Aminda POV

I made it as far as the garden path before the raucous noise of the party faded into a dull, rhythmic thrum. The night air was biting, stinging the raw skin on my knees from my earlier fall.

"Running away so soon?"

The voice was melodic, cloying like syrup over rot.

I stopped. I didn't turn around. "I have a flight to catch, Charlie. Go back to your fiancé."

Charlie stepped in front of me, blocking the path to the cottage. She held a glass of red wine, swirling it with a casual, predatory grace, the dark liquid sloshing dangerously close to my dress.

"He's not my fiancé yet," she smiled, her teeth gleaming white in the moonlight. "But he will be by midnight. I just wanted to make sure you understood the terms of your severance."

"I don't want anything from him," I said, stepping to the side to bypass her.

"Good." She moved to block me again. Her eyes flashed with malice. "Because you were never a threat, Aminda. You were a placeholder. A warm body to keep him alive until I was ready to come back. Did you really think he could love someone like... you?"

She flicked her gaze up and down my simple dress, my sensible shoes, dismissing my entire existence with a single look.

"I'm leaving," I said, my patience snapping. "Get out of my way."

"Or what?" She laughed. "You'll hurt me?"

Suddenly, footsteps crunched on the gravel behind us.

"Charlie?" Colton's voice cut through the tension. "What are you doing out here?"

Charlie's face transformed instantly. The malice vanished, replaced by a look of wide-eyed fear.

"Colton!" she gasped. She took a step back, her heel catching on the edge of the stone path near the ornamental koi pond.

It was a performance. A bad one. But she flailed her arms, looking like a damsel in distress.

"Charlie!" Colton lunged forward.

She reached out, not for him, but for my arm. She grabbed my wrist, her nails digging in, and yanked me forward as she pretended to fall backward.

"Help me!" she screamed.

Colton didn't hesitate. He didn't assess. He reacted on instinct-an instinct to protect the thing he valued.

He reached for Charlie, wrapping an arm around her waist to anchor her.

And with his other hand, he shoved me.

It wasn't a gentle push. It was a hard, frantic heave to clear the space, to make sure his precious Charlie didn't get dragged down by the "help."

I stumbled back. My heel hit the wet grass.

I fell backward.

The back of my head cracked against the jagged edge of the decorative stonework lining the pond.

A blinding white light exploded behind my eyes.

Then, the cold shock of water.

I sank.

The water was freezing, filling my nose, my mouth. My head throbbed with a sickening, pulsating rhythm. I tried to kick, but my limbs felt heavy, disconnected.

Through the rippling surface of the water, I could see the distorted figures above.

Colton was clutching Charlie to his chest on the dry path. He was checking her face, stroking her hair, asking if she was okay.

He wasn't looking at the water. He wasn't looking for me.

I was drowning a few feet away from him, and he was comforting the woman who had pulled me down.

Darkness began to bleed into the edges of my vision. The cold seeped into my bones.

Let go, a voice whispered in my head. He pushed you. He chose.

Then, a splash.

Strong arms grabbed me. Not Colton's.

I broke the surface, gasping, coughing up water.

"I got you, Amy. I got you." Jayden's voice.

He dragged me onto the grass. Isaias was there too, already shucking off his jacket to wrap around my shivering shoulders.

"You're bleeding," Isaias hissed, touching the back of my head. His hand came away red.

I looked up.

Colton was standing ten feet away. He still had his arm around Charlie. He was looking at me now, his eyes wide, but he didn't move toward me. He stayed with her.

"Oh my god," Charlie sobbed, burying her face in Colton's chest. "She tried to pull me in, Colt! She tried to drown me!"

Colton looked at me. The protective rage in his eyes fractured into confusion. But there was no trust. No instinct to save me.

"Is that true?" he asked.

The question hit me harder than the rock had.

Jayden stood up, water dripping from his clothes, his face twisted in fury. "Are you insane, Colton? She's bleeding from her head!"

"She attacked Charlie," Colton said, his voice hardening. He was choosing his narrative. It was easier to believe I was the villain than to admit he had hurt me.

"I need to leave," I whispered. My teeth were chattering so hard I could barely speak. "Jayden, please. Get me out of here."

"We're going to the hospital," Jayden said, lifting me into his arms.

"No," I grabbed his wet lapel. "Airport. Please. Just get me away from him."

"Hospital first," Isaias commanded, glaring at Colton. "Then anywhere you want."

As Jayden carried me past Colton, I locked eyes with him one last time.

He reached a hand out, a stuttering, half-hearted motion. "Aminda..."

I closed my eyes. I let the darkness take me. I didn't want to see him ever again.

