LOGINAvery's POVJade moved without anyone noticing, slipping backward along the fence on her side towards the back while every eye on that path stayed locked on Dean and Carter, on the gun still wavering between them, catching the light every time his hand shook. I only registered the movement out of the very corner of my eye, a shift of shadow that could have been anything, and I was grateful, in that moment, for how completely Dean's attention had narrowed down to Carter alone.I only realised she was in my house now when I heard, faintly, the sound of the back door easing shut behind her, careful, deliberate, the kind of quiet that came from someone trying very hard not to be heard.She had likely come in through the back fence gate and then the kitchen.I did not dare look away from Dean to check where she had gone, could not risk drawing his attention toward the house, toward anything that might tip whatever fragile balance was holding this moment together. But I could hear fragments
Avery's POVDean's hand came out of his jacket holding a gun, small and black and impossibly ordinary looking for something that could end everything in this street in a single second.Nobody moved. Nobody breathed.The world seemed to narrow down to that one object. The way it caught the afternoon light, the way Dean's hand shook slightly around it, not steady, not confident, but not any less dangerous for that. If anything the shaking made it worse, made it feel like something that could go off by accident just as easily as on purpose. I could hear my own pulse in my ears, louder than anything else on that street, louder than the birds still singing somewhere in a hedge as though nothing at all had changed in the last three seconds.Somewhere down the block a car door closed, an ordinary sound from an ordinary world that no longer felt like the one I was standing in.Liam moved first.He stepped sideways, putting himself between Dean and the doorway where my mom and I stood, his arm
Avery's POVCarter opened the front door before any of us could stop him."Do not," my mom screamed, grabbing at his arm, her fingers digging into his sleeve."He is not going to calm down staring at us through a window," Carter said, and stepped outside before she could argue further, his shoulders squared in a way I had never seen from him before. His posture looked like a man finally walking toward the thing he had been avoiding for twenty years instead of away from it.We followed, all of us crowding into the doorway, close enough to hear but not close enough to reach either of them if something happened, my heart hammering against my ribs. Liam's hand found mine without either of us deciding it, his grip tight enough that I could feel his own pulse through it."Stay behind me," Liam said quietly, his eyes never leaving Dean's back.I nodded even though I doubted either of us would actually be able to hold still if things went wrong.Dean stood on the path, swaying slightly, his e
Avery's POVAs soon as we got to the kitchen, we turned around and went back to the living room.We locked the door immediately, all three of us moving on instinct. My mum checked the latch twice, then a third time, her hands not quite steady enough to trust the first check. Liam stood at the window watching the empty street like Dean might reappear if he looked away for even a second.I sat down on a chair because my legs did not feel entirely trustworthy anymore. I put my head in my hands, waiting for the shaking to settle, which it did not."He is still out there," Liam said. "Somewhere. He likely did not go far. I do not think a man in that state just walks away and calms down on his own.""I know," my mom said. "We need to call the police.""He's gone anyway. I don't think we need to just yet," Liam said. "Maybe I should call my dad. He's just around the corner. The police could take longer than that, and I do not want us sitting here alone if Dean comes back before anyone arrive
Liam's POVI heard a scream through the wall before I fully understood what I was hearing.I was halfway through changing after training, still in one sock, and for half a second my brain tried to explain it away as something ordinary, a television left too loud, a shout from the street outside. Then it came again, sharper, unmistakably her voice, and I was moving before I had finished deciding to do so, out the door barefoot without a second thought.I went out my own front door and across the grass without stopping for a jacket, without stopping for anything. The cold air hit me but it was not registering at all. My bare foot landed hard on something sharp in the grass that I did not feel until a few steps later. By the time I reached her house the front door was standing half open and Dean had Avery's arm in his grip, her back against the hallway table, her face white."Get off her," I yelled.Dean turned. For a second he looked at me like he did not fully register who I was, his e
Avery's POVI had spent the morning at the athletics office, drafting posts for the weekend fixtures, and I came home with my mind still half on a caption I had not quite finished, thinking about word choice rather than anything else, the ordinary kind of distraction that came from a good day rather than a bad one.It was the best kind of morning I had had in months. The job was good. The work was straightforward. I was useful in a way that did not cost me anything to be useful, and I had walked home in the early afternoon feeling something close to normal for the first time in longer than I could name.The doorbell rang while I was still taking my shoes off.He was standing at the door when I opened it, closer than any of the warnings had prepared me for, and my whole body went cold before my brain had finished registering it was actually him. I had not checked the peephole. I had just opened the door the way I always did, distracted, thinking about something else entirely, and there
Avery's POVI sat in the campus carpark with the engine off and tried to talk myself into going inside.It was Tuesday. Eleven in the morning. Business Management was at half past in lecture hall three. I had not been to class in two weeks. I had told myself last friday that I would go this week. I
Avery's POVPractice was in the gym today instead of the track and I was glad of it because the gym had walls that could make me feel grounded a bit. Besides, the weather was a bit chilly.I got there ten minutes early and started stretching in the corner. Priya arrived a minute later with two coff
Avery's POVHe stood there for a moment after I said it.He was looking at me and I could see him deciding what to do with what I just said to him. It sounded ridiculous even to me, but it was the truth. I couldn't tell him the truth as Avery and I didn't want to lose him as Scarlett.Then he spoke
Liam's POVShe looked at me like the question was either a foolish one or that I was foolish to ask it."Of course I like you," she said. "That is not the issue."I was glad to hear that she at least liked me, but I was still frustrated by the situation. "Then what is the issue? Because from where







