Keifer's POV:
I stared at the night sky outside the window, trying to steady my hands. The city lights blurred — a reminder that the world kept moving, even when my heart refused to.
It had started as a plan. A calculated game to get back at her brother, to secure what my family had sacrificed for generations. But somewhere along the way, I… I fell. Completely, irreversibly. Jay wasn't just a piece in my plan anymore — she became the center of everything I didn't know how to protect.
And now, with threats closing in from Keeper, Stella, and David… the people I'd learned to fear in silence… the only way to keep her safe was to push her away. To let her believe it was all a lie.
I picked up my phone and stared at her contact. No messages would go through. No calls. She didn't need to see the truth. Not yet.
I whispered to myself, voice rough, "No one can know. No one… except me." My chest tightened. "I love her, and I'll do whatever it takes to keep her out of their reach… even if it kills me to stay away."
Every laugh she shared with her friends, every moment of joy I couldn't touch — it tore at me. But the alternative… letting her get caught in the crossfire of our worlds… that was worse.
So I lied. I smiled when she asked, I stayed distant when she reached for me. I told her it was all a plan, that I never cared. And every word was a dagger in my own heart.
Because loving her shouldn't hurt. But protecting her… sometimes it has to.
I love you untill scientists find the end of the universe my Jay Jay, my life, my future Mrs. Watson wait for me....