The next day, the final bell felt like a starting gun. Dianna bypassed her usual group of friends, her stomach a tight knot of dread and determination.

She knew the route Holden took home, a shortcut that cut behind the old gymnasium and through a narrow, brick-walled alley.

She waited there, leaning against the cool brick, the smell of dust and old rain in the air. Her heart hammered against her ribs, a frantic drumbeat counting down the seconds.

He appeared a few minutes later, backpack slung over one shoulder, his expression as impassive as ever. When he saw her standing there, blocking his path, his brows drew together in a dark line of irritation.

He tried to step around her, but she moved, planting herself directly in front of him.

"Holden, can we please just talk? Five minutes." Her voice was thin, pleading.

He stopped. His eyes darted around the empty space, ensuring they were alone. Then, his hand shot out, clamping around her wrist like a manacle.

A gasp escaped her. Before she could process what was happening, he was dragging her, his grip bruisingly tight, into the shadows of the alley.

He shoved her against the wall. Her back hit the rough brick with a jolt that knocked the air from her lungs.

Holden planted his hands on the wall on either side of her head, caging her in. His face was inches from hers, his eyes dark and menacing.

"What the hell do you want?" he bit out, his voice a low, dangerous growl.

Fear, cold and sharp, pricked at her skin, but she held his gaze. She had to. "I just want the truth."

A humorless smile twisted his lips. It didn't reach his eyes. His gaze dropped, sweeping over her from head to toe with a slow, insulting appraisal, as if he were calculating her worth.

Then, he reached into the pocket of his jeans and pulled out a worn leather wallet. He flipped it open and extracted a thick fold of cash. The gesture was deliberate, theatrical in its cruelty.

He threw the bills at her feet. They scattered on the grimy pavement, a fan of green against the dirt.

"Name your price," he said, his voice devoid of all emotion. "How much will it take for you to shut up and disappear from my life?"

Dianna stared at the money, then back up at his face. The world went silent.

The blood in her veins felt like it had turned to ice. He thought... he thought she was trying to blackmail him.

The memory she had treasured, the secret moment she had replayed in her mind a thousand times, was just a transaction to him. A liability.

The tears she had held back last night broke free, hot and silent, trailing down her cold cheeks.

"What... what do you think I am?" she whispered, her voice cracking with a pain so profound it felt like it was tearing her apart from the inside.

For a fraction of a second, as he watched her cry, something flickered in his eyes. A hesitation. A crack in the frozen facade. But it was gone as quickly as it appeared, replaced by an even deeper, more impenetrable cold.

He seemed to have reached the end of his patience. "Fine," he snapped. "You want the truth?"

She nodded, a desperate, jerky movement, clinging to that single word.

"I was drunk that night," he said, articulating each word with brutal precision. "I don't remember who you were. I don't care who you were. It was a mistake. A mistake I wish had never happened."

Her entire world crumbled. It wasn't a misunderstanding. It wasn't a lie. It was worse. It was meaningless to him.

"So... you admit it was you?" She latched onto the one solid fact in the wreckage of her feelings.

He ran a hand through his hair, a gesture of pure, unadulterated annoyance. "So what if it was? It was a drunken mistake. It meant nothing."

He leaned in closer, his breath warm against her ear, his voice dropping to a venomous whisper. "Now, take your money. And get lost."

A violent tremor ran through her body. It wasn't from fear anymore. It was from the agony of a heart being systematically destroyed.

She didn't even glance at the money on the ground. She lifted her tear-streaked face and looked at him, one last, long look, memorizing the cruel set of his mouth, the cold emptiness in his eyes. She wanted to burn this image into her brain, so she would never be foolish enough to forget.

Then, with a strength she didn't know she had, she shoved him back.

She turned and ran, her feet pounding against the pavement, echoing the frantic beat of her broken heart. She didn't look back.

As she fled the alley, she heard it behind her—a muffled, sickening crack, like bone meeting brick, followed by a low, guttural roar of frustration swallowed by the wet, heavy air.

