Page 172
“For business,” he says, raising his voice, jaw tightening. “Business meetings.”
“On a business outing, I caught you in the bathroom with her, ready to have sex,” I shoot back, the words coming out of me before I can hold them back—too sharp, too final, carrying more certainty than I can suddenly justify.
Even as they hang between us, a thin thread of doubt pulls tight inside me, quiet but impossible to ignore.
I turn fully toward him, eyes locked on his, fury and hurt twisting together so fiercely inside me I can’t tell which one burns more.
“Jesus, Thalia,” he mutters, dragging both hands through his hair, shoulders tense. “This is just a circle of mistakes that never fucking ends.”
A sad smile curls on my lips—empty, exhausted.
Because he’s right.
Whatever we do, whatever we say, we always loop back to the same beginning.
My insecurities. His distance.
The same unresolved wound—he doesn’t want anything serious.
“I’ll let you take a shower,” I tell him, already resigned to what feels like an inevitable truth—I’ll never be for him what he’s for me.
“Sure,” he replies. “Run again. Like you always do when things get hard.”
Excuse me?
No, that… that I didn’t hear right.
“Hard?” I ask, voice rising. “What the hell do you know about hard, Ethan?”
“I don’t know, Thalia,” he shoots back, dripping sarcasm. “Maybe I know what it’s like to be in ten different places at once so everyone else can be free and enjoy life. Maybe I know what it’s like to never get holidays or birthdays off for years. Maybe I just know what it’s like to sleep in hotels more than in my own bed. And maybe I fucking know what it’s like to lose someone who sacrificed her life for mine.”
He pauses, then turns and switches on the water at the sink, the sound filling the heavy silence in the room.
“Maybe I know what it’s like to carry the responsibility of millions of lives on my shoulders, knowing I can’t afford to fail and leave millions of employees without jobs,” he continues, meeting my eyes through the mirror.
His confession knocks the air out of me.
I’ve never—never—looked at his life from that angle.
I only saw the owner, the privilege, the power.
I only saw the flawless suits, the respect, the wealth so vast it seemed to strip him of any real problem.
I never imagined the weight.
“Maybe I didn’t grow up in a filthy trailer with two assholes for parents,” he says, voice softening, gentle. “But that doesn’t mean you’re the only one with problems, Thalia.”
His words land between us—painful, undeniable—while, beneath them, another realization takes shape, quieter but just as unsettling… Maybe I never truly tried to understand him, just like I never questioned the story I built in my head.
FIFTY-SIX
Ethan
I keep my gaze fixed on the sink as I say, “And the fact that you didn’t know it was a date…” My voice is level, cold. “Doesn’t excuse the fact that you chose to stay once you found out the truth.”
For the last part, I lift my head and meet her eyes in the mirror.
She stands behind me, remorse and guilt etched across her face. I can’t tell if that makes me feel better or worse. Maybe it just pisses me off more, realizing she knew it was wrong and went through with it anyway.
