Vic tilts his head as if he’s studying me, waiting for me to answer with the whole truth. “I don’t like him. Not after I met him, and definitely not after tonight.” His voice is steady and calm, but there’s a weight behind it. “I don’t like the way he looks at you. I don’t like the way he talks to you. I don’t like him being around you. And I damn sure don’t like the way he thinks he still has power over you.” His jaw clenches and fingers drum against his thigh. Then his eyes flicker to mine again, locking me in place. “I promise, I won’t let him or any man talk to you like that again.”

Vic speaks with intense conviction, and I just know he’s making a promise he intends to keep.

“I can handle Cory,” I declare, though it comes out weaker than I want.

His eyes darken. “You shouldn’t have to.”

I inhale as I’m caught between the truth in his words and the warmth spreading through my chest. I don’t know what to say, so I do the only thing that feels natural. I slide in a little closer, just slightly. Just enough to let his presence wrap around me.

Vic’s eyes flicker downward before returning to mine. He’s searching and waiting for me to open up.

So, I give him just enough.

I tell him about the little girl who grew up surrounded by love—a love so steady and unwavering that I never once doubted it. Parents who had been together since high school. Grandparents who spent a lifetime together, who danced in the kitchen well into their seventies. A town that felt like a family, where everyone knew your name, where love wasn’t just a feeling but a foundation.

Naturally, I wanted love too.

I wanted the fairytale I grew up in—the kind of love I saw in my parents’ faces and my grandparents’ intertwined hands. So, I let myself believe I found it when I met Cory in middle school and started dating him in high school. He was my prince, and I was his princess.

But after college, everything changed. When I grew into a queen, I was too powerful for him. I had too much potential. I was too loud. Too beautiful. Too ambitious. Too loved.

And he did everything in his power to break me down. I don’t go into the worst of it. I don’t tell Vic about the nights I spent curled up on the floor, feeling smaller than I’d ever felt in my life. I don’t tell him about the gaslighting, the manipulation, the way he made me question my own worth until I almost lost myself completely. I don’t mention the bruises.