“Did anyone help you?”
He hesitated.
“My coach.”
“Traitor.”
“And your coworker.”
I stared.
“My coworker?”
“He said you’d try to talk me out of doing it.”
“He was right.”
“I know.”
“Why invite Adrian at all?”
Noah stopped smiling.
Then looked at me.
“Because I needed him to understand something.”
“What?”
“That coming back doesn’t automatically restore the role he left.”
I said nothing.
Noah continued:
“I wanted to meet him.”
“I still might have a relationship with him.”
“But I didn’t want him thinking that biology let him walk into my biggest night and stand where you’ve been standing my whole life.”
That landed hard.
I looked at the trophy.
“You didn’t need the whole town for that.”
“Yes, I did.”
