Chapter 8 :
"…let's head back to the car," Nitika finishes softly, her thumb still tracing slow circles over the back of Brandon's hand.
Brandon stiffens, then exhales hard, raking his free hand through his hair. "No," he mutters. "I can't go back empty-handed. Not without her."
Nitika swallows. "Brandon, we've checked everywhere she could've gone. Her favorite café, the riverwalk, the park by the old bookstore… she's not there."
"That's what scares me," he snaps, the edge in his voice fueled by panic, not anger. "Brinley doesn't just disappear."
The words hang heavy between them.
Across the city, neon lights blur through tear-filled eyes as Brinley stumbles down an unfamiliar street. Her phone is dead, her heart shattered, and the weight of loving someone she was never supposed to love presses down on her chest until breathing hurts.
Jaxson's words replay in her mind,cold, careful, final.
I can't do this, Brinley. You're my best friend's sister.
As if her feelings were something she chose. As if loving him hadn't crept in quietly, wrapped itself around her heart, and refused to let go.
She wipes her face angrily. Stupid. Weak. Naïve.
A car slows beside her, the window rolling down. "You okay, sweetheart?" a man's voice calls out, syrupy and wrong.
Brinley shakes her head and keeps walking, her pace quickening.
Back in Brandon's car, his phone buzzes. He snatches it up, hope flaring,then dying just as fast.
Nothing.
"Damn it!" He slams his fist against the steering wheel.
Nitika flinches. "Brandon… listen to me. Brinley is strong. She's hurting, yes,but she's not helpless."
Brandon's jaw tightens. "She shouldn't have to be strong tonight."
He pulls into a gas station, jumping out of the car and scanning the area like a predator searching for something stolen from him. A sick feeling coils in his gut.
This is my fault.
If he hadn't brought Jaxson into their lives. If he hadn't trusted him. If he hadn't ignored the way Brinley looked at him.
Across town, Jaxson stands alone on his penthouse balcony, knuckles white around his phone. He's called her voicemail so many times he knows the message by heart.
"Please," he whispers into the night, his voice cracking. "Just let me know you're okay."
For the first time in years, Jaxson realizes something terrifying.
The rules he lived by. The lines he refused to cross. The distance he kept,
They may have already cost him the one thing that mattered most.
And somewhere in the dark, Brinley's innocent eyes blink back tears as her heart breaks in ways she never imagined love could hurt. I don't really think of her as a sister but I have to think that way of her or I'll act on my feelings and it's getting really hard not to act on my feelings because I can't for myself I am in love with her and I'm scared to act on it because I'm scared of losing my best friend and the people I care about around me I screw up relationships I never have relationships relationships are just not for me. But Brinley is different she brings feelings out in me I never thought I could ever have . I'm on one night done and gone kind of guy. Can I really have a relationship with her and would Brandon be okay with me being with his baby sister who's not so much a baby anymore she's a woman and I see that more and more everyday she's not the little girl that used to follow Brandon and I are around she's a woman a beautiful woman and my heart feels like it's going to explode out of my chest when she's around. We got to find her please Brinley please message us one of us, cal one of us , anything so we know you're okay .Sending my prayer out there I hope God's listening.