Page 89 of You Were Always Mine
My whole body goes stiff.
Because if I touch that phone now, the name on the screen will not read Maddie.
It’s going to read Tyler.
“No.” The word rips out of me before I can soften it, before I can think about how sharp it sounds in the air between us.
Kai tilts his head, studying me like I’ve just handed him a loaded weapon. “No?”
I fold my arms across my chest, though it does nothing to stop the shaking. “I don’t have to prove anything to you. You don’t get to demand that. You don’t get to?—”
Another buzz. Like the universe mocking me.
His lips twitch, but it isn’t a smile. It’s something darker. “Scarlett, if it’s Maddie, then what’s the problem?”
My throat burns, words sticking like tar. “Because it’s private. That’s why. Some things are allowed to be mine. Even from you.”
The second it leaves me, I regret it.
His hand curls tighter at my waist, not bruising but close, close enough that I can feel how much he wants to crush me into the truth. His voice comes low, raw, and lethal: “There is no part of you that’s just yours, baby. Not anymore.”
My chest feels too tight, like his words have wrapped chains around my ribs. Not anymore. God, maybe he’s right. Maybe he’s already taken everything without even needing to ask.
My lips tremble, and I hate that he can see it. “You don’t own me,” I whisper, but it doesn’t sound like fire — it sounds like a plea.
Kai’s eyes narrow, a flash of something savage breaking through that stony mask. He leans closer until I can taste his breath, his voice a razoragainst my skin. “Then why do you look like you’re about to cry every time I touch you?”
My throat works, desperate to hold the lie together, but it’s fraying. “Because you won’t leave me alone,” I manage, barely audible, hating how it shakes.
He studies me for a long, merciless beat, like he can hear the truth scraping underneath my words. His thumb brushes the edge of my jaw, gentle where everything else about him is cruel. “You’re hiding something, Scar. I can smell it on you.”
I shook my head too hard, too fast. “There’s nothing. I swear. Just—just stop looking at me like that.”
But he doesn’t stop. His gaze carves me open, patient, hunting, waiting for the crack to become a confession.
“I said there’s nothing,” I snap, louder this time, sharp enough to sting my own tongue. My voice shakes, but I keep going, feeding the lie like it’s the only shield I have left. “You’re imagining things, Kai. You always do. You twist everything until it sounds the way you want it to.”
His jaw ticks, but he doesn’t flinch. He just stares, steady and unblinking, like a wolf waiting for the rabbit to wear itself out.
My nails dig crescents into my palms. If I stay still, maybe he won’t see how hard my pulse is racing, how close I am to shattering. “I’m not hiding anything. Not from you. Not from anyone.” The words taste bitter, but I force them out anyway.
He leans in until his shadow swallows me whole, his hand braced on the wall beside my head. “Lie to me again, baby,” he murmurs, quiet and lethal. “Go on. See what happens when I decide I’m done being patient.”
I swallow hard, but my chin stays lifted. “There’s nothing to tell.” My voice doesn’t break this time.
His smile is cold, cruel. “Then I’ll break it out of you.”
His hand is already sliding down, rough fingers grazing my hip like he’s seconds away from proving every threat he just whispered. My breath stalls, chest rising too fast, bracing for the inevitable.
And then?—
“Scarlett? Kai?”
The sound of my mother’s voice cuts through the walls like a blade.
We both freeze. My heart lurches up into my throat, panic burning hotter than his touch.
“Kids, we’re home!” my dad calls a second later, cheerful, oblivious.
