“Because I love you,” he said, meaning every single word.
Her expression changed, softened, then hardened. She blew air out between her lips.
He ran his hand up and over her back, tracing the hairline along her neck as she stared up at him.
She shivered against his touch. His own heart seemed to beat faster as he made contact with the flesh above her collar.
He couldn’t lose her. There was no way he’d be able to walk away if she told him to. Even the thought of her asking for that throttled his hold on a hope for the future.
“Say you love me, too,” he continued. “Let’s move on from this together.”
Please, Sadie. Say yes.
“I can’t,” she said, practically choking on the word. “I just…I can’t.”
She could. Whether she was willing to or not, that was the question.
“I walked away from you,” he said quickly. “Years ago. You offered me everything and I walked away. Trust me when I say you don’t want to live with that kind of mistake. It eats away the years.”
She said nothing.
“It was the biggest mistake of my life,” he said, choked with emotion. “Don’t make my mistake,milaya.”
Tears welled in her eyes. “It’s not a mistake. There’s no second chance. There never has been. No happily ever after for me.”
His heart stopped beating. She believed that. He’d done everything he could to prove to her that wasn’t true. Yet, she still believed it.
“No,” he said, refusing to come to the same conclusion.
“You’ll find your happy,” she assured. “I believe that. You’re a good guy.”
Not without her, he wouldn’t.
“Did it ever occur to you that maybe Tonya just won her own case? This loss is not a loss at all as long as she’s happy.”
Sadie briefly pinched her eyes closed. It could never be that simple. “That’s not how it works.”
He opened his mouth to fight this fight. Make this point. Show her in a way she’d understand—with words and logic and determination.
But instead, she turned to walk away. Strode with a purpose.
He understood what it felt like to make that trek.
Understood the cost.
The only tell that she wasn’t 100 percent confident in her decision was the way she lightly brushed her hand along the edge of the building on her way around the corner. As though that light touch was what kept her standing. Kept her vertical.
Yeah, he remembered how that felt.
And now it was his turn to have his heart dropped on the sidewalk behind her.
Chapter Twenty-Five
“Sadie?” Babushka asked.
Sadie glanced up from her desk. “Hm?”
It’d only been a day since she’d walked out of Roman’s life. Each second felt like an eternity. Her head ached. She hadn’t slept.
