It was an accident.
She didn't mean to find it.
Savannah had gone back to Noah's house to grab a few things she'd left behind. He wasn't home - probably out with friends again, pretending he didn't still hate her.
She moved through the guest room slowly, folding a sweater she'd forgotten, brushing her fingers across the bed where Jace used to sleep.
That's when she saw it.
A single, folded piece of paper tucked beneath the edge of the nightstand drawer.
Her name was written on the front.
In Jace's handwriting.
She stared at it for a full minute, heart in her throat.
Then she opened it.
Savannah -
I won't say this out loud because if I do, I won't survive your face when I do.
So I'm writing it.
You need to know that none of this was about lust. It was never just the way you looked at me or the way you moved or the way your voice gets low when you're angry.
It was the way you saw me when I couldn't even look at myself.
You've always seen me.
Even when I was trying to disappear behind Noah. Behind the Army. Behind guilt.
I tried so hard not to want you. I thought it made me a better man to walk away.
But it didn't.
It just made me a lonely one.
That night… I've never known anything so real. You made me feel alive in a way nothing else ever has.
And I know I ruined it.
I know I hurt you.
But I need you to know this:
I didn't leave because I stopped loving you.
I left because I did.
I've loved you for years, Savannah.
I just didn't know how to be yours without breaking everything else.
But the truth is - I'd rather break the world than live one more day without you in it.
- Jace
Savannah stared at the letter through blurred vision, breath shaking, fingers trembling.
And all she could think was:
It was never too late… until now.
But maybe it still wasn't.
Maybe she could fix this.
Maybe she could fight for him the way he had never quite known how to fight for her.
She clutched the letter to her chest, heart pounding with purpose.
It was time to stop waiting.
Time to start chasing what she already knew was hers.