“I love you so much,” he said, voice hoarse. “But go.”
My breath caught.
“I want to see you happy. I don’t want you to curl into anything smaller than who you are, especially not for me.”
That was it. The kindest cut I’d ever felt.
I nodded, swallowing the lump in my throat. Hating this. Hating being the villain in someone else’s story. Hating how selfish it all felt when I’d spent my entire life trying to be anythingbut.
I wanted to take it all back, the words, the honesty, the clarity. I wanted to rewind the whole damn conversation and just sayShit, I’m sorry,and mean it enough that it would glue us back together.
But I couldn’t because the truth was I was about to explode my entire world for a man.
Fuck, I hated that, too.
Will stood slowly, swiping at the tears on his cheeks. He didn’t step closer, but he looked at me with his red-rimmed eyes. “Take care of yourself, Luna,” he said. “Promise me that much.”
I nodded, my voice caught somewhere between my throat and heart. “I will,” I croaked.
We stood there for another second, frozen in the soft, unbearable silence of goodbye. No screaming. No slammed doors. It was only the quiet end of something we both tried to hold together for too long.
I turned and walked to the door.
The sky above London was gray. It always was, but today it was fitting.
God, what did I just do?
The thought hit like a punch as I stepped onto the sidewalk. My hands were trembling.
You just walked away from a good man. From a quiet life. From peace.
Because you’ve spent your whole damn life giving parts of yourself away.
I gave to Nova, uprooted my entire life to follow her to London. I gave to the online yoga community, free content, daily check-ins, showing up with a smile even on days I could barely breathe. I gave to my clients. To strangers. To every person who needed me.
Will? I gave him a version of me I thought might finally be “enough.” I gave and gave until there was barely anything left to call mine.
For once—foronce—I chose myself.
I hated how selfish that sounded. How it made my chest cave with guilt, but I couldn’t do it anymore. Maybe it made me the villain in his story. Maybe it made me selfish. Or broken. Or all of the above.
As I turned the corner, tears prickling hot in my eyes, I whispered it aloud—for me.
“I’m allowed to choose myself.”
7
luna
I didn’t speak to anyone after I got home. Thankfully, Nova and Ollie were already asleep by the time I slipped inside, so I crept into my quiet apartment, curled into bed, and cried myself to sleep.
Some part of me hoped that by morning, it would hurt less. That I’d wake up with clarity or peace or, at the very least, numbness. Nothing was okay. The ache was still there.
I avoided my phone entirely. My assistant posted a simple message on my socials, letting everyone know I was stepping back for a bit for my mental health.
I knew it was time to face the inevitable, so I managed to get out of bed, put on a pair of oversized black sweats, and threw my hair into a bun. I was ready to tell my best friend, my twin flame, that I was leaving her... .
When I got up to the house, Nova was fussing in the kitchen, so I quietly opened the back door. My plan was to come out and tell her, but the moment I saw her brown curly hair, the sob hit before I could hold it back.
