I can’t help but smile at the fondness in her voice. “She sounds like she saw the good in everything.”
“She did,” Alex says with a sad little laugh that breaks my heart. “Even when everyone told her the puppy was too wild, she just said he needed extra love.”
The image I had of Alex—the girl who had it all, whose life was charmed and easy—crumbles away.
“What happened?” I ask gently.
“She had this little off-grid cabin she was so proud of,” Alex says softly. “Always talking about sustainable living, growing her own food, living off the land. She loved being there with Willow.”
I can’t help but smile at the fondness in her voice. “She sounds like she lived what she believed in.”
“She did. God, she was so excited about that well water at first. Said it tasted better than anything from the city.” Alex’s hands clench. “She had no idea the mining company’s waste was seeping into the groundwater. Their cheap contractors didn’t properly contain the tailings, and it just... it leaked. For months.”
I inhale a sharp breath.
“One day, Willow got loose near the lake, ran straight into the water. Emma went in after him, not knowing...” Alex’s voice shakes. “The puppy died that night. And Emma, she’d already been sick for a while—headaches, feeling tired, but we thought it was just stress from teaching. After the lake incident, everything got worse. By the time the doctors tested for heavy metals...”
I pull her in toward me as she trembles against me, her tears soaking my shirt. The mining industry’s dirty secrets—I’ve grown up with them, lived with them through my dad. But this? This is something else entirely.
“Half the properties with wells were contaminated,” she continues, voice hollow. “Emma’s place got the worst of it because she was closest to where the tailings seeped. She was literally being poisoned by trying to live sustainably.” She letsout this broken laugh that guts me. “The company paid some pathetic fine, fired their contractors, capped the contaminated wells, acted like that made everything okay. Like they hadn’t just destroyed lives with their shortcuts. And I… I didn’t doanything. I didn’t say goodbye.”
“It’s not your fault, Lex, you were a kid,” I can’t believe she even thinks she could’ve done anything.
She nods against my chest, but I can feel her tears soaking through my shirt. “I know. Logically, I know that. But sometimes... I should have noticed something was wrong, you know?”
“Yeah,” I murmur, thinking of Dad’s cough that we all ignored too long. “I get that.”
“After it happened, I was just... lost.” She pulls back, wiping her eyes. “But then I got angry. At these companies that think profit matters more than people. At the system that lets them get away with it.”
The fire in her eyes registers. This isn’t the Alex who color-codes her notes and grins at recycling bins. This is someone forged in loss, turned pain into purpose.
“That’s why I’m doing this,” she says fiercely. “Why I fight so hard. Because I couldn’t save Emma, but maybe I can stop it from happening to someone else’s Emma.”
“You’re fucking incredible,” I say before I can stop myself. “You know that?”
She blinks at me like I’ve lost it. “What?”
“I mean it.” My voice comes out rougher than intended. “Taking this shit and making it mean something? That’s... that’s fucking brave, Lex. Emma would be proud as hell.”
Fresh tears, but there’s something else there too—something that makes my chest tight. “You think?”
“I know.” I hold her gaze, needing her to believe this. “And you need to know it too. Repeat after me: I, Alexandria Ford, am a certified badass.”
She snorts, rolling her eyes. “Freddie, come on?—”
“Nuh-uh,” I cut her off. “Say it with your chest. I, Alexandria Ford, am a certified badass.”
She gives me that look—the one that says I’m being ridiculous but she kind of likes it. “I, Alexandria Ford, am a certified badass,” she mumbles.
“What was that? My grandmother shouts louder at bingo!” I bellow, not giving a shit if the whole parking lot hears. “Again!”
“I, ALEXANDRIA FORD, AM A CERTIFIED BADASS!”
Her hand claps over her mouth, eyes wide like she can’t believe that volume just came out of her. For a second, we just stare at each other. Then she snorts—actually snorts—and we both lose it.
The kind of laughter that makes your stomach hurt, that makes you forget why you were sad in the first place. Alex is practically wheezing, mascara smudged under her eyes, and she’s still the most beautiful thing I’ve ever seen.
Fuck.
