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[Jasmine's POV] "What about me?" Leo's voice cut through the barn, and my stomach dropped. He stood in the doorway, backlit by sun, his jaw tight. He'd heard everything. Every word about leaving. Every choice I'd made without him. Fuck. This was the reckoning I'd been avoiding since we arrived at Martha and Frank's farm two weeks ago. "Leo." I forced his name out. "Let me explain." "Explain what?" He stepped into the barn. "You're planning your whole life with them. And I'm just supposed to be cool with it?" The accusation hit hard.

"This isn't about-" "Not about me?" His laugh came out sharp and bitter. "You're my SISTER. The only family I've got left. And you're leaving for three dudes who turned your life into a fucking joke." "They didn't-" I started, but he talked over me. Months of rage finally breaking free. "Are you serious? Your face was everywhere. Every newsfeed, every goddamn meme." His voice cracked. "People said shit about you that made me want to break things. And now you're just going back to them?" I wanted to explain. To make him understand how the brothers had put me back together when I'd been broken.

But the words stuck because part of me knew he was right to be angry. "Like I mean nothing to you? You're ditching me for them?" He said it with such certainty that nausea rolled through me. "Leo, I-" The words caught. What could I say? That I needed them? That being with them made me feel like I was choosing something for myself instead of just surviving? "I know it sounds insane. I know it's fast. But I need to try this." "Try what?" He shook his head. "Jas, you don't even know them.

A year isn't enough time to throw your whole life away." I felt Liam go tense beside me, felt Asher's anger radiating outward, felt Finn holding himself back. But I raised my hand, stopping them. This was mine to handle. "You don't understand what's between us," I tried, but Leo was having none of it. "You're right. I don't get it." He gestured at the brothers with contempt. "They're rich as hell. Powerful. And you think you're special? That this is real?" "That's enough," Liam said quietly, but Leo whirled on him. "Nah, man. Don't." He turned to Asher.

"You screamed at her in your office over nothing." Then to Finn. "And you literally climbed through her window like some creep." Back to me, his voice breaking. "And you think that's healthy?" Something inside me snapped. All the fear I'd been swallowing, all the guilt, came roaring up. "What was I supposed to do?" I was yelling now. "You got in debt to loan sharks because of Mom and Dad. And I sold myself to save your life." Leo flinched as though I'd struck him. "And the only good thing that came out of that nightmare is them." Tears streamed down my face.

"They're the only ones who made me feel like I wasn't just broken." The silence that followed was suffocating. Leo stared at me, and I watched something shift in his expression. Pain. Understanding. Resignation. "So I didn't make you feel like you mattered?" His voice came out quieter now, wounded. "All those years when it was just us. That wasn't enough?" "Leo, that's not what I meant." "I'm not good enough to be your family?" The accusation landed because it touched the exact fear I'd been running from. That choosing them meant rejecting him. "That's not fair," I choked out.

"Leo, please." He held up his hand. "Don't. Just don't." "Come with us," I said desperately. "You have a job, an apartment in the city." "I know what I have." He cut me off. "And I'm giving it up." The world tilted. "What?" "Martha and Frank offered me a place here. Work on the farm." His jaw was set with that stubborn determination I recognized from childhood. "I want to stay." "But your job, your apartment." Panic clawed up my throat. "It's YOUR apartment. The job YOU helped me get." His eyes held mine. "Everything in my life is connected to you saving me.

Maybe it's time I figure out who the hell I am without that." The devastation was absolute. My entire identity since I was eleven had been built on protecting him. And now he was telling me he didn't need that anymore. Because I'd chosen them first. "Leo, you're my brother." I reached for his hand, but he pulled away. "Yeah. And you already made your choice." He looked at me with something between acceptance and defeat. "Maybe this is good. Maybe I need to be somewhere nobody knows me as Jasmine's little brother." Liam stepped forward carefully.

"Your job and apartment will be there when you want to come back." "I don't want them to be there," Leo said coldly. Then, softer. "Look, I'm not mad at you guys. This isn't about you." His eyes found mine again. "This is about me needing to figure out my own life without my sister fixing everything." He turned to leave, and my legs gave out. Liam caught me, but I barely registered his arms. I was watching my brother walk away. Not in anger. Just leaving. And the quiet of it was worse than any scream. "He's really going," I whispered. "It's time for him to grow up," Liam corrected quietly.

But it didn't feel like that. It felt like everything I'd sacrificed, everything I'd done to keep him safe, had been thrown back because I dared to want something for myself. Martha appeared minutes later. Leo had asked us to leave. He didn't want to watch us go. She hugged me and promised to take care of my brother. I gathered my things, my body on autopilot. In the car, Asher drove because he needed control. Finn sat in unusual silence up front. Liam held me in the back while I stared at the farm disappearing through the rear window. Twenty minutes passed in silence.

Then Liam spoke, low and certain. "We'll take care of him. Even if he doesn't want us to. Martha will send updates. When he's ready, if he wants to come back, everything will be waiting." "And if he doesn't?" I whispered. "Then we'll make sure he's okay anyway." His grip tightened on my hand. "This is a promise, Jasmine. We fight for you. And for him." The city appeared on the horizon as the sun began to set. I watched the familiar skyline. For the first time it didn't feel like coming home. Home was where Leo was. And Leo had chosen elsewhere.

"Where to?" Asher asked quietly as we approached the city limits. "Your apartment or ours?" I looked at Liam still holding my hand. At Finn turned toward me with desperate hope. At Asher whose eyes found mine in the rearview mirror. Three men who promised to fight for me. One brother who'd decided to find himself without me. "Yours," I whispered, making the choice again even as it tore me apart. "It's also yours now," Asher said. Virgin Dot Com