Chapter 112 Chapter 111
Harper POV
I don’t know how I manage to walk away.
My legs feel unsteady, like the floor is still tilting under me, like Logan’s hands are still on my waist even though he’s not touching me anymore.
The hallway behind me is too quiet.
Too charged.
I can feel him standing there, frozen in the aftermath, like neither of us knows what we just did—or what it means.
My lips still sting.
My heart still won’t slow down.
But I keep moving.
Back toward the noise. The lights. The room full of people pretending this is normal.
I need air.
I need distance.
I need to stop looking at him like he’s an answer when he’s still a question.
The mingling event is still humming, laughter spilling over champagne glasses, donors smiling too brightly.
Life continuing, careless.
I slip through the crowd like a ghost.
And then—
Lila.
Of course.
She appears in front of me like she was summoned by emotional distress.
Her eyes flick over my face once and immediately narrow.
“Oh no,” she says. “Absolutely not.”
I blink. “What?”
She steps closer, lowering her voice. “Your mouth is pinker than it was five minutes ago.”
Heat floods my face.
“Lila—”
She gasps dramatically. “Oh my God. I knew it. I knew it. I leave you alone for one event and you get sucked into the Logan Shaw Vortex.”
I grab her wrist and tug her toward the side, away from the center of the room.
“I didn’t get sucked into anything.”
Lila’s eyebrows shoot up. “Harper, you look like you just got emotionally drop-kicked.”
I exhale shakily.
“I’m fine.”
Lila’s stare is flat. “Try again.”
I swallow hard.
“I will be.”
That gets her attention.
Her expression softens just a fraction.
She glances past me, toward the hallway I came from.
Toward him.
Logan is still there, half-shadowed, like he hasn’t figured out how to move again.
Lila’s mouth tightens.
“Don’t tell me,” she mutters. “It’s more Shaw drama?”
I let out a humorless laugh.
“It’s always Shaw drama.”
Lila turns back to me, waiting.
The noise of the room feels distant, muffled, like we’re standing in our own little pocket of reality.
I take a breath.
Then another.
And the words come out before I can stop them.
“I want to be a choice,” I say quietly.
Lila’s face stills.
“Not… not because someone is confused,” I continue, my throat tightening, “and trying to figure his shit out.”
Lila doesn’t joke this time.
She just watches me, eyes sharp.
“I’m not a lesson,” I whisper. “I’m not a distraction. I’m not something he reaches for when he’s scared someone else might want me.”
My voice trembles.
“I’ve liked him for years, Lila.”
Her gaze softens.
“And tonight he looks at me like he’s starving,” I murmur, shaking my head. “But what happens tomorrow? Or next week? Does he disappear again?”
Lila’s jaw clenches.
“That’s what scares you.”
I nod, blinking hard.
“I can’t do that,” I whisper. “I can’t keep being the girl he almost chooses.”
Lila steps closer, her voice low and fierce.
“Harper Lane,” she says, “you are not an almost.”
My breath catches.
She lifts her chin toward the room.
“Tomorrow, people are going to bid,” she says. “They’re going to see what I’ve been seeing for years. And Logan Shaw is going to have to decide if he’s brave enough to stop being a coward.”
I let out a shaky laugh.
“And if he isn’t?”
Lila’s eyes lock on mine.
“Then we let him regret it.”
I glance back once, against my better judgment.
Logan is still there.
Watching.
Like he wants to follow.
Like he doesn’t know if he’s allowed.
My heart twists painfully.
I turn away.
Because wanting isn’t enough.
Not anymore.
Tomorrow is coming.
And I refuse to be someone’s confusion.