Just finished reading the recent build, and uhhh wow I feel like I took that punch to the gut myself at the end. spoilers for folx who havent read yet sooo--------------------
I was really excited to see what dark shit Cooper was hiding from Cyrus, I sort of have a weak spot for hunky guys with dark secrets (as many of us do, haha) but man was I blindsided by the twist. This is going to stick with me for a while, I find myself playing over all the time with Cooper in my head. It doesn't seem to line up. He was so kind, more so than he needed to be if Cyrus was just his ticket to early retirement. I felt what he said about connecting was genuine, even after feeling so betrayed. Just goes to show how compelling you wrote their dynamic, great stuff.
last thought, I am holding out some hope that things with Cooper, er, I guess Lance, are not as bad as they appear. We don't have enough information at this point to tell exactly whats going on, so a part of me hopes Lance set it up so Axel and his crew would find Cyrus.