He swallows once. Looks away. “That’s exactly the problem.”
I don’t know what makes me say it, maybe the look in his eyes, or maybe the way it hurts not knowing where I stand, but the words slip out before I can catch them.
“Look, I know you don’t feel the same way. I know you—”
His hand tightens around mine, enough to hurt. “Don’t,” he says sharply. His voice is low, rough. “Don’t finish that.”
I blink. “Why not?”
“You think I don’t feel this?” he snaps, and his voice breaks, his hand trembles. “You think I don’t know what this is?”
I stare up at him, stunned into silence.
“I do,” he says. “I just don’t know how to survive it.”
I don’t move. Can’t speak.
I just don’t know how to survive it.
I didn’t think anything could surprise me anymore when it came to Kai Oren Steele.
But this? This version of him? It leaves me wrecked.
He leans in then, and for one suspended second, I think he’s going to kiss me.
But he doesn’t.
He presses his lips to the top of my forehead. And it’s soft. Gentle.
Like an apology.
“I can’t afford to matter to you,Soreya,” he says quietly as he pulls back. And just like that, he steps away.
I follow. Just one step. Because I don’t understand. Because this doesn’t feel like the end, but it feelstoo muchlike goodbye.
“But why?” I ask, and it comes out more desperate than I mean it to. “Why, Kai? If it’s time you need, I’m willing to wait, if—”
“Please don’t.”
His voice slices clean through whatever hope was left hanging between us.
And this time, when he walks away, I don’t stop him.
But I see the way his hands curl into fists at his sides. The way he doesn’t look back, even once.
And I wonder, just for a moment, if someone’s heart breaks quietly enough, does it still make a sound?
Because mine does.
Right here.
Right now.
And he doesn’t hear it at all.
***
By the time I make it across the ballroom, I can barely see. The lights blur. The music fades.
