Chapter 44: FORTY FOUR
RYDER
Standing there.
Eyes wide, lips parted, her face carved with betrayal. She doesn’t say a word—doesn’t need to. Every flicker of emotion is right there, raw and open and burning.
“Eve—” I shove away from Annabeth, already moving. “Wait! It’s not what it looked like!”
She bolts.
I chase. “Eve!”
Her shoulders are shaking when I catch up, her pace frantic. “I can’t—” she chokes out, trying to swipe at her tears. “I can’t believe you.”
“Just stop, please,” I plead, reaching for her arm.
She jerks away from my touch. “Don’t. Don’t you dare touch me.”
“Let me explain.”
“I saw enough,” she snaps, voice cracking.
I step in front of her, blocking her path, hands up. “Are you okay? Why did you leave the hospital? I’ve been calling you all day—”
“My phone’s been off,” she cuts in, voice strangled. “Because of them. The pictures—God, Ryder—they’re everywhere.”
My stomach drops. “I’m going to fix it, I swear—”
“You promise,” she spits. “You always promise. And every time, it gets worse.”
Her lip quivers, her face twisted in pain. “The whole city knows now. Everyone’s seen it. Do you even realize what they’re saying about me? About us?”
“Eve…”
She laughs bitterly, eyes glinting with fresh tears. “They’re calling me a gold-digging slut. That’s who I am now—your dirty little scandal.”
"That’s not true. We both know they’re wrong." I reach for Eve, trying to pull her into a hug.
She recoils like my touch burns. "Don’t."
"Eve... Please. I can fix this. I can protect you."
"Protect me?" Her laugh is bitter, humorless. "You mean like you protected my mom?"
My stomach drops. “What?”
She folds her arms, jaw tight. “Annabeth told me you saved her. What she didn’t say is that you’re the reason James Calder got his hands on her in the first place.”
Something cold clamps around my ribs. “What are you talking about?”
“Don’t play dumb.” Her voice is shaking. “Calder told me everything.”
I clench my fists. “Calder’s a fucking liar.”
"Your tattoo," she says, voice barely above a whisper. "The dragon. You got it while you were working for him. You were one of his enforcers."
The room tilts. Part of me wants to scream. The other part wants to crawl into the past and tear it apart piece by piece. Calder must’ve gotten to her when I wasn’t watching. And the worst part?
She’s not wrong.
"I was a different person back then," I say, slowly. "I was lost. I made bad choices. Calder fed people like me—he offered a way out.”
“By shattering bones? By bleeding people dry with loans and crushing them when they couldn’t pay?”
“Eve—”
“Don’t fucking touch me.”
I freeze.
"I made it right,” I say. “I turned him in. I couldn't live with what I'd done."
"And my mother?” Her eyes are ice. “Did you sleep with her?"
The accusation punches the breath from my lungs.
“I’m offended you’d even ask me that,” I snarl. “You sound just like your father.”
Eve goes still. Like I’ve cracked something in her that won’t ever heal.
“What the fuck did you just say?”
"Thomas accused me of the same shit. Swore I was screwing Annabeth behind his back. It was never true. But he couldn’t handle that she trusted me more than him."
“Shut up.”
"He wasn’t some hero, Eve. He was jealous, paranoid. Drank too much. Spent too much. Treated her like garbage. And when she needed someone, when she was drowning, he was too busy wallowing in his own ego to notice."
“Shut up!”
"I called him out. He hated that. Hated me for seeing through his bullshit. That’s why we fell out. Not because of your mom—because I wouldn’t lie for him. But go ahead, keep pretending he was some saint. Keep clinging to the story that makes you feel safest."
She slaps me. Hard. The sound explodes in the air, louder than anything else in the room.
"Don’t you dare talk about him like that,” she breathes.
I don’t back down. “You’re being blind. Grow the fuck up. Stop making excuses for a man who failed you.”
She stares at me like I’m a stranger.
Then she steps back. Her voice comes low, final. “I quit.”
And then she turns and walks away.