The silence settles around us. It’s not heavy, just real.
“Bella… I’m so sorry. For everything.”
“I know," she whispers. “But I’m not leaving because of you. I’m leaving because I should’ve known. I should’ve seen who he was. He was right in front of me and I didn’t see it until it was too late. I didn’t see anything. Because I loved him. And now I need to work through that. I can’t do it here.”
Her voice trembles.
And I crumble alongside her.
We stay that way for a long time, clinging to each other until we’ve each got nothing left.
It feels like the night the Silvers died.
The same stunned silences.
The same empty hollowness that leaves a permanent scar inside of you.
Eventually, Bella pulls away. She wipes her face, stands, and keeps packing.
And I sit there, watching, surrounded by the pieces of the life she built here with Brodie.
The life she thought was safe.
I take in the room—bare walls, empty shelves, the stripped mattress.
I go back to that day Chase and I were here with them. We laughed at them arguing over what color they should paint the walls.
I hear their laughter, their inside jokes. I imagine Brodie drawing hearts on Bella’s sketchpad, their initials in the middle. She’d roll her eyes, but she secretly loved it.
And now it’s all gone.
As if it was never real at all.
I don’t know how long I sit here. Minutes. Hours. But I stay rooted in the same spot, my heart shattered all over the empty room.
That’s how Chase finds me.
Alone on the bed after Bella’s departure.
Like I’m the only thing that got left behind.
He kneels beside me, wraps his arms around me, and pulls me into his body.
“She’s gone.”
“I know, baby,” he whispers, kissing the top of my head. “I’m sorry.”
I bury myself into him and let him hold me, even though it hurts in a way that I can’t fully explain. I know she needs this.
And it’s not my fault.
She’s leaving because she needs to heal somewhere that isn’t stained with Brodie’s memory.
Somewhere her heart can breathe again. I don’t know when she’ll be back.
Or if she ever will.
But when she does, I’ll be here for her.
