I want to run.
To him.
I want to collapse.
With him.
I want to beg him to say anything.
“I’m sorry,” I whisper again.
Tears stream down my face, unrelenting, and I press my hands against my mouth, trying to muffle the sobs that threaten to choke me.
My entire body shakes.
My mind spins in loops of regret and fear.
What have you done, Tilly?
Chapter 24
Luca
I can’t breathe.
Her words,I think I love you, are still echoing inside my head, bouncing off every empty corner until they don't sound like words anymore, just noise.
It feels like the air has been sucked out of the room.
I stand there, staring at her, and everything in me screams to reach for her.
When she came into my room, her eyes red and swollen, and pain pouring off her in waves, it took everything in me not to reach for her.
When she came into my room yesterday, I had to leave, or I would have taken her in my arms and erased myself to stop the tears.
Every tear she sheds takes a part of me with it.
My chest aches like someone is pressing a hand flat against my ribs, holding me still.
“I—” My voice cracks, and my mind is in a whirlwind of emotions. “Tilly, can you, just, can you step out for a second? I need to think.”
Her eyes flicker, confusion twisting into hurt.
She nods slowly, biting her lip like she’s holding herself together by the skin of her teeth.
“Uh… okay,” she whispers.
The door clicks shut, and I’m alone.
The silence hits like a tidal wave.
I drop onto the edge of my bed, head in my hands, and everything inside me starts shaking.
She loves me.
After everything—after the months of pretending, the silence, the distance—she said it.
I grab my phone like it’s some kind of lifeline and dial Matt before I can stop myself.
