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Force him to look at me.
“Yes. We do.”
Jase
She’s not backing down.
Not this time.
Not at all.
“You keep pushing like this,” she says, voice low, steady, “and you’re going to collapse.”
“I won’t.”
“You don’t get to decide that.”
Yeah.
I’ve heard that before.
Recently.
“I need you upright,” she continues. “Not stubborn.”
That—
That almost makes me laugh.
Almost.
She softens.
Just slightly.
Enough.
“I’m not losing you out here,” she says quietly.
There it is.
Again.
That line.
That truth.
Something in my chest tightens.
Different than the pain.
“You’re not going to,” I say.
But it doesn’t come out as solid this time.
Not as controlled.
Because for the first time—
