My heart jams in my throat. The evidence.

I whirl around, and my eyes fasten on a form moving through the trees at the end of the cul-de-sac. With a sinking feeling, I know where Kane is headed.

I tear off after him, screaming his name. “Kane, don—” I shout as I enter the clearing, seeing him crouching over the fire pit with the backpack, a container of lighter fluid, and a lighter.

“Let us go, Hailey,” he says softly in a quiet but commanding voice. I thought I knew every side of Kane, but I’ve never seen this one, and it’s why my shout dies in my throat. He looks up at me as he finds a flame and touches the lit tip to the canvas fabric. “Please.”

I’ve never heard his voice so fragile. He’s begging me. I can do nothing but stare helplessly as the bag starts to smolder, then bursts into flames.

Everything I know might as well be burning with it.

He comes beside me, reaches into his pocket, unfolds a piece of paper, and stares at it. Then he hands it to me. “I found this in his room the day he died.”

I glance at it, then look away. I know what it is. It’s a note to accompany my Valentine’s Day flower. It says:

You’re the most amazing person I know.—Declan

The tears hit my cheeks even before I see that it’s not written out to me. It’s written out to Luisa.

“Why would he have written this if he was breaking up with Luisa?”

“He didn’t hand it in,” I protest.

“But he still wrote it. To her.”

I swallow. I shrug. I tug on the hem of my shorts with both hands.

“Hailey,” Kane says. “You have to let us go. It. Ends. Here. Do you understand? For me. For Declan. It ends here and now.”

I bring my hands to my face and cover it, hoping to shield myself from him. “No.”

“Yes, Hailey. It’s over.”

I swallow as he looks back at the flames, now consuming the entire backpack. He throws Declan’s note into the fire, and then sinks to his knees. “Oh God, Hailey. God. You know, when I thought about going to college, the thousands of choices out there, I thought, in four years, I could be one of a thousand different people. It all depended on what choice I made from here.” He shakes his head and looks up at the smoke, climbing into the trees. “And then I thought, Or I can stay here. With what’s comfortable. And part of me kept wanting to tread that safe, narrow road.”

I look at him. He falls back onto his backside, throwing his arms over his bended knees.