“You were worth everything.” He’s on his knees now, reaching for my hands. I pull them back. “That’s why I left. I was twenty-two and terrified and I thought I was protecting you.”
“You thought wrong.”
The words hang between us, as sharp as broken glass.
“I know.” His voice breaks. “I know, and I’m so sorry. If I could go back…”
“Five years.” I stand, needing distance, needing air. The room feels too small. “Five years of thinking I wasn’t enough. Of thinking you just... didn’t want me anymore. Do you have any idea what that did to me?”
“Jess.”
“I watched my father destroy himself chasing my mother when she left him.” The words tumble out before I can stop them. “He gave up everything, his job, his dignity, his savings, trying to win her back. And she never came. She didn’t want him. I swore I would never be that pathetic. I would never chase someone who didn’t want me.”
Griffin goes still. “That’s not what happened.”
“How was I supposed to know that?” I’m crying now, angry tears that burn my cheeks. “You left. You left me alone in that apartment with nothing but three sentences and a fucking Pomeranian!”
“Biscuit, not just a Pomeranian. It was hard to leave him too. I wanted to take him with me.”
“You wanted to take my dog?” My words are a shriek.
“No, I would never have. I'm just saying it was hard all around. I missed him and you and I hadn’t had any media training yet. I didn’t know there were options.”
“I don’t give a shit about your media training. I care that you made a choice aboutmylife without asking me. You decided what I could handle. You decided I was too weak to face it with you.”
“That’s not it.”
“Isn’t it?” I swipe at my tears. I’m furious at myself for crying and even more furious at him for making me cry. “You didn’t trust me. That’s what this comes down to. You didn’t trust meenough to tell me the truth, to let me fight beside you. You just… ran.”
He stands slowly, keeping his distance. He’s a smart man. “I didn’t think I was running. I thought I was falling on a grenade.”
“The grenade was our problem. We could have faced it together.”
“I know that now.” His voice is barely above a whisper. “I’ve known it for years. That’s my greatest regret, Jess. Staying felt impossible at the time. But leaving without trusting you with the truth is the thing I may never be able to come back from. I get it.”
I walk to the window because I can’t look at him anymore. Outside, the sun is setting over the marsh. It’s painting everything in shades of gold and rose. It’s peaceful and beautiful and everything I don’t feel.
“The proof was always there,” I say quietly. “The timing. The way everything happened so fast. I knew something was off, but I convinced myself I was making excuses. I convinced myself you just didn’t love me enough to stay.”
“I loved you more than anything.”
“Then why didn’t you fight for us?” I spin to face him, and the words I’ve been holding for five years finally escape. “Why didn’t you trust me enough to fight it together?”
“Because Ashworth had connections everywhere. I believed him when he said he could destroy your career. Because I was young and scared and I thought…” His voice cracks. “I thought I was saving you.”
“You broke me.”
The words land like a blow. Griffin’s face crumples, just for a second, before he pulls himself together.
“I know. I’m so sorry.”
Sorry.Such a small word for such enormous damage.
I think about the past five years. Building my practice from nothing. The pride I took in doing it alone. The walls I built to protect a heart that had already been shattered.
“I built my life without you,” I say. “A good life. A full life.”
“I know.”
