My Fake Boyfriend Is the School Bad Boy novel Chapter 78

Chapter 78 A Promise Made Without Further Secrets

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Ryder stood three feet away from me. The distance felt like a physical chasm. He braced his broad shoulders, locking his jaw, preparing for the inevitable moment I turned my back and walked out the heavy wooden doors. He expected disgust. He expected fear. He had spent his entire life watching people run from the broken pieces of his family, and he was waiting for me to do the same.

I did not move.

The silence stretched between us, thick with the smell of old canvas and settling dust. I looked at the boy who had just handed me the darkest, most agonizing chapter of his life. I saw the fading bruises on his cheekbone. I saw the raw, unshed tears making the gold in his eyes shine in the dim light.

I took a step forward.

Ryder flinched, a sharp intake of breath scraping his throat.

I closed the gap. I reached out and took his left hand. His skin felt like a furnace against the freezing air of the corridor. I traced the callouses on his palm, feeling the heavy silver rings bite into my own knuckles.

“Okay,” I said.

My voice was a quiet anchor in the shadows.

Ryder stared down at our joined hands. A deep crease formed between his dark eyebrows. He looked lost.

“Okay?” he repeated. The gravel in his tone fractured.

“You don’t have to tell me today,” I told him, keeping my gaze steady on his face. “You gave me the truth about your brother. You gave me the truth about the rumors. That is enough for now.”

He let out a ragged breath. “Raisa. If you knew what it was. If you knew what I did-

“I know what you do,” I interrupted, squeezing his fingers. “You teach little girls how to subtract. You skip class to help me breathe through a panic attack. You take the blame for sins that do not belong to you.”

“That does not erase the rest of it,” he argued. A desperate, self-loathing edge coated his words. He wanted to convince me he was ruined.

“I am not asking you to erase it,” I countered. I lifted my free hand and rested it flat against the center of his chest. I felt the erratic, thumping rhythm of his heart through the thin cotton of his faded shirt. “I am just asking you to stay right here. With me.”

Ryder closed his eyes. A tremor wrecked his massive frame. He turned his hand, lacing his long fingers through mine. His grip was a grounding weight. He held on like a drowning man grabbing a lifeline.

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12:56 Fri, Jul 10

Chapter 78 A Promise Made Without Further Secrets

‘I need a promise,” I said, breaking the quiet.

He opened his eyes. The shadows in his hazel irises retreated, making room for a cautious, fragile hope. “Anything.”

The fake dating contract is dead,” I stated.

The words felt like a heavy stone rolling off my chest. I thought about the typed pages hidden in the back of my planner. I thought about the rigid rules, the calculated boundaries, the clinical lists of acceptable physical contact.

“No more acting,” I continued. “No more performances for Harper Vance or Chase Montgomery. We keep the story for the school. We let them think whatever they want. But between us? We drop the lie.”

Ryder searched my face. His gaze tracked the line of my jaw, the curve of my mouth, and the determination shining in my brown eyes.

“You want it to be real, he said. It was not a question.

I want the truth, I corrected. ‘I want the boy who bought the cologne I liked. I want the boy who remembers my exact coffee order. If we hold hands in the hallway, we do it because we want to. Not because there is an audience.”

A slow, devastating warmth spread across his features. The harsh lines of his face softened. The impenetrable bad-boy armor dissolved into the dusty air, leaving behind a boy who looked entirely, beautifully human.

“No more lies, Ryder agreed. His voice was a deep, rough caress.

He let go of my hand. Before the cold air could rush into the empty space, he wrapped both arms around my waist. He pulled me flush against his chest, eliminating the distance between us.

I went up on my tiptoes. I wrapped my arms around his neck, burying my fingers into the soft, dark hair at the nape of his neck.

He pressed his face into the curve of my shoulder. He let out a long, heavy sigh. The sound vibrated against my collarbone. He rested his weight against me, dropping the unbearable burden he had carried alone for two years.

We stood in the abandoned drama wing, anchored to the scuffed floorboards. The school bell did not matter. The alumni board did not exist. There was only the steady beat of his heart against my ribs and the intoxicating scent of cedar and peppermint filling my lungs.

“We need to leave, Ryder murmured after a long time. His breath dusted the sensitive skin of my neck. “Evans locks the outer doors at

five.”

I nodded, pulling back a fraction of an inch.

He did not let me go entirely. He slid his right hand down my arm, tangling his fingers with mine.

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