“I was hurt.”
His eyes filled.
“I needed space.”
He swallowed.
“I was sitting at the Bellmere bus station when Grant’s messages started.”
My chest tightened.
“I read them again and again.”
Eli looked at Grant.
“I kept thinking maybe he was right.”
“I thought about coming home.”
His voice broke.
“I actually stood up once.”
He gave a humorless laugh.
“Then another message arrived.”
He scrolled through his phone.
“There.”
He handed it to me.
I read:
If you come back, she’ll choose me. Don’t make her say it to your face.
I covered my mouth.
“I believed him,” Eli whispered.
He looked at me.
“I could not survive hearing those words from you.”
“You never would have.”
“I know that now.”
He took a shaky breath.
“But I did not know it then.”
I closed my eyes.
Every ounce of guilt I had carried for six years transformed into something else.
