“Pick a side,” I say.
His expression doesn’t change.
“You think it’s that simple.”
“I think you’re making it more complicated so you don’t have to choose.”
“That’s not?—”
“Yes, it is,” I cut in. “Because if it was just strategy, you’d already be moving.”
Silence stretches between us, but this time it doesn’t feel like distance. It feels like pressure, building, tightening, forcing something to give.
“You see it,” I say, softer now. “You see exactly what they’re doing.”
His eyes stay on mine.
“And you’re still standing here pretending you don’t have a stake in it.”
“I do have a stake,” he says.
“Then act like it.”
“That’s not how power works,” he replies.
“Then what’s the point of having it?” I fire back.
That—
That hits.
I can see it in the way his posture shifts, just slightly, like something in the foundation moved.
I don’t stop.
I can’t.
“Tell me something,” I say, my voice dropping. “If it wasn’t my village…would you still be standing here thinking about it?”
He doesn’t answer.
“Or would you have already decided?”
His gaze sharpens.
“That’s not fair.”
“I don’t care,” I say. “None of this is fair.”
I take another step closer, close enough now that I can feel the heat of him, the subtle shift in the air between us.
“You said this doesn’t benefit you,” I continue. “So I’ll make it simple.”
My chest tightens.
But I don’t stop.
“Do I?”
