“I came home because Dad left me a voicemail saying that Xander wouldn’t give him a DNR and he needed my help. Then he shot me, kicked me out, and forgot who I was—all within forty-eight hours—so I’m not really sure which of those he was lucid for.”

“Cam,” I whispered. The heaviness of what he faced hit my stomach like an anchor. The mere thought of losing my dad and fighting with Charity about it was nauseating.

“But you chose to come back… Why? To settle down and do what? Get married to a man who will never measure up to Saint Sully in Alba’s eyes? To be ridiculed when you haven’t grieved on their time line and done what they expected? Followed their script?”

“I came home for the same reason you did. Family. And people change. The town will just have to adapt.”

“Don’t fool yourself, Willow. This town exists for the dead, not the living. When the younger generations leave, they only come back for funerals—their family’s or eventually their own. Alba is a huge mausoleum, literally funded by tourists who flock here to see the dead things we refuse to let go. We’re all just part of the exhibit. If you’re expecting change or acceptance, don’t. Survival here depends on our ability not to change, to preserve the past. Change and progress are the two things that will kill this town.”

His words stabbed at something deep—a truth I wasn’t ready to surrender to.

“That’s a really narrow way of looking at our home. And it’s ours, just like you said. If you’re capable of change, they are, too.”

“That’s the point.” He pushed off the counter and put a few steps of distance between us before turning around. “It doesn’t matter who I am now. They won’t let me be anyone other than the kid who threw too many punches, broke too many rules, and got Sullivan killed. They can’t let me change, the same way they can’t let you. It’s a matter of self-preservation. And you know it, otherwise you wouldn’t live so far up the mountain, where you’re all tucked away and safe from prying eyes and judgmental mouths.”

“So you’re saying that I’m doomed to a life of loneliness? Of becoming the eccentric old hermit lady? Because I’m going to love again, Cam. I’m going to love and get married and have kids. All of it.” My eyes narrowed as heat spread in my cheeks.

“No, I’m saying that you would have been happier somewhere else, at least until you knew your man was strong enough to withstand the weight of Sullivan’s shadow.”

I scoffed, hopped off the counter, and turned toward the door before I said something we’d both regret.