“And I was the half?”
“No.” The answer comes fast because that matters. “You were the version of my life that looked clean.”
Her eyes flash. “That’s not better, Tristan.”
“I know.” My voice roughens. “I know. That’s the whole point.”
The water behind us keeps moving.
A bike bell rings in the distance.
Somebody laughs on the steps.
Normal life.
Wrong moment.
Isa drops her arms and lets them hang at her sides.
“I knew,” she says.
The words are quiet.
Certain.
My chest tightens.
“Knew what?”
“That I was never really the thing under your skin.”
I close my eyes for half a beat.
Because she’s right—she deserves better than my silence now.
“I knew every time her name came up and your whole face changed,” Isa says. “Every time you got too still when she walked into a room. Every time you looked like you were trying not to look.”
I say nothing.
What can I say?
Sorry I thought wanting a different life hard enough could make it true?
“You’re not a bad guy,” Isa says after a second. “That’s the annoying part.”
I look at her.
She gives me a brittle, tired smile. “You’d actually be easier to hate if you were.”
“I’m sorry.”
“I know.” She swallows. “And I know you mean it. But you still let this happen.”
“Yeah.”
Her gaze sharpens. “So what now? You run back to Stella?”
There it is.
