“No,” I growl, holding on. “Not this time. Never again!”
Her chest heaves, eyes wild, hurt bleeding out of her in waves.
“We weren’t even real,” she chokes out. “Do you get that? None of it was real!”
“How can you say that? I was there! So were you! And it was real,” I fire back immediately. “Every second of it was real.”
“No! Not legally!” she snaps.
“I don’t give a fuck about legal!” I shout. “You think that changes what we had?”
She freezes.
Just for a second.
And I see it.
That crack.
That doubt.
That hope she’s trying to kill before it can hurt her again.
“We thought we were married,” I say, voice lower now, rougher. “We lived like it. Loved like it. That doesn’t just disappear because some paperwork got screwed up.”
Her lips tremble.
“Benji, don’t you see? We were doomed from the start,” she whimpers, tears spilling now.
“No. You don’t really believe that. And I’m not letting you walk away again,” I tell her, stepping closer. “Not over this. Not when I finally know the truth.”
She shakes her head, tears falling faster now.
“You didn’t believe me then,” she whispers.
And that?
Shit.
That hits me right in the stomach and just rips my guts right out.
I swallow hard, fighting the urge to fucking puke because of how badly I fucked up.
“I know,” I say, my voice hoarse. “And I’ll spend the rest of my life making that right if I have to.”
Silence stretches between us.
Heavy.
Fragile.
Everything is just hanging by a fucking thread.
Her eyes search mine.
Like she’s trying to figure out if I mean it.
If I’m real.
