He told her, [My feelings for Sierra aren’t love. They’re responsibility. You’re the unattainable love of my youth.]
The latest message was from last night.
She had said to him, [You already undressed me, and now you say you’re leaving?]
[Liam, what exactly do you take me for?]
[If you can’t let go of Sierra, then we should cut this off.]
[Sierra is my best friend. She helped me find a place to live and a job when I came back. Without her, I would’ve been on the streets. I don’t want to hurt her.]
By then, Liam was already asleep, so he hadn’t replied yet. He hadn’t even had the chance to choose before I saw everything.
That snowflake that had become a tear now turned into an icicle stabbing straight into my chest.
All the little things I’d ignored, all the strange details I’d brushed aside, they suddenly connected.
The faint perfume smell I thought I imagined turned out not to be my imagination. It was the scent of betrayal.
That uneasy feeling I kept dismissing as paranoia turned out to be not paranoia. It was instinct.
In an instant, my world collapsed.
I yanked him out of bed like someone possessed, sobbing as I asked him why? Why stay with me if he didn’t love me? Why brave the storm just to confess to me? Why cheat with my best friend when I loved him the most?
Watching me break down in front of him, Liam panicked and looked away. He didn’t know what to do.
“Sierra, it’s not that I don’t like you,” he said softly. “I just don’t like you as much anymore.”
Ten years. Youth faded and passion quieted. What used to be fierce love had turned into a debt that could never be repaid.
That time, I refused to accept it. I couldn’t believe it.
We had been together for ten years. Ten whole years. Three thousand six hundred fifty days and nights. A thousand kilometers between us. And he wanted me to believe that all of that had been nothing more than repayment?
Sierra's POV
Was I really just the thief standing between him and Veronica, stealing the happiness that should’ve been theirs?
I broke down. I screamed, I lost control, I completely fell apart.
Refusing to accept any of it, I smashed everything in the house. I clawed at Liam’s face until it bled.
Yet he didn’t move. He just stood there and let me unleash all of my rage.
But before my anger had even burned out, his phone buzzed again.
It was a new message.
A 5 a.m. plane ticket and pregnancy report.