RAVENNA POV

Some part of me had known this would happen.

Not the specifics, not the exact moment or the precise chaos that would eventually unfold, but the shape of it, the inevitability sitting quietly beneath every smile I'd forced over dinner. Men like Jeremy didn't simply disappear after being told no. They circled back, found new angles, waited for the moment everyone else had finally let their guard down enough to stop watching the horizon so carefully.

I'd felt it building all evening, a tightness in my chest I couldn't quite explain to anyone without sounding paranoid, without inviting questions I wasn't ready to answer about why my instincts...