“Letting fear tell it,” I continue. “Letting contracts tell it. Letting a lawsuit tell it.”
A low murmur moves through the crowd like wind through tall grass. People shifting. Leaning in. Phones lifting higher.
I swallow once. Not to stall. To keep my throat from closing.
“No more.”
My gaze snaps back to Lila like it’s magnetic. She hasn’t moved. But I see her shoulders rise on a shaky inhale.
I let the next words be simple. Plain. The kind of truth you can’t dress up and can’t wriggle out of.
“I love my wife.”
The stadium detonates.
Sound hits me like a wave. Screams. Shouts. My name. Her name. Our names tangled together.
But the only thing that feels real is what happens to Lila’s body when I say it.
Her knees actually soften.
Like the words land in her bones and her legs forget how to hold her upright.
I don’t move toward her.
I stay where I am.
I learned that the hard way. You give her room to choose.
“I wasn’t supposed to fall for her,” I say, pacing once, the way I do in a huddle when my brain needs a lane. “I told everyone I wouldn’t.”
A few laughs ripple through the crowd. They think it’s charming. They don’t know it was a warning. A vow. A fear dressed up like discipline.
“That I wasn’t good at relationships,” I say. “That I needed to stay focused.”
My hand tightens on the mic. My palm is slick. I don’t wipe it. Let them see I’m human.
“Heck, my whole life has been about holding the line,” I continue. “Keeping distance. Staying safe.”
The word tastes bitter. Because “safe” is what I told myself I wanted when I walked away.
I glance back to the wings.
Our eyes lock again, and everything else blurs.
“But Lila, you broke through every wall I built.”
Her hand slips from her mouth to her throat.
“You met me on my worst days,” I say. “You saw the truth behind every headline.”
I feel the old wounds stir at the edge of my mind. The accusation. The money. The way strangers decided who I was based on whatever sounded most entertaining that week.
And her.
Her standing there anyway. Quietly furious on my behalf.
“And you still chose to stand with me,” I say.
