Chapter 79 Echoes Of The Past

• Rachel POV
• The air in the living room was thick, heavy with the kind of tension that felt like it could ignite with a single misplaced word, reducing everything to ashes. Nick and Scarlett stood before me, their faces a turbulent blend of concern and unyielding resolve, their postures rigid as if braced for battle. Cody, seated on the worn leather couch, held himself with a stiffness that betrayed his defiance, his eyes glinting with a mix of pain and challenge, like a man who’d been backed into a corner but refused to yield. I stood between them, caught in the crossfire, my heart pounding so fiercely it seemed it might claw its way out of my chest. The faint scent of coffee lingered from the kitchen, now souring in the charged atmosphere, and the soft morning light filtering through the windows did little to ease the suffocating weight of the moment.
• When Nick had demanded to speak with Cody, I’d hesitated, my stomach twisting into knots, a visceral certainty that this confrontation would spiral into something raw and uncontrollable. But there was no sidestepping it—not with Nick’s jaw set like stone, Scarlett’s eyes burning with protective fury, and Cody’s stubborn presence anchoring the room. With a heavy sigh, I’d agreed, and now here we were, four people locked in a clash that dredged up wounds buried for over a decade, each word peeling back layers of a past I barely understood.