Chapter 273

Book 2 ~ Chapter 38

**Jake’s POV **

+25 Points

The moment she says it, the fear she’s been carrying is right there, clear as day. The weight of it all. It’s in the way her shoulders drop, as if she’s been holding herself together for far too long. In the way her gaze doesn’t quite meet ours anymore, like saying it out loud has made it harder to pretend she’s still in control.

“I didn’t tell you because I was scared.”

A heavy silence settles over the room as everything starts to fall into place. My thoughts tangle, fragments of the puzzle I’ve been trying to solve finally beginning to connect. But one truth rings clear above all the others… We failed her.

She didn’t feel safe enough to come to us with this. Not at the start, not when it mattered. And that’s not something I can easily forgive myself for