KARA

I used to imagine this moment.

Not in vivid detail—just the shape of it. Me, standing tall. Two men waiting. One name on my lips. And Cass’s face when I said the wrong one.

Not wrong. Planned.

It was the end of the month. The so-called game was up. Group hangs had blurred into real feelings. Separate dates had turned into stolen kisses. And somewhere between karaoke nights and crisis PR clean-ups, I stopped pretending with Cass.

I fell.

But I couldn’t let that matter.

Because this moment—this was the point. The whole reason I got involved in the first place. To remind Cass what it feels like to want something he couldn’t have. To crave something real and watch it slip through his fingers. The way he made Kira feel.

And now, standing in Eli’s apartment, with both men looking at me, I almost couldn’t do it.

Almost.

“I’m sorry, Cass,” I said, steady but soft. “I choose Eli.”

Silence.

For a second, Cass didn’t move. Not a blink. Not a breath.

Then, stone-still turned storm-slick. His jaw tightened. His eyes dropped. And just like that, he was gone—out the door, no scene.

“I’m good,” he had muttered on his way out. A lie so thin it might as well have been mist.

The door closed too gently for what it meant.

And then it was just Eli and me.

He didn’t say anything. Didn’t gloat. Didn’t smile.

Because he knew.

He saw the way I looked at Cass when I thought no one noticed. He’d seen it building, same as me.

But he let me do it anyway.

Because even if I chose him, we both knew I didn’t want to.

I just needed to.

I broke Cass’s heart.

And the sickest part?

I broke mine too.