A gust of wind swirled through the alley, lifting the scattered bills and sending them skittering across the ground.

Dianna didn't stop running until she was inside her bedroom with the door locked behind her. Her back slid down the smooth wood paneling until she was huddled on the floor, and only then did she let the sobs come.

His words echoed in her mind, a relentless, torturous loop. A mistake. It meant nothing. Take your money.

She caught a glimpse of herself in the vanity mirror across the room-eyes swollen, face blotchy and red. She looked pathetic. She felt pathetic. A fool who had built a castle of dreams on a foundation of nothing.

Her gaze fell on the desk. Lying there was a thick cream-colored envelope. The UCLA logo was embossed in the corner. An acceptance letter to a new life in a new city. A city far away from Santa Monica.

Until today, she had been hesitating. Holden was staying local for college, and a small, stupid part of her had held onto the fantasy that maybe, with time, things could be different.

That fantasy was now a pile of ash.

Staying here, in the same town, breathing the same air as him, felt like a prison sentence. Every corner, every street would be a reminder of her own stupidity.

A new feeling began to push through the grief-a cold, hard resolve. She stood up, her movements stiff, and wiped the tears from her face with the back of her hand. Her reflection stared back, the sorrow in her eyes slowly being replaced by a steely emptiness.

She pulled a large suitcase out from under her bed and began to pack. Her motions were mechanical, detached. She folded sweaters, jeans, t-shirts. She left behind her yearbooks. She left behind the worn paperback she'd been reading at the beach house that night. She left behind a spiral notebook where, on the back page, she had practiced writing her first name with his last.

She packed only the future. The past was poison.

At the graduation ceremony a week later, she saw him from a distance, standing with his friends, laughing easily. He looked handsome and carefree, as if the scene in the alley had never happened. As if she didn't exist.

He never once looked in her direction.

It was the final confirmation she needed. He truly wanted her to disappear.

Fine, she thought, a bitter taste in her mouth. You got it.

She skipped all the graduation parties.The day after receiving her diploma, she said goodbye to her family and boarded a car to Los Angeles.

The Los Angeles sun was bright, a constant, cheerful glare that felt a world away from the misty mornings of Santa Monica. The UCLA campus was a bustling ecosystem of its own, and Dianna had carved out a quiet existence within it.

She was a senior now. Her hair was longer, her face had lost its teenage roundness, and a permanent look of calm composure had settled in her eyes. She had poured herself into her studies, into her part-time job at the campus library, into building a life that was orderly and predictable.

She had not been back to Santa Monica once. She had muted, blocked, and unfollowed anyone who might post a picture of Holden Barron. She had starved her memory of him until she believed he was gone.

Her phone buzzed in her pocket, pulling her from her thoughts as she walked out of the Powell Library. The caller ID read Chloe Sullivan.

"Hey," Dianna answered, shifting her tote bag of books on her shoulder.

"Dianna! Where are you? Dinner plans have changed!" Chloe's voice was bubbly, laced with excitement.

"Changed? Why?"

"It's Ashley!" Chloe chirped, her tone dropping to a conspiratorial whisper. "Her new super-rich boyfriend is treating us. He upgraded the reservation to that crazy expensive place downtown. Aria!"

Dianna wasn't particularly interested in fancy restaurants or her roommate's mysterious boyfriends. "Okay. Just text me the address."

"You have to hurry! We're all dying to finally meet this guy. Ashley's been so secretive about him."

A small, tired smile touched Dianna's lips. "I'll be there soon."

She hung up and a moment later, a text with the address for Aria popped up on her screen. Her heart felt nothing. No excitement, no curiosity. It was just another dinner.

Back in her dorm room, she changed out of her jeans and into a simple black dress. She looked at herself in the mirror. The girl staring back was a stranger to the heartbroken teenager who had fled her hometown four years ago. The eyes were the same, but the desperate hopefulness was gone, replaced by a quiet guard.

She took a deep breath, grabbed her purse, and headed out the door. She took a car to that restaurant to have a dinner appointment, to face a memory she thought had been forever buried in the past