My head snapped toward Leo. He raised his hands defensively. "I texted him to show you I had nothing to do with this, I had no idea I swear June."
Selene's face brightened like this was a reunion. She stepped forward, her voice syrupy sweet. "Oh hi, Aaron. What a wonderful coincidence."
"What the hell are you doing here, Selene?"
She didn't flinch. She only lifted her chin, lips curling into a smirk. "Leo hired me. But apparently your insecure ex-fiancée thought she could fire me."
Aaron's chest rose and fell like he was holding back a storm. He stepped closer, every word a snarl. "No. You're getting thehellout of here." Aaron's voice cracked like a whip, low but lethal. "You think I don't see through you? You think I don't know your game? I know you saw an opportunity and took it. You couldn't stand to watch me trying to build something again, trying to claw my way back into the trust of the only woman I've ever loved. That burns you, doesn't it? You had to crawl back in, wedge yourself into the cracks, remind me of the worst version of myself. You came here not because you care about this production, not because you love the stage—God, don't insult us with that act—you came here because you wanted to poison the air around June. You wanted to drag her down into the mud withus, just because youcan. Just because breaking her is easier than admitting you've never had anything real."
"Do you want the truth, Selene? I tried to be kind after I left. I tried to shoulder the blame because I knew it was my betrayal, my weakness. But hear me now: you are the worst thing that ever happened to me. I go to bed wishing I had never met you, and I wake up wishing I had been man enough to tell my fiancée about my debts instead of running to you like a coward. If I'd stood by June, I wouldn't have lost my future. But instead, I chose you and it ruined everything. It ruinedme and her. You are my failure made flesh."
Selene's eyes narrowed. "You're being cruel."
"Cruel?" Aaron barked a bitter laugh that sounded more like a wound than amusement. "No. Cruel is what I did to June. Cruel is shattering the heart of the only woman who ever saw me whole and leaving her bleeding in my absence. You and I, Selene—we are the villains of this story. Especially me. But you? You don't get to lay another finger on her life. Not one. She is the gift the world gave me, the part of myself I'll spend my life trying to earn back, and I was too blind, too weak, too selfish to hold onto it."
Selene tilted her head, her lips curling like a knife. "Is that so? Was I still your 'biggest mistake' when you came to me on your knees, desperate with your debts? Was I still the villain when you kissed me like your lungs were empty without it? When you told me you couldn't breathe without my touch? Was it regret when you chopped vegetables beside me, when we laughed in that kitchen like we were seventeen again? When you put onoursong and danced me across the living room like I was your forever? If I was your mistake, Aaron, then admit it—" hervoice dropped into a venomous whisper "—youlovedliving in it."
The air left my lungs. Her words hit harder than I had braced for. I had imagined it, of course what they might have done, how he might have looked at her, how he might have laughed but imagining andhearingwere worlds apart. It was like watching the shape of my worst fears take flesh, step into the room, and sneer at me. Her voice painted pictures I had shoved away in the dark, and each one sliced through me, a dagger slid between my ribs, slow and merciless.
And yet... after the first shock, after the twisting ache in my chest, something unexpected stirred. A stillness. A brutal, almost cleansing clarity. Because this was it. The truth. No more shadows, no more circling questions, no more haunting "what ifs." For the first time, the ugliness had a name, a shape, a body—and I could look at it without flinching.
It was almost a relief. To hear it. To know it fully. To stop torturing myself with the silence of not knowing. Whatever happened between them, it was real enough to wound me but it was also over and maybe, just maybe, I needed this moment: to face her, to hear it all, to bleed it out so That something else, something lighter, could finally grow where the wound had been.
"Anyway," I said, my voice steadier than I felt, "I'm leaving now. Leo—you're going to escort this woman out and from this point forward, I'll be handling the stage manager hiring myself, since apparently I can't rely on you to use basic judgment."
Leo's face crumpled with shame. "I'm sorry, June. I didn't know—I thought—"
"You didn't think," I cut in coldly.
Then I turned to Aaron. "And you... thank you, actually. This confrontation, as twisted as it is, puts many demons to rest but don't mistake my relief for reconciliation. We'll keep things civil, as we always have, but that's where it ends. What I want now is no more drama, no more ghosts wandering onto my stage. We're less than two weeks from curtain call, and I won't have you—or her—derailing that."
Finally, I let my eyes snap to Selene. "As for you, I'll be calling security to make sure neither you nor Mora step foot near this production again. Only God knows what you're capable of when you're desperate for relevance."
For a moment, silence stretched. Selene seethed, her smile gone sharp as glass. Leo looked small, shrinking into himself. Aaron looked... defeated, a shadow of the man who once stood so tall beside me.
And me? I gathered my bag, straightened my spine, and left them there in their wreckage. I drove back to Jan's place, my hands still tight on the wheel from the rehearsal. The silence inside the car felt heavy, so I flicked on the radio, anything to cut through the echo of Selene's voice in my head.
Static, then a calm broadcaster: "...astronomers have announced that in few weeks, a meteor shower will be visible from across the country, one of the brightest of the year. If the skies are clear, you'll have the chance to witness falling stars."
My throat tightened. A meteor. Of course. I thought instantly of Moonboy, how his laugh used to sound like it could tip the night sky over, how he'd point out constellations no one else couldsee. Not everything from the past was poisoned, I realized. Some things still glowed. Some things were still mine.
I slowed at a red light, tilting my head toward the windshield. No stars in the city haze, just the reflection of my own tired face. But I could imagine them: streaks of fire breaking open the sky, burning for a second, then vanishing. Not destroyed, just transformed.
In that thought, something lit inside me. Falling. Burning. Surviving. Maybe even shining brighter because of it. A different idea for the choreography bloomed all at once, movements that started with collapse, then spiraled, rose, reached, until the dancers became a storm of light.
The light turned green. I pressed the gas.
For the first time in months, I wasn't replaying what I'd lost. I was thinking of what I could create.
Chapter Twenty-Seven: It's Time
For two weeks straight, I kept rehearsing. Obsessing, really. I had added a solo at the very end of the performance, something no one had asked for, something only mine. Nobody even knew it was there. I poured myself into it. Every note, every movement, every breath.
Leo was there through most of it, hovering on the edges of my frustration. He kept apologizing—apologizing for Mora, for Selene, apologizing for the chaos but none of it made adifference. I had overheard him fighting with Aaron. I caught the tail end:
"You did this on purpose, Leo!" Aaron's voice was sharp, spitting. "You've always had a crush on her, and you saw this as your chance."
Leo shot back without hesitation. "Can you stop with your stupid conspiracy theories? Yes, I've always liked her. Who wouldn't? But I had no idea it was that Selene! Don't blame me or her though, you were an idiot, Aaron. You had her, and you let her go."
