Chapter 17 "Come to the house. Now." That was the text I'd received from my sister twenty minutes earlier.The second I walked through the door, she snatched me by the arm and dragged me into the living room like I was five and had just embarrassed her in Target."What the hell-""Shut up," she snapped, slamming the door behind us. Priest was standing in the living room. Still. Quiet. He looked... scared?Which, for Priest, was unheard of. "Did you write the speech Priest gave me when he came to New York and begged me to forgive him?" Miyori cut her eyes between the two of us. "After everything that happened?" I opened my mouth to lie. Priest shook his head-barely."Yes," I said, swallowing hard."You better not have lied," she snapped. "Because I found it. On his texts. In his notes." I braced for impact. The way she was looking I thought she was about to hit me. She just jabbed her finger in my direction. "You know I hate when he lies to me, and you helped him? After everything I did for you? I paid for your rehab. I dealt with his crazy ass and his crazy wife and his even crazier brother. You've been making messes since you were sixteen, Maya, and who had to clean that shit up? Me. Always me." She was pacing now, heat rolling off her like a furnace. "You remember when you stole Mom's credit card and booked a flight to Atlanta for that rapper you were obsessed with? Or when you forged my ID and got into that club and started dancing on stage for money? You wanna talk about when you stole-" "I wrote your vows too," I confessed. Silence.Miyori's head jerked back like I slapped her."What?"I shrugged, real calm. "I wrote 'em. Every word." She leaned down, picked a pillow off the sofa, and threw it straight at his face."You let her write your vows?! Your declaration of love to me? Who does that?""She's good with words," Priest said, deadpan."Are you serious?!" She turned back to me, fury swirling behind her eyes."Might as well get it all out in the open," I said, waving a hand. "You're not leaving him. He's not letting you go. So maybe, just maybe, y'all should stop pretending and actually deal with all the toxic shit between you." Her eyes narrowed. "What does that mean?""It means," I said, walking to the door, "you let him lie to you because you're scared of losing him. Because you don't really wanna know the truth. You want the fantasy. You want the softness and the gifts and the pretty house, but you don't want the price that comes with it." "Get out," she screamed. "Get the fuck out!""Gladly." I swung open the door. "And just so I'm not implicated later, go ahead and ask him how his parents really died." Priest's face changed in an instant.He looked like something from hell. Eyes black, jaw clenched, a twitch in his cheek like something dark was crawling under his skin.He reached for his gun.I laughed. "Don't start waving that thing. I'm gone." I stepped out the door, slamming it behind me. Let them deal with it. I didn't feel bad about what I'd done. Sometimes love means knowing the worst of somebody and choosing them anyway.But that only works when everybody stops lying. I hopped on my bike, kicked it into gear, and tore down the street like the devil himself was chasing me. When I reached home, I found Raziel waiting.Arms crossed, expression unreadable. Leaning against the porch like he was carved there from granite. Wearing a T-shirt and black sweatpants.The late light hit the tattoos on his big arms just right, and they looked like shadows moving under his skin.I could tell he was thinking too deep. And I didn't like it. If he thought too much, he'd do something safer than me. "You good, Ra?" He didn't answer right away. Just looked at me like I was a problem."Why can't I stay away from you, even when I try?"He uncrossed his arms, jaw tightening. "No matter how I try to convince myself not to show up at your door, I always end up back here."He said it like he was accusing me of something. I blinked hard, and something in my chest twisted.That was the closest thing to a confession I'd ever gotten from him. I stepped closer, reaching out slowly, like I was about to touch a live wire."In rehab," I whispered, "they said addiction isn't always chemical. It isn't just about drugs. Sometimes it's emotional. Psychological. You chase what makes you feel something because everything else is numb."I pressed my palm to his chest."It's about the way it makes you feel. The escape." His eyes searched mine, dark and burning.But still, he didn't speak. "I'm that for you," I whispered. "And maybe you're that for me."I dragged my fingers up his chest, wrapping them gently around his throat. Not tight. Just there."Maybe we both like chaos a little too much." He didn't flinch. Just stepped in closer, breath fanning across my cheek.Then he grabbed my chin, like he couldn't stop himself. "You wanna go to New York with me?"I blinked. "You serious?"His hand didn't drop. "Yes. Pack light." My lips curled into a slow smile. "I'll be ready whenever." He let go-but not before running his thumb over my bottom lip like he was imprinting it into his memory."Now." Five-year-old Annie, who can understand animals, saved Landon Hawthorne, a wealthy businessman, from suicide. Now she's his whole world and he's her legal cheat-code against every villain fate throws ...