Aminda POV

The overhead fluorescent lights were aggressive, searing against my retinas.

I sat perched on the edge of the hospital bed, a bandage wound tight around my head. My suitcase sat by the door, a silent sentinel.

Jayden had retrieved it for me. My flight was in four hours.

The door clicked open.

I braced myself for a nurse.

Instead, it was Colton.

He was still wearing his tuxedo, though the tie was undone-a rare sign of disarray. He didn't look worried. He looked irritated.

"You're causing a scene," he said, shutting the door firmly behind him. "Leaving in the middle of the night? Really?"

I stared at him. My head pounded in rhythm with my heartbeat.

"I'm not on your payroll anymore, Colton. I don't answer to you."

He stepped closer, and his scent-sandalwood and expensive scotch-flooded the small, sterile room. It used to be my favorite smell. Now, it made my stomach turn.

"Charlie is distraught," he said. "She thinks you hate her."

"I don't hate her," I said, my voice flat. "I don't care enough about her to hate her."

"She sent you this." He gestured to a styrofoam bowl on the tray table. "Gourmet broth. Straight from the hotel chef. She wanted to make peace."

"I don't want it."

"Stop acting like a child," Colton snapped. "She didn't have to do this, especially after you tried to drag her into the pond."

"I didn't-" I started, then stopped. What was the point? He had already rewritten history in his head to protect his perfect reunion.

The door swung open again.

Charlie breezed in, looking immaculate. Not a hair out of place.

"Colty," she whined, latching onto his arm. "Is she accepting my apology? Even though she was the one who terrified me?"

She looked at me, her gaze sliding to the soup. "Oh, you haven't touched it. Are you afraid I poisoned it?"

She let out a giggle that sounded like shattering glass.

"She's just being stubborn," Colton said, dismissing me.

Charlie wandered over to the bedside table. "And look, I brought back the little wooden box you left in the cottage. The one Colton's dad made?"

She held up the intricately carved box. It was the only thing Colton had left of his father. I had spent months carefully humidifying the wood to keep it from cracking.

"Oops," Charlie said.

She opened her hand.

The box hit the linoleum floor.

It shattered into three distinct pieces.

"No!" I gasped, instinctively reaching out.

"You clumsy bitch!" Charlie shrieked, pointing a manicured finger at me. "You knocked it out of my hand!"

It was a lie so blatant, so stupid, I couldn't believe anyone would buy it.

Colton stared down at the broken wood. His face went pale, then flushed a deep, angry red. That box was sacred to him.

"I didn't touch it," I said, panic rising in my voice.

"She did!" Charlie cried, tears instantly welling in her eyes. "She slapped my hand! And she told me she hoped the soup was poison so she could sue us!"

Colton looked at me. His eyes were black holes.

"You broke my father's box?" His voice was a low, dangerous growl.

"Colton, she dropped it. She's lying."

"Why would she break it?" he roared. "You're the one who's jealous! You're the one trying to ruin tonight!"

He grabbed the bowl of soup. It was steaming hot.

"You think this is poison?" he yelled, looking completely unhinged. "You think Charlie is the villain? Eat it!"

"Colton, don't." I shrank back against the pillows.

"Eat it!"

He grabbed my jaw with one hand, his fingers digging brutally into my cheeks, forcing my mouth open. With the other hand, he rammed the spoon into my mouth.

The soup was scalding.

It burned my tongue, searing the roof of my mouth. I choked, coughing violently.

He didn't stop.

He shoved another spoonful in. "Swallow it! Prove you're not crazy!"

Liquid splashed onto my chin, dripping down my hospital gown. It blistered my skin on contact.

I gagged, flailing my arms, trying to push him away. My head wound throbbed, sending spikes of white-hot agony through my skull.

I couldn't breathe. I was drowning again, but this time in heat and humiliation.

He finally let go.

I collapsed forward, coughing up broth and blood. The hot liquid had blistered my lip.

Colton stood back, breathing hard, the spoon still clutched in his hand. He looked down at me with unadulterated disgust.

"You're pathetic," he spat. "You're not the woman who helped me heal. You're a monster."

"Colty, let's go," Charlie whispered, tugging at his arm. A smirk played on her lips, visible only to me. "She's dangerous."

"You're right," Colton said. He turned to me. "Get out of my city. If I see you again, I'll ruin you."

He turned to leave.

The door burst open.

Jayden and Isaias stood there.

They took it all in. The broken box. The soup soaking my gown. The blood dripping from my lip where the spoon had cut me.

Jayden's face went deadly, terrifyingly calm.

"What did you do?" Jayden asked, his voice trembling with suppressed rage.

Colton straightened his jacket, composing himself.

