Page 152 of One Last Encore

Her eyes shimmered as she blinked hard.

"I didn’t know how to stay," she said, the words falling out like something torn loose. "I felt helpless. Like nothing I did could ever be enough to save you."

"You don’t owe me an apology," he said. "I gave you every reason to walk away."

"I never wanted to," she breathed. "God, Beck... I didn’t know how to stay without losing pieces of myself too."

He stepped up a step, close enough to see the tears glinting in her eyes.

"You weren’t supposed to save me," he said, his voice low and rough. "You were supposed to live. To become everything you were meant to be. You had dreams that were bigger than me."

A broken laugh slipped from her lips, raw and shimmering with unshed tears.

"I chased those dreams," she said, her voice shaking. "I caught them. I lived them." She stepped closer, her toes now hanging just over the edge of the stair, the crumpled letter trembling in her hands. "And it was amazing. It was everything I thought I wanted."

She paused.

"But every single victory... every spotlight, every standing ovation..." Her voice cracked. "It would have meant so much more with you standing beside me."

His heart stalled, a painful, breathless beat.

"I would give anything," she whispered, voice splintering, "to go back and find that terrified, heartbroken girl. To grab her shoulders. To make her turn around. To tell her–" Her voice broke, fierce and trembling. "Don't let go. Not of you. Not of this."

He shook his head, the faintest, broken smile tugging at his mouth.

"I wouldn’t change a thing," he said.

Her brow furrowed, confused.

"Why?" she whispered.

"Because you were my right person," he said, lifting his hand like he might reach for her but stopping just short. "We were just caught in the wrong time. I needed to break, to heal, to become someone worthy of standing here now."

A tear slipped free down her cheek.

"I made a thousand mistakes," he murmured, reaching out, his fingers barely brushing against hers. "But loving you? Loving you was never one of them."

Her breath hitched. He could see the war waging inside her. The brutal clash between fear and hope, between everything they'd lost and everything that still might be salvaged.

"When I saw you again," she said, her voice shaking, "all I wanted was to touch you. To kiss you. But mostly…" She blinked hard, swallowing against the thickness in her throat. "I just wanted to talk to you. To tell you how much I missed you. How much I still–" Her voice cracked.

"But I couldn’t even say hello," she whispered. "Because I knew the second I did, it would all come flooding back. Every memory. Every regret. Every lie I told myself, that I was over you, that I'd moved on, would fall apart."

His heartbeat roared in his ears, frantic and wild.

"I was so afraid," she said, her voice fracturing, "because the second I saw you… I knew."

She paused, breathing hard, her chest rising and falling in jagged bursts.

"I knew I would fall in love with you all over again."

She leaned closer, so close he could feel the ghost of her breath against his skin. And she whispered, "The thing is... I didn’t fall in love with you again."

The bottom dropped out of his world. He stumbled back a half-step. But she caught his hand and her tear-streaked gaze pinned him in place.

"Because I never stopped," she said, voice splintering under the weight of it. She pressed her trembling palm flat against his chest, right over his hammering heart.

"I tried," she whispered, the words torn straight from her soul. "God, I tried. I built an entire life around pretending. Iburied you under every new city, every ballet, every new face that never even came close. I told myself I was fine. I told myself I was free."

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