The sun had barely broken over the horizon but Maya was already dressed, jeans hugging her hips, her blouse pressed crisply, paired with her leather boots striking the pavement like punctuation marks to her silent rage. She looked every bit the composed woman Bellwood had come to expect. But beneath her perfect skin, the stylish layers, the neat hair...a wildfire was burning.
Her eyes were swollen and rimmed red, not from sleeplessness, it was from betrayal. From a heartbreak so deep it lodged itself in the hollows of her ribs, flaring every time she breathed.
She didn't say goodbye to Sienna that morning. She had stormed out the apartment door as if something inside her might have imploded she didn't move.
As she crossed the university grounds, her stride didn't falter. Not even when she caught the gleam of that familiar figure leaning against the stone steps of the west building.
Logan.
He stood there looking radiant and effortless like he always did. That same tousled hair that begged to be touched, that charming grin curving his lips. His gray hoodie layered over a white tee.
His smile broke wider the moment he saw her, relief dancing across his features like the sun had broken through the clouds.
"Maya," he said, stepping off the steps, already reaching for her. "You're here, I was worried when-"
He moved closer, leaned down like he always did, like maybe she had let him fold her into his arms and everything would be right again.
But she stopped.
A breath.
A beat.
Then-
Crack.
The slap reverberated across the courtyard like the shot of a pistol. A burst of pure, raw pain and fury unleashed in a single, blistering sound.
Logan's face jerked to the side, his hand immediately rising to his cheek, stunned silence crashing over him. The air between them hanged thick with shock and static.
Heads turned as students stopped mid-stride. A few gasped. Someone dropped their iced-latte.
But Maya didn't care. Not one goddamn bit.
She didn't look at the crowd. Her eyes were brimming with a thousand unsaid words, locked onto Logan's with a fury that could have melted gold.
Logan blinked, stunned and completely blindsided. "Maya..." he started, with a low voice that was rough. "What-what the hell was that?"
But she didn't speak, not yet. She let the collision of her hands to his face marinate first.
Because if she opened her mouth, the pain might tumble out like glass, sharp and unrelenting. Because if she said what she saw, she might break, and she didn't come here to break. She came here to confront him.
Her chest rose and fell as if she had just run a marathon, and maybe she had, in her mind, in her heart, the distance between love and betrayal had never been longer.
His confusion twisted into concern and panic.
"Maya," he said again, quieter this time, stepping toward her cautiously, like he was nearing a wounded animal. "Whatever you think, whatever you saw, just please, talk to me."
But she flinched away from his touch. And that hurt more than the slap.
She looked at him now, not with the warmth she used to, not with the slow burning affection that once curled in her belly. She looked at him like he had burned her with something mercilessly. Something irreversible.
"I saw you," she said, finally, her voice low but clear, thick with unshed tears. "With him."
Logan's face went pale.
Her lip trembled but she set her jaw. "And you don't get to smile at me, you don't get to act like everything's fine, when everything is in fact a lie."
The crowd had grown, but Logan wasn't focused on them anymore. He only saw her. And the devastation he had caused.
"Maya, it's not what you think."
But she shook her head, tears now dangerously close. "Don't...just don't."
And before he could stop her, before he could explain or beg or say all the things his heart wanted to unleash out, she turned and walked away.
Leaving Logan behind, on the steps where once he thought love would start, now standing amidst the ruin of something that bad barely begun.
But Maya didn't get far.
Three dozen feet down the walk, she stopped. Her spine stiff and her breathing was uneven. Her hand curled into a fist around nothing. And her heart… oh, her heart had started to throb against her ribs like it was being punished for caring.
She turned.
Logan hadn't moved. His hand still hovered at his cheek, but his expression had shifted—from shock to shame. He looked at her like a man who just realized he'd burned down his only shelter and now stood in the ashes.
Then Maya spoke. "Why him?" Her eyes glistened but held no softness. "Why Damian, Logan?"
Students watched from the fountain, the steps, behind trees—too far to hear the words, but close enough to taste the tension.
Logan took a tentative step forward, guilt bleeding from every line in his face. "Maya, please... let me explain."
"Oh, now you want to explain?" she barked, biting the inside of her cheek to stop the quiver in her voice. "After hiding it? After letting me walk around campus, clueless, talking to him like—like I wasn't the damn fool in the room!"
"It wasn't like that," Logan said, jaw tightening. "I didn't plan for you to find out that way. Damian just—he showed up."
"You were kissing him!" Her voice cracked, louder now, and heads turned. She didn't care. "And don't you dare tell me it didn't mean anything."
Logan's eyes flared. "It was a mistake," he said, his voice low and frayed. "He kissed me—I didn't want it. I didn't expect it. I pushed him away—"
"Liar." Her voice was bitter. "You didn't push anyone away."
Logan's mouth tightened into a bitter line. "You think I wanted you to see that? You think I'm proud of it?" He ran a hand through his hair. "Damian and I... we were something once. Before you. Before this. And it ended. I cut him off because he's toxic, Maya. But I didn't know how to tell you about it. I didn't want to bring that into us."
She flinched at the word. Us. Like it still existed.
"Then why was he at your house?" she demanded.
"I didn't invite him! He came by unannounced. He—he was always like that. Controlling. Manipulative." Logan's voice turned sharp. "He's been trying to worm his way back in. And I've been pushing back. But you showed up at the worst moment, Maya."
She gave a cold, broken laugh. "Oh, I'm sorry my heart decided to break at an inconvenient time for you."
Logan stepped forward again, desperate now. "I should've told you. I should've—"
"But you didn't." Her chin quivered as she backed away. "You didn't trust me. You just watched me fall for you while you had secrets stacked behind your back."
His face twisted in pain. "I do trust you. I just didn't know how to give you the truth without losing you."
"Well," she said, stepping back into the shadow of the stone pillars. "Now you've done both."
The crowd wasn't pretending not to watch anymore as their eyes lingered on Maya and Logan.
But Maya's entire world had shrunk down to Logan Hayes—and the wreckage of the boy she thought she knew.
She gave one final look—filled with betrayal, with heartbreak, with the kind of disappointment that would linger in her bones for years—and turned.
This time, she didn't stop.
And Logan?
He stood there. Alone again. Always alone. And now, the guilt roared louder than anything Damian had ever said. Louder than the past, louder than his pride.
He'd meant to protect her from the ugliness of his past.
But now she was running from him—and he knew, deep down, this time, she might never come back.