He gapes at me, mouth ajar, eyes dull and lifeless. Then he ducks his head, stares down at the floor.
I step forward, my hands linked together, nails biting into my skin. “Alex…”
“Don’t.” Hardly a whisper. A broken breath. He swipes a hand over his face and cups his chin. “I can’t hear this.”
“You have to. Please. I need to get this off my chest before it buries me.”
“Buriesyou?” Head snapping up, he glares at me with heat and fire and rage. “You just cheated on me.”
I nod because it’s true. Because I did. Because I hate myself for it. “I’m sorry. I didn’t mean for—”
“Fuck that. Fuck you.” He stomps forward until we’re inches apart and he’s practically spitting in my face. “Fuck you, Annalise.”
His voice fractures into smithereens.
I cower.
Tears slip down my cheeks, an endless flood. But I have to get the words out. “I know it was wrong,” I say, the truth shaking out of me. “I know. I own it. But…I’m not happy. I haven’t been for a long time.”
His laugh is bitter and sharp. “So that was your fix? Running off to screw another guy?”
“No, it… It was just a kiss.”
“Is that supposed to help? Will you sleep better at night knowing it wasjust a kiss?”
My gaze locks onto him. Older. Stronger. Shoulders broader, face harder.But still Alex. Still the boy with the green eyes who used to walk me home and hold my hand like it was a secret. But now those eyes are rimmed red, darker than the sky that day in the woods. “No,” I whisper.
“Good.” His lips twist into something cruel. “I hope it eats you alive, knowing you betrayed the one person who gave you everything. Who loved you more than life. Who stood by you through every storm, every loss, since we were kids. I carried you, Annalise.” A finger jabs at my face. “I fucking carried you.”
“And that’s exactly where we went wrong!” I shout, voice rupturing, a shot of strength overpowering the guilt. “You carried me. You built this whole life around me. The condo, the job, everything. I have one friend, and you don’t even like her. I feel isolated. Lost. God, I haven’t even cooked a meal for myself in years!” My face crumples, grief seeping out of me. “And I let you. I let you bleed into every piece of me because I didn’t know how to be without you. Because I thought a ring could fix us. Because I thought love meant loyalty, no matter the cost. Even when I couldn’t hear my own voice over yours.”
Darkness washes over his face. “Right,” he rasps. “I forgot. You’re famous now. Out with the old, in with the new.”
“No. It’s not like that.” Shaking my head, I reach for him. “I’ve always wanted that life. Writing, music. And I’ve tried to be patient. I’ve tried to hold space for your pain, your anger, for everything you’ve been through, but somewhere along the way…I started disappearing.”
He jerks his arm out of reach.
“I didn’t kiss him because I stopped caring about you,” I continue, barely holding myself together. “I kissed him because, for just a few minutes, I felt like myself again. Real. Seen.”
“That’s a bullshit, cowardly excuse,” he throws back. “I’ve never cheated, never even looked at another woman. All. I. See. Is.You.”
“Do you?”
A heavy silence stretches between us.
Slowly, I lift my arm and show him my wrist. “Did you see this?”
His gaze latches onto the coiled bruise, glowing green and gray.
“Do you even realize you did it?”
Alex swallows.
I watch the fight drain out of him, the fury melting into something else.
Horror. Fear.
He shakes his head. “I didn’t do that.”
