HAPPY WHEN YOU CRY He thinks he broke me. Greyson Perkins sits in his psychiatric ward believing he destroyed the girl who used to flinch at his voice. The king who fell from grace, stripped of his hockey crown and golden boy facade, convinced his obsession turned me into nothing but grateful compliance and hollow smiles. He's wrong about what breaking looks like. I'm Natalia Douglas. The scholarship girl who survived his psychological warfare not by shattering, but by learning to bend steel-strong. While he measured his power by my fear, I was mapping every weakness in his carefully constructed armor. He taught me things he never meant to teach me. How to recognize manipulation before it takes root. How to protect the people you love without sacrificing who you are. How to watch someone destroy themselves with their own obsession while you build strength from the ashes of who you used to be. Now he's the one who's broken—sprawled unconscious outside my apartment with empty pill bottles, begging for the attention that once fueled his need for control. And I'm the only one who understands his pain. Not because I owe him forgiveness. Not because love conquers the systematic torture he called caring. But because I've learned something about survival that he never sometimes the strongest thing you can do is choose compassion for someone who destroyed your capacity to trust it. He wants salvation from the monster his father created. I want to see if the boy underneath that monster is worth saving. But this time, I hold all the power. This time, I decide who breaks and who bends. This time, he'll learn the most important lesson of his privileged Real love isn't about owning someone. It's about setting them free to choose you anyway. Some monsters can be redeemed. Others just learn better ways to hide their teeth. Greyson Perkins is about to discover which one he is. \—- This is the conclusion of a dark high school hockey bully romance featuring psychological recovery, trauma processing, redemption arcs, and the complex journey from toxic obsession to healthy love. Contains themes of mental health treatment, family trauma, and the difficult work of healing. Intended for mature readers seeking emotionally complex resolutions to dark romance narratives. The hard-earned HEA promised in Book One is delivered. Book Two of the King of Ruin series.