Chapter 95: Seven More Months

Max

Liam’s silence lasted long enough to become an answer.

He looked away first, his gaze settling somewhere near the narrow windows overlooking the lake. His shoulders dropped, and the defensive tension that had carried him into the boathouse seemed to drain out of him all at once.

“Yes,” he said quietly. “I sent it.”

The admission landed harder than I expected. Some part of me had still been waiting for him to laugh at the accusation and give me an explanation that made everything Chloe told me look like a misunderstanding. Instead, the person I trusted more than anyone had handed our relationship to a stranger and asked her to use it against me.

“Why?”

“You know why.”

“No, I don’t.” My voice sharpened as I stepped closer. “I know you were unhappy. I know you were tired of hiding. I don’t know why you thought exposing me without my consent was something you had the right to do.”

Liam dragged both hands through his hair. “Because nothing was changing, Max. Every time I brought it up, you asked for more time. You kept telling me we would figure it out later, but later never came.”

“You couldn’t wait seven more months?”

He stared at me. “What?”

“Seven months,” I repeated. “That was all I needed.”

Confusion flickered across his face before hurt replaced it. “You never told me that.”

“I told you I needed to graduate.”

“You said you wanted to graduate before telling your family. You never said you had an actual plan.”

“I shouldn’t have needed to show you bank statements for you to trust me.”

Liam flinched, but the anger in my chest had already burned through whatever instinct I had to soften the truth for him.

“I have been preparing for this for almost two years,” I said. “Long before we became exclusive. Every week, my parents send me an allowance that is more money than most people have left after paying rent. I’ve saved almost all of it.”

His mouth parted, but no answer came.

“I have enough to live modestly after graduation, even if they cut me off completely. It won’t be the life they planned for me, but it will keep a roof over my head until I start earning real money. I have been applying for jobs they don’t know about and building connections outside every company my father controls.”

The devastation growing across Liam’s face should have made me feel better. It did not. It only deepened the ache beneath my anger because I had wanted the day I finally told him to feel like a gift, not evidence introduced during the collapse of our relationship.

“I was doing that for us,” I said. “I wanted to graduate, take whatever consequences came, and know I could still support myself. I wanted to be able to choose you without giving my parents the power to destroy both of our lives.”

“Max, I didn’t know.”

“You didn’t ask. You decided you understood my intentions better than I did, then tried to take the choice away from me.”

Liam crossed the distance between us, reaching for my arm. I stepped back before he could touch me.

“I’m sorry,” he said. “I swear I am. I was angry when I wrote it. I kept thinking that if everyone knew, you would finally see that hiding wasn’t an option anymore.”

“So you thought forcing me was better?”

“I didn’t think the podcast would actually use it.”

The excuse was so ridiculous that I laughed, the sound harsh against the wooden walls.

“You emailed an anonymous podcast whose entire purpose was exposing secrets, but you didn’t think they would expose mine?”

“I regretted it afterward.”

“Did you try to stop it?”

His silence returned.

“Did you send another email telling them not to publish it?”

“No.”

“Did you warn me that someone had the information?”

“No.”

Each answer drove another crack through what remained of my trust.

Liam stepped toward me again. “Please. I made one terrible decision.”

“You made it over and over. You sent the email, left it there, and watched Sunday morning come without saying a word to me.”

“I was scared.”

“So was I.” My throat tightened, but I forced the words through it. “The difference is that I was scared of losing my family, my education, and the future I was trying to build. You were scared I might not move fast enough for you.”

His eyes filled. “I thought you would never go through with it.”

“That doesn’t make this better.”

“I love you.”

“I love you too.” Saying it hurt so badly that my chest seemed to fold around the words. “But I don’t know how I’m supposed to trust you now. You took the one thing you knew could destroy my life and handed it to someone whose identity you didn’t even know.”

“Max, please.”

“We’re done.”

His face went blank. “No.”

“I can’t do this anymore.”

“You don’t mean that.”

“I do.” I had never meant anything more, even though every part of me wanted the truth to be different. “I can’t look at you without wondering what else you’ll decide for me when I don’t give you the answer you want.”

Liam caught my wrist before I could turn away. “Please don’t end us over this. I’ll do anything.”

I pulled free. “There is nothing you can do today that gives me back the trust you destroyed yesterday.”

Panic flashed across his face, quickly sharpening into anger. “Fine.”

The change in his voice stopped me.

“If you break up with me, I’ll go public anyway.” His breathing came fast as he spoke, desperation pushing every word harder. “Everyone already knows about me. I’m the one who has nothing left to lose.”

For one stunned moment, I could only stare at him.

Then something inside me went cold.

I stepped forward until only a few inches separated us. Liam had seen me angry before, but never like this. My family had taught me many things I hated, including how to look at someone as though their threat had already failed.

“If you expose me, I will deny it.”

His expression faltered.

“I have been careful for almost two years. We have no photographs together that aren’t team pictures. There are no videos, no recordings, and nothing you can produce that could not be dismissed as fabricated. Text messages can be faked. Screenshots can be altered.”

“Max.”

“My family has enough money and enough attorneys to bury any accusation under years of legal threats. I spent my entire life watching them destroy people who challenged them. I have no interest in becoming like them, but if you try to take my future away from me, I will use every weapon they taught me to use.”

The anger drained from Liam’s face, leaving fear behind.

“You want to try me?” I asked quietly. “Do it. Then you’ll find out exactly what I’m capable of when someone corners me.”

“I didn’t mean it.”

“You meant it enough to say it.”

His eyes closed. “I’m sorry.”

I looked at the man I had loved in secret for almost two years and realized I could forgive desperation someday. I could not build a life with someone who responded to losing me by threatening to destroy me.

“You mistook my patience for weakness,” I said. “Don’t make that mistake again.”

I turned away before he could see how badly my hands had started shaking.

“Max, please.”

I opened the boathouse door and stepped into the cold morning air.

This time, I did not look back.