His voice drops.
“But it looked like this.”
He glances at the mist still drifting near my feet.
“It looked like you.”
The admission hangs between us, impossibly heavy.
He’s not just talking about the memory I gave him. This part—this glow—this is his. His memory. His eyes. His truth.
Something about that makes it harder to breathe.
But also easier to believe.
The mist stirs—lifting, faint and deliberate. It curls gently toward Gray and brushes against his shoe. I see it, but I don’t call it back.
Gray looks down at the mist, then up at me.
"Everything changed the moment she walked away.”
“Everything changed the moment you lived it with me,” I say, the words feeling strange and true all at once.
Gray doesn’t answer right away.
Something flickers across his face—something he doesn’t say.
Not denial. Not guilt. Just... weight.
I tilt my head, watching him. “It wasn’t just you, was it?”
His shoulders rise, then fall. Barely a breath.
He doesn’t lie. But he doesn’t answer either.
“Everything changed,” I murmur, “the moment I wasn’t the only one carrying it anymore.”
He stands and crosses to the window, his movements quiet, unsettled.
I join him there, and we stand side by side, both of us understanding now that something impossible has been happening between us.
"I’m not sorry it happened, Bree. Even if it hurt. Even if it wasn't mine to feel.” He turns to look at me. “Because now I know. Really know. And you don’t have to carry it alone anymore.”
“I think we’ve both been carrying ghosts,” I say.
“Maybe they brought us here.”
The silence that follows isn’t empty or sad. It’s full of understanding, of secrets finally shared. The mist settles around our feet, no longer restless.
Gray turns to face me, and something in his expression makes my heart skip.
“Thank you,” I say. “For seeing me. Even then.”
He nods, voice barely above a whisper. “I never stopped.”
I look down at the blanket still clutched in my hands. The decision feels easier now, with Gray’s quiet presence beside me and the weight of shared truth between us.
I fold the blanket carefully and set it on the pile of clothes I’m taking to the sanctuary.
