Chapter 6
Second month since Camden and I became strangers-he realized I’d disappeared.
Used to run into me sometimes. This time, a full month without seeing me.
He asked classmates, found out I wasn’t even attending lectures.
Neither was Thaddeus.
His heart pounded.
The night he discovered we’d gone abroad, he crushed a glass in his bare hand.
Sophia tugged his sleeve coyly. “Camden, she’s running from her guilt. Scared you’ll make her pay.”
‘If you weren’t rich, she never would’ve given you the time of day!”
Camden gripped her chin, tightening his hold. “Really?… Yeah, she never gave a damn about me.”
He frowned suddenly. “What about you? Only crawling around me for money too?”
Sophia winced, rushing to explain. “No! I’m here because I like you. I hate rich people-you know that!”
Camden’s eyes went cold. He shoved her away. “Get out.”
ust another annoying tool.
All night, cigarette butts everywhere.
Dawn-bought the earliest flight.
f he could find her after graduation, he could find her now.
.una couldn’t leave him.
the owed him all of this.
He thought.
London’s temperature swings are brutal. You’ll catch pneumonia at this rate.”
Thaddeus handed me the jacket he’d brought.
I put it on.
Muttered, “You bring me one every day.”
A whole month.
He picked me up from the coffee shop every day, walked me home to our shared flat.
Always with a jacket.
He tapped my nose gently. “You need to dress warmer too.”
“Don’t worry, I run hot. Back in middle school my classmates used to say…”
Suddenly I was chattering nonstop.
He listened intently, then leaned closer.
I held my breath instinctively.
He plucked a fallen leaf from my hair.
His warm breath hit my ear.
Leaf.” He stepped back.
‘Oh. Oh.”
I started breathing again. “Let’s go.”
Turned around, started walking.
Dazed.
Then locked eyes with Camden.
His face was dark, pupils black as ink.
‘Childhood friends all these years-no goodbye?”
My expression went flat. “We have nothing to talk about.”
‘Since when does she need to report to you? Or invite you to spread more lies?”
Thaddeus gave him a cold look.
Camden’s smile didn’t reach his eyes. “She belongs at my side, paying for Marcus Voss’s crimes.”
Thaddeus frowned. “That accident wasn’t anyone’s fault. Luna did nothing wrong.”
didn’t want to talk. Tried to walk around Camden.
He grabbed my wrist.
His hand was ice cold, voice soft. “Come back with me.”
‘Where I am is none of your business. Camden, I don’t owe you anything.”
“One million.”
I pulled free and walked away without looking back.
Camden stood there for a long time.
Remembered how I’d talked around Thaddeus.
Like before the crash.
Chattering beside him every day, never shutting up.
His chest ached.
Thames evening wind cut especially cold.
