Ximena's POV
The celebration around me became a distant hum, as if someone had submerged me beneath murky water. I remained motionless in the center of the pandemonium while everyone else reveled in victory. The stadium lights burned my retinas, and the combination of perspiration and carnival food created a nauseating cocktail that twisted my gut.
None of that registered though.
Kane's venomous words kept replaying in my mind like a broken record.
The only reason Ezekiel's been chasing you is because he lost some stupid bet.
Initially, my brain had rejected the information entirely. My thoughts were still tangled up in Ezekiel's warm palms against my cheeks, the desperate way he'd pressed his mouth to mine like he'd been starving for it.
But reality was crashing down now.
Those words slammed into me with the force of a speeding truck.
Heat flooded my face as mortification settled deep in my bones.
None of it had been genuine.
He had never been genuine.
