Chapter 75.

Slade’s POV.

The fact that Cyrus came annoyed me, but I blamed it on everything else first. The music was bad. The lights were too dim. The crowd didn’t understand the theme. All of it sounded better than the truth — that it irritated me to see Allison’s attention shift the moment he showed up. It was subtle, almost unnoticeable to anyone else, but I caught it. The way her eyes softened just for a second. Like she’d seen a ghost she didn’t hate.

I tried not to ...