Falling Between the Notes (Nicholas Galitzine)

Chapter 74: La Noche de Anoche

Jade's POV

The house was too quiet.

I stood in the middle of the living room, my breath still uneven, my skin still burning from the words Nick and I had just thrown at each other. The air felt heavy, thick with something I couldn't shake.

It was real now.

Not the way it had been in Miami, where I could pretend, where Benito's hands and the heat of distraction had kept me from truly feeling it. Not even the way it had been on the flight here, where my mind swirled but my body was still in motion.

No, this was different. This was the aftermath.

Nick was gone.

For the first time in years, he wasn't waiting for me, wasn't calling, wasn't mine in any way that mattered.

I pressed a hand to my stomach, like that could stop the ache that was growing there.

The fight had taken everything out of me. I could still hear his voice, still see the way his face had shattered, the way his hands had clenched into fists at his sides, shaking with something that looked too much like grief.

I was exhausted.

But my mind wouldn't stop.

I should have felt relief.

I should have felt something like peace, knowing I stood my ground, that I didn't let him drag me back in. But all I felt was this crushing weight pressing down on my chest, like I had lost something I wasn't ready to lose.

I sat down on the couch slowly, curling my legs under me. The house felt too big. Too empty. My fingers twitched toward my phone, toward Benito's name.

I hesitated.

Benito had been texting me, checking in. But I hadn't answered. Not since I walked into this house and found Nick sitting there like a ghost waiting to haunt me.

I reached for my phone, but my hand stopped before I could unlock it.

I wasn't ready.

Not yet.

Instead, I lay back against the couch, staring at the ceiling, my body sinking into the silence.

I had been running from this moment.

From the quiet.

From myself.

But there was nowhere left to run.

I closed my eyes, and for the first time since this breakup started, I let myself break.

Nick's POV

I fucked up.

The second I walked out of Jade's house, I knew it.

I drove aimlessly for a while, my grip tight on the steering wheel, my mind replaying every word, every moment, every second of that fight.

I wanted to be angry.

I wanted to hate her.

I wanted to convince myself that she was the villain in this, that she had moved on first, that she had betrayed me.

But the truth?

I was the one who had done it.

I had been so fucking jealous, so out of my mind watching her in Miami, watching her with him, that I let myself do the worst thing I could have done.

Jenna.

I had called her. I had let the paparazzi see us together. I had walked through LA, hand in hand with the one person who had once been my biggest mistake, and I did it knowing it would hurt Jade.