Chapter 36 – He Demands to Know the Truth
Sam's POV
The silence in our room felt heavier than usual.
I sat on my bed, pretending to scroll through my phone, but my thumb wasn’t moving. My mind was still stuck in Declan’s room, the image of my sister’s necklace burned into the back of my eyelids. I could feel Elias watching me from across the room, the weight of his stare sharp enough to cut.
Finally, he spoke.
“You’re going to tell me,” Elias said. His tone wasn’t casual this time. It wasn’t patient or careful. It was sharp, firm—like he’d made a decision he wasn’t going to back out of.
I kept my eyes on the screen. “Tell you what?”
“Don’t,” he said flatly. “Don’t play dumb. Not after last night.”
My stomach tightened. I’d been waiting for this. Dreading it.
He leaned forward, resting his elbows on his knees, his gaze burning into me. “I covered for you. You were in Ward’s room. Don’t bother denying it, Sam. I saw your face when I walked in. I know.”
My throat went dry. “Then why are you asking me?”
“Because I want to hear it from you,” Elias snapped. His voice cracked on the last word, frustration bleeding through. “Why? Why would you risk everything sneaking into his room? What are you looking for?”
The urge to tell him the truth clawed at me again. To say it—everything. About her. About the necklace. About the night my life shattered.
But if I said it, if I trusted him, I’d be handing over the one secret that kept me alive.
I forced myself to shrug. “I was just curious.”
Elias’s eyes darkened, his jaw clenching. “Stop. Lying.”
My head snapped up, and the room seemed to shrink around me.
He stood suddenly, crossing the space between our beds in three steps. His presence towered over me, his eyes fierce. “You think I don’t notice? That I don’t see how you flinch around certain people, how you avoid Ward but watch him like a hawk? You’re not curious. You’re hunting something.”
The words hit me hard, knocking the air from my lungs. Hunting. He wasn’t wrong.
Elias crouched, bringing his face closer to mine. His voice dropped, low and harsh. “And if you don’t tell me what it is, Sam… I swear, I’ll drag it out of you.”
My chest tightened, a cocktail of fear and anger swirling inside me. “You don’t get it. You don’t understand.”
“Then make me understand!” he shot back, his voice raw. “Because I can’t keep covering for you if I don’t even know what the hell I’m protecting you from.”
I froze, my nails digging into my palms. He wasn’t bluffing. He wanted answers, and he wasn’t going to back off this time.
“Elias…” My voice cracked, small and shaky.
His expression shifted, the hard edge softening for just a second. “Sam. Please. Just tell me the truth.”
Something in me splintered. For a moment, I wanted to cave. To let it all spill out. To tell him about her, about why I cut my hair, about the vow I made at her grave.
But then I saw it again. That necklace, glinting in Declan’s drawer. Proof.
If Elias knew… if he slipped, even by accident… Declan would bury me.
I couldn’t risk it.
I shoved past him, standing so fast my chair scraped the floor. “Drop it.”
He grabbed my wrist again, harder this time. Not enough to hurt, but enough to hold me in place.
“No,” Elias said. His voice was steel. “I’m not dropping it. Not when you’re walking into Ward’s room like you’ve got a death wish. Not when you’re lying to my face every damn day. Tell me, Sam. Tell me the truth. Who the hell are you?”
The words lodged in my throat. My heart hammered. My whole body trembled under the weight of his stare.
I could feel the truth rising, choking me.
I opened my mouth.
“Elias—”
The door banged open.
We both jerked toward it, and there stood Declan, leaning casually against the frame, a crooked smirk on his face.
“Well, well,” he drawled. “What’s this?” His eyes flicked from Elias’s grip on my wrist to my pale face. “Late-night lovers’ quarrel?”
My blood froze.
Elias dropped my wrist instantly, straightening, his voice calm but his shoulders tense. “Get lost, Ward.”
Declan stepped inside, unbothered, his gaze sliding back to me. “Hale. You look guilty as hell. What were you two whispering about?”
I forced my expression blank. “None of your business.”
Declan tilted his head, eyes glinting. “Careful. Secrets don’t last long in Dorm 9.”
The room pulsed with tension, every second stretching like a blade against my throat.
Declan’s smirk deepened, and then he turned on his heel, sauntering back out as if he hadn’t just twisted a knife into both of us.
The door clicked shut behind him.
My knees nearly gave out, but Elias’s voice cut through the air, sharp and low.
“This isn’t over, Sam.”
I couldn’t look at him. Not when the truth was seconds from spilling out of me, not when my whole body still shook with fear.
I crawled into bed instead, yanking the blanket over me. “Goodnight.”
Elias stood there for a long time, silent. Watching. Waiting.
Finally, he said, “You’re going to tell me. Whether you want to or not.”
The weight of his words settled deep in my chest, heavy and inescapable.
I squeezed my eyes shut, my pulse thundering.
Because I knew he was right.
I couldn’t keep running forever.
And when the truth finally came out… nothing would ever be the same.