"That's not—" I try again, but she talks over me.
"It is exactly that. You've been reading my private thoughts and using them."
Her voice shakes. "You knew what I was struggling with. What I needed. Because I was telling you. As Anna."
Her pacing tightens, back and forth like she’s measuring the room.
"And instead of being honest about who you were, you kept writing back as Shay. Letting me believe I had one honest relationship in my life. When really it was just you—lying to me in stereo."
"I was scared." The words come out raw, unfiltered. "I figured it out and I was terrified that if I told you, you'd feel betrayed. That you would jump to the worst possible conclusion."
I stop myself before I point to her current actions.
"So instead you just kept lying?"
Rosanna stops pacing and turns to face me fully. "You thought the solution was to keep deceiving me? To keep the lie going until—what?"
"I wanted to tell you. I tried—"
"You didn't try."
Her voice is hard now, all the softness I've come to love completely gone. "Trying would have been telling me the first week. Or the second week. Or any of the dozens of opportunities you had over the last few months."
She points an accusatory finger at me. "You didn't try. You chose not to tell me."
I don't have a defense for that. Because she's right. Every time I could have been honest, I chose not to be.
"Yesterday," she starts, but her voice breaks.
She swallows and tries again. "Yesterday we played chess in the park and you kissed me and it felt real."
Her hand curls into a fist at her side. "It felt like maybe we were finally finding our way to something honest."
She looks at me.
"And the whole time your company was filing demolition permits. The whole time you were keeping two massive secrets from me—Shay and the development timeline."
Her voice drops. "And you let me believe it was real."
"It was real," I say desperately. "It is real. My feelings for you—"
"Your feelings?" She snatches up her phone again, and her hands are shaking. "You don't get to talk to me about your feelings, Seamus. When you've been letting your company destroy what I care about while you kiss me and tell me you're trying."
"I am trying—"
"You're trying to manage me!" The words explode out of her, and she flinches like they surprised her too.
Then softer. "That's not love, Seamus. That's not even friendship."
Rosanna is breathing hard, like the outburst cost her something, and I'm just standing here with no defenses left.
"The bid," she says finally, quieter now. "Did you know about it?"
I could lie. But I'm so tired of lying.
"I knew the board was moving forward," I say. "I knew it would be an aggressive bid. I didn't know the exact number until this morning, but I knew it was coming."
She nods slowly, like I've just confirmed something she already knew.
