Page 191 of His Reckoning

My answer comes easily. “I wouldn’t be okay with publishing it, knowing how much it hurt him.”

Melissa studies me carefully. “You’re willing to lose your publisher over this?”

“I’m not losing my career,” I say quietly. “I’m choosing not to publish this.”

I shake my head slightly. “He trusted me.” The words come out softer now. “And I broke that.”

Melissa’s expression softens. “Kayla …”

“I didn’t mean to,” I continue. “But intent doesn’t really matter when someone feels like that.”

The room is quiet for a moment, and then Melissa lets out a breath.

“Well,” she says, leaning back, “that’s one way to prove your point.”

I huff out a small laugh. “He doesn’t even know I did it.”

“Yet.”

I glance over at her.

She gives me a look. “You really think I’m not going to make sure that information finds its way back to him?”

Despite everything, a small smile tugs at my lips. “Of course you are.”

Melissa nudges my shoulder lightly. “For the record?”

I look at her.

“You didn’t use him.”

A cold knot forms in my throat. “It doesn’t feel like that to him.”

“No,” she says. “But that’s because he’s still seeing it through the lens of what he went through.”

She pauses, then adds, “And something tells me when he realizes you are willing to walk away from everything for him”—her lips curve slightly— “he’s going to regret letting you walk out that door.”

I stare down at my hands. “I didn’t do it so he’d come back.”

“I know,” she says. “That’s why it matters.”

Chapter Thirty-Five

Sawyer

The apartment is too quiet. It hits about five minutes after the door closes. When there’s nothing left to focus on except the silence.

I’m still standing in the same spot in the living room with the book in my hand with her words staring back at me.

The door clicks shut in my head again over and over. I drop the book onto the coffee table harder than I meant to. The sound echoes through the apartment.

I drag a hand through my hair and turn away, pacing once across the room.

This is better. It has to be. It’s cleaner.

Whatever this was … it got complicated. And now it’s not.

I stop near the kitchen island. Her laptop is still sitting there.