"I taught her a lesson."

Aminda POV

The sickening crack of bone meeting bone was the loudest thing I had ever heard.

Colton stumbled back, his shoulder crashing into the wall. He looked at Jayden with a mask of pure disbelief, touching his bleeding lip.

"Jayden! Have you lost your mind?"

"I'm not the one who's insane!" Jayden roared. He didn't stop. He grabbed Colton by the lapels of his tuxedo and slammed him against the doorframe so hard the wood groaned.

"Look at her! Just look at what you did!"

Isaias rushed to my side, snatching a towel to dab the scalding soup from my neck. His hands were trembling, though his touch remained gentle.

"Amy, are you okay? God, Amy..."

I couldn't speak. My mouth felt like it was filled with broken glass and fire. I just nodded, tears streaming down my face in hot, silent tracks.

"She broke Dad's box!" Colton yelled, shoving at Jayden's chest in a desperate attempt to free himself. "She accused Charlie of poisoning her!"

"You idiot," Jayden spat, his face inches from Colton's. "Charlie has been playing you since she got off the plane! Aminda spent three months restoring that box with a toothbrush and oil! Why the hell would she break it?"

"Because she's jealous!" Colton shouted back, his eyes wild. "She's obsessed with me!"

"She's not obsessed with you," Isaias said, his voice cutting through the noise like a blade of ice. "She loved you. And you just beat that love right out of her."

Colton froze. For a second, the words seemed to penetrate his rage. He looked at me-really looked at me-huddled in the bed, covered in broth and blood.

Then Charlie stepped between them.

"Don't let them bully you, Colty," she cried, her voice pitching up into a perfect, wounded whine. "They've always hated me. They want you to be with the help because she's easy to control."

Colton's eyes hardened again. The wall went back up, impenetrable and cold.

"Get off me, Jayden."

Jayden let go, shoving him away with visceral disgust. "We're done, Colt. You and me. Done."

"Fine." Colton straightened his tie, regaining his composure with terrifying speed. "Choose the help over your brother. See if I care. But if any of you come near Charlie again, I'll have you arrested."

He looked at me one last time.

"You heard me, Aminda. You're dead to me. Disappear."

"I will," I rasped. My voice was a ruined wreck.

Colton grabbed Charlie's hand and stormed out of the room.

The silence they left in their wake was suffocating.

"I'm going to kill him," Jayden whispered, pacing the room like a caged animal. "I'm going to destroy his company."

"No," I said. It hurt to talk, but I forced the words past my swollen lips. "Jayden, stop."

"How can you protect him?" Isaias asked, looking at me with pained eyes.

"I'm not protecting him," I said. I sat up, wincing as my head throbbed in time with my heartbeat. "I'm protecting you. He's powerful. He's vindictive. And right now, he's blind."

I reached for my suitcase.

"I need to go. Now. Before he changes his mind and calls the police to stop me."

"We're coming with you," Jayden said instantly.

"No." I shook my head. "You have lives here. You have jobs. If you leave, he wins. He destroys everything."

I stood up. My legs were shaky, but I forced them to hold my weight.

"I need to do this alone," I said. "I need to find who I am when I'm not 'Colton's therapist'."

Jayden looked like he wanted to argue, but Isaias put a restraining hand on his shoulder.

"Let her go, Jay," Isaias said softly. "This place... it's poison to her now."

They drove me to the airport in silence.

At the terminal, Jayden hugged me so hard I thought my ribs would crack.

"Call us," he said, his voice thick with emotion. "Every day. If you need money, if you need anything."

"I have the check," I said, patting my bag. The severance. "I'm going to use it. I'm going to build something he can't touch."

I walked through security.

I didn't look back at the city skyline. I didn't look back at the friends I was leaving behind.

I found a trash can near the gate.

I pulled out my phone. I scrolled through my photos. Three years of memories. Colton learning to stand. Colton smiling at a joke I made. Colton sleeping.

Delete. Delete. Delete.

Then, I took out the SIM card.

I snapped it in half, the plastic crunching under my fingers-a sound eerily similar to the hair clip I had broken earlier.

I dropped the pieces into the trash.

My flight was called.

I boarded the plane, found my seat by the window, and closed my eyes.

A single tear escaped, sliding down my cheek to sting the burn on my lip.

That was the last tear Colton Carlton would ever wring out of me.

When I opened my eyes, they were dry. The plane taxied down the runway, gathering speed. We lifted off, leaving the gravity of my past behind.

I looked down at the shrinking lights of the city. Somewhere down there, Colton was celebrating his engagement, thinking he had won.

He had no idea. He hadn't won. He had just set me free.