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But he didn’t.
“Hey.” He shifted his feet. “Can we talk?”
Her smile fell. “Is everything okay?”
He didn’t nod. Just looked at her with those warm, brown eyes. “I just…” He shook his head. “I’m sorry.”
Her stomach cramped. “What for?”
“This. All of it. Everything I’ve put you through. For you having to deal with the aftermath of my bad choices.”
“We did this together,” she said, not understanding. “This isn’t on you.”
“Yes it is. I started this. And I need to be the one to clean it up. You’ve done nothing wrong.”
His tone was off.Everythingwas off. “Michael…” She reached for him and he shrugged her off.
It felt like a slap to her face.
And suddenly she knew where this was going. It made her heart hurt. Made everything hurt.
She’d heard this story before. But she’d never expected it from Michael.
“You want to come in?” she asked. He shook his head and that sealed it. He wasn’t here to hold her. To make her feel better.
He was here to tear everything apart.
And she couldn’t stand it.
“I made the choices, too.” She needed him to hear that. Needed him to hear that she wasn’t a little kid who didn’t know what she was doing. And that’s what she felt like now. A child who was getting her head patted.
“I can’t do this,” he told her. “Not to you.”
“Do what?” she asked him. She was so, so tired. But she needed him to say it.
“I can’t make you choose between me and your dad.”
“My dad? He asked you to do this?” She felt sick. It was happening again. A parent asking their child to choose.
“It’s not like that. I don’t want to put you through this. It’s not fair to you. Watching your family fall apart.”
“So what, you’re leaving me?” Her voice cracked. Her hands were starting to shake because this was all wrong. They were tangled in her bed only hours ago.
How could he do this to her?
“It’s for the best,” he said. “For your sake.”
“Oh no.” She shook her head. “Don’t put this on me.”
“What?” He blinked.
“Don’t blame this on me. I’m not the one saying I can’t do this.You are. I thought you were better than this.”
“You’ll thank me for this one day.” He swallowed hard. “You’re so young and so beautiful. You have your whole life ahead of you.”
She wasn’t going to cry. Not like this. She was stronger than that.
“Not beautiful enough for you to want to stay.”
