Page 54 of Break Me

I look up at him, caught off guard by the quiet certainty in his voice.

“I didn’t have much before this place,” he continues. “And what I did have, I lost a long time ago. The club gave me a name. Gave me purpose.” His thumb brushes over my skin. “But you? You gave me a future.”

My throat tightens. “Sam⁠—”

“I’m not choosing you instead of them,” he says. “I’m choosing you because you’re the only thing that ever felt like home.”

Tears spill over, hot and unstoppable. “I don’t want you to resent me someday,” I say. “I don’t want to wake up next to you and wonder if you hate what you gave up.”

“I could never resent loving you. Not even on my worst day.”

I swallow hard. “Where will you go?”

He exhales slowly, like he’s already made peace with it.

“Tonight? I’ll get a room in town.” A beat. “Tomorrow, I’ll start looking for a place. Something small. Something ours, if you want it.”

“A place for us?” I ask.

“It won’t be much,” he answers immediately. “But I’ll work for it. I’ll earn every damn thing I put my hands on.” His eyes lock on mine. “I’ll spend the rest of my life proving I deserve you.”

I lean into him, brushing my lips against his, breathing him in.

This isn’t peace.

It’s resolve.

It’s two people standing in the wreckage, choosing each other anyway.

A throat clears behind us, startling me. I pull back, my heart slamming into my ribs, and turn to see my father standing just inside the doorway. His face is set, jaw tight, eyes unreadable—but the fury is there, coiled and controlled.

“Raven,” he says, voice low. “It’s time to go home.”

“No,” I say immediately, standing. “I’m not done.”

His gaze flicks briefly to Samuel, then back to me. “You are now.”

Samuel shifts beside me. “Sweetheart,” he murmurs, steady even now. “It’s okay. Go home with your dad.”

I shake my head, gripping his fingers harder. “I don’t want to leave you like this.”

His thumb brushes my knuckles. “I’ll be okay,” he says softly. “I promise.”

I know he’s lying even as he says it.

My father takes a step closer. Not threatening. Final. “Raven.”

I look down at Samuel. The set of his shoulders. The way his eyes soften just for me—the man who just gave up everything and still somehow looks sure.

“I’ll come back,” I whisper.

“I know,” he answers without hesitation.

My fingers let go of his, and it feels like tearing something loose inside my chest.

As I pass my father, he gives my shoulder a gentle squeeze. Although he doesn’t say a word.

I don’t look behind me, but I feel Samuel watching until the door closes.