The moment I saw him, the tears I’d been holding back all night just fell. Not from pain.
It was the safety of knowing someone was finally, solidly on my side.
Miles’s eyes found my face instantly. The swelling cheek. The blood at the corner of my mouth. The raw red marks around my wrist.
The cold in his eyes could’ve killed.
He crossed the room in three strides, pulled me out of Ethan’s grip, and wrapped me tight against his chest. One hand cradled the back of my head. His voice was low.
“I’m sorry I’m late.”
I buried my face in his chest. The familiar cedar scent hit me.
I shook my head.
“No. You’re here. That’s all that matters.”
Miles tilted my face up, his thumb brushing the blood from my mouth, careful not to press the wound.
His touch was feather-light.
His voice, when he spoke, was a blade.
“Who hit her?”
The room went cemetery-quiet.
The same people who were jeering seconds ago were suddenly staring at the floor, struck mute, like language had abandoned them.
The venue manager stood by the door, sweat beading on his forehead.
“Mr. Grant, we’ve already pulled the security footage. Full coverage, inside and outside the room.”
“We can call the police immediately.”
Mr. Grant.
Those two words detonated the room.
Someone dropped a glass. It shattered.
Someone stood up too fast and sank right back down.
Derek’s smile froze on his face like cracked plaster.
“Mr… Grant? The Aegis Dynamics Mr. Grant?”
Chloe’s face went white as a sheet. “That’s impossible. How could Nora actually be Mr. Grant’s fiancée?”
I didn’t look at them.
I only looked at Ethan.
He stood there, rooted to the spot, every drop of color draining from his face. The arrogance, the contempt, the smug certainty—all of it shattered.
His lips moved. Nothing came out.
Miles followed my gaze and landed on him. The look was sub-zero.
“You?”
Ethan’s throat bobbed.
“Mr. Grant, I—I had no idea she was your fiancée.”
And that was the line that did it. That was the line that made it all so absurd.
He didn’t know I was Miles Grant’s fiancée, so hitting me was fine.
Didn’t know I was Miles Grant’s fiancée, so dragging me off to a back room was totally fine.
Didn’t know, so screwing with my applications ten years ago, letting everyone rip me to shreds—all of that was just some big joke.
I lifted my head and asked him, calm.
“So if I weren’t Miles Grant’s fiancée, it would’ve been okay to do all that to me?”
Ethan’s face went rigid. “Nora, that’s not what I meant.”
He stumbled toward me, panic breaking through.
Miles stepped forward, blocking me completely behind him. An assistant moved to intercept Ethan.
Ethan looked like a man waking up inside a nightmare. He stared at Miles, voice trembling.
“Mr. Grant, this is all just a huge misunderstanding. Me and Nora go way back. We grew up together, we were together. What happened back there—that was just a stupid fight that got out of hand. I never meant to hurt her. I swear to god, I didn’t think it would go that far.”
Miles looked at him with pure ice.
“Grew up together? So when you secretly altered her college applications ten years ago—was that also just a fight between you?”
Ethan’s head snapped up.
He stared at me, disbelief pouring off him.
He couldn’t believe I’d told Miles that.
I met his eyes.
“What, you’re surprised? Why the hell wouldn’t I tell him? Wasn’t that your crowning achievement?”
Ethan’s eyes went red.
“Nora, I was seventeen. I was an idiot. I regretted it. I swear to God, I regretted every second of it. After you blocked me, I looked for you everywhere. I’ve been waiting for you all these years.”
I smiled. “Waiting for me? That’s what you call it? Letting them humiliate me at this reunion? Slapping me across the face? Trying to drag me into a back room? Jesus, Ethan. Your version of love is seriously screwed up.”
He flinched like I’d sliced him open. His face cycled through white and red.
“No. I just—I got so angry. When I heard you say you were getting married, I lost it. You’re supposed to be mine.”
Miles’s arm tightened around me.
I could feel the fury coiled in him. But I didn’t want to hide behind him right now.
I gave his hand a gentle pat and stepped out of his arms. I stood in front of Ethan and said each word with deliberate weight.
“Ethan, I am not yours. I wasn’t ten years ago. I’m definitely not now. The moment you changed my applications—that was the end.”
The tears finally broke down Ethan’s face. He shook his head, wrecked.
“No. You loved me so much back then. You gave up your favorite major for me. You wanted Lakewood for me. You can’t just stop loving someone like that.”
I stared at him.
In my head, that night from ten years ago played back. Me, standing outside the door. Him, laughing. “She’s always been a crybaby. Easy to calm down.”
The whole room laughing. “Nora Parker’s nothing.”
I used to think that was the most humiliating moment of my life.
Now I know. The shame was never mine.
It was theirs.
“Because damage has weight,” I said.
“You changed my applications. I moved across the country to get away from you.”
“You let them mock me in the group chat over and over. You never said a goddamn word.”
“That thread. It blew up. My photo got shared everywhere.”
“My freshman year, I barely slept.”
“I spent thousands of dollars on therapy.”
“It took me years to claw my way out of the hole you threw me into.”
“And you think you can just wipe all of that away with ‘I was young’ and ‘it was just a joke’?”
Ethan stared at me, stunned.
He looked like a man who’d never once considered that the things he brushed off so lightly had precise, hard numbers attached to them in my life.
Miles’s voice cut through, cold and final.
“Ethan Hayes. As of this moment, you are no longer an employee of Aegis Dynamics.”
Ethan’s face collapsed.
“Mr. Grant—no. You can’t do this. I’m up for manager next quarter. My project’s almost finished. The company can’t fire me now. I’ve pulled so many all-nighters for this—”
Miles cut him off.
“Aegis doesn’t need people with no integrity. People who commit criminal acts. Everything you did to Nora tonight—the cameras caught it. Our legal team will make sure she has everything she needs to pursue this to the end.”
Ethan’s knees buckled. He nearly hit the floor.
He finally stopped looking at Miles and turned to me.
“Nora. Nora, please. Say something. You know how hard I worked to get here. My parents—they were so proud when I got into Aegis. If they find out I got fired, it’ll destroy them. For the sake of how long we’ve known each other. Please.”
I looked at him and felt nothing but cold.
Ten years ago, standing in that tiny rented room in Southport, holding my acceptance letter, I thought the same thing.
I worked hard to get here.
How many practice tests did I grind through for Lakewood? How many late nights? I gave up literature and history—the things I actually loved—just to keep up with his STEM scores.
And when he destroyed my choices, did he think about how hard I worked?
No.
He called it a joke.
I dropped my eyes. My voice was flat.
“Ethan. I’m not a saint.”
“And it’s not my job to forgive the people who tried to ruin me.”