I heard the words, but something was missing—he lacked the conviction I so desperately wanted. The truth was buried somewhere beneath his excuses, and though he wasn’t ready to face it, I already knew.
“Stop lying to yourself, James. We could’ve figured it out—together. You and me.” I clenched my fists, holding myself together even as the betrayal clawed its way through my ribs.
“I thought…” My voice cracked. “I truly believed there was a solid us. Something unshakable. But maybe I was wrong, because I’ve never felt more alone in my life.”
A sob tore from my throat—raw, and involuntary.
“Everyone lied to me. But you—you were the one I trusted most.”
My hands flew to my face as the tears came fast and hot, unstoppable now.
“I trusted you with everything,” I choked, the words breaking apart under the weight of my grief. “I gave you all of me. Every piece. And still you… How could you do this to me?”
My breath hitched, the final word barely getting out?—
“Again?”
James grew very still.
“Why did you keep this from me?” I whispered as I wiped the tears from my face. I felt hollow, like a shell of the person I had been before I came here.
James swallowed hard, his face etched with remorse, but I couldn’t take it.
He took a step closer.
“No!” I yelled as he reached out. He stopped dead in his tracks, panic and hurt flashing across his features as he started to realize he’d already lost me.
“I’m so sorry, Emma, I—” he began, but I cut him off.
“No!” I screamed, pointing a shaky finger at his chest, my whole body trembling with fury. “You did this…again.” His betrayal was unbearable, the wounds he reopened now deeper than ever before. “And then, youlethim do it to me again!”
"Emma…" His voice trailed off, struggling to find the right words. I could see in his eyes how he longed for my forgiveness, to make me understand, to believe he had no other choice. But I couldn’t give him that.
"No!" I yelled again. "I don’t trust you anymore!"
The impact of my words hit him like a physical blow. He staggered back, visibly shaken by my rejection. The shock of it rippled across his face, as if he hadn’t fully grasped how much I’d already slipped away.
He reached for me—as if somehow a touch would fix everything. But each time he moved toward me, I took a step back, my body instinctively recoiling from him.
"I can’t…" I whispered, shaking my head. I needed distance, space to breathe, to think. The very sight of him—the man I’d once trusted more than anyone—felt suffocating. My chest felt tight, my head spinning with too many emotions to untangle.
His voice was a low growl, conviction lacing every word. “I swear, Emma, you are myeverything. You are my fucking world. You have my faith in you, my love, my honor, my title. Anything you want—you fucking have it! You own it all. My body, my mind, my soul. Every thought I have, every word I say, everything I do, everything I’ve done since we’ve met.”
He paused, his expression brimming with vulnerability, his entire being laid bare before me. I could see it—how deeply he loved me, how desperately he wanted me, needed me.
“You fuckingownme.”
It took every ounce of strength I had to meet his gaze, to hold my ground. To not let the love I still felt for him drown out the betrayal. Because I had no more energy left to fight for it.
With a hoarse voice and trembling lips, I whispered, “But you don’t ownme.”
The words hung in the air, heavy and irreversible. I saw the devastation in his eyes, sensed it in the quiet that followed. But there was no turning back. And then, with three final words, I shattered everything—our love, our relationship, our future—into a million pieces.
“We are over.”
TWENTY-TWO
EMMA
