you haven’t slept. I know you pace the same four steps in your room every night. I know you reread your father’s last speech when you think no one’s watching.”
I froze. Jasper lowered his voice. “I know you’re trying to be unbreakable because the moment you admit you’re not, it’ll all fall apart.”
I looked at him, breathing hard. “If I go back to him—if I even pretend—I won’t survive it.” He didn’t say anything.
I walked past him, needing space, needing motion. “You don’t get to decide how I survive this.”
“I’m not trying to,” he said. “I’m trying to keep you alive.”
“That’s not the same thing.”
His voice sharpened. “No. It’s not. Because keeping you alive might mean keeping you out of power. Away from him. Away from all of this.”
I turned back to him slowly. “And you’d do that? Strip me of everything I’ve fought for just to keep me breathing?”
“I’d rather have you breathing than buried under a legacy that’s trying to break you.” I laughed once: bitter, small.
“So that’s what you think I am now? Breakable?”
“I think,” he said carefully, “that you’re already breaking. And you’re pretending it’s strategy.”
The words knocked the air from my lungs. Not because they were cruel. But because they were true.
I sat down hard on the edge of the desk.
“I hate that he thinks he can still control the story.” Jasper’s voice dropped low. “He doesn’t just want the story. He wants the ending.”
“And he wants to write it through me.”
He nodded. “Exactly.”
I stared at the envelope again. It was still sitting on the edge of the desk, unopened. I hadn’t even touched it since Jasper handed it to me. I didn’t need to. I already knew what it said.
“He’ll spin this,” I said. “If I reject it, he’ll say I never forgave him. That I put pride before peace.”
“He’ll weaponize grace,” Jasper replied. “That’s what he’s always done. Lady Isolde’s favourite tactic.”
“And if I sign it…” My voice cracked. “If I sign it, I lose myself. Again.”
Jasper stepped closer. “Then don’t.”
“I’m tired of everyone telling me what I should do.”
“I’m not telling you,” he said. “I’m begging you.”
I stood. The space between us pulled tight, like the air itself was bracing.
My hands were cold. I didn’t realize I’d clenched them until I saw the white of my knuckles.
Jasper didn’t move at first. Just stared—like he was deciding something he knew he’d regret either way.
Then he crossed the distance in two steps and kissed me.
It wasn’t soft. It wasn’t careful. His hand found my face, steady and sure, and everything in me buckled.
My breath caught. My spine arched just slightly into him, as if my body had decided to trust him before my brain had a chance to object.
And then, he pulled back.
He looked at me like he wanted to say something. Maybe everything.
But instead, he turned and walked away.
Just like that.
Leaving me stunned, breathless, and furious at how badly I still wanted more.