You will\u2026 forgive me,\u201d he finished, his voice strangely calm.<\/p>\n
I stared at him, my heart pounding so loudly I was sure he could hear it. Forgive him? For erasing me from his life like I was already gone?<\/p>\n
\u201cWhat did you just say?\u201d I asked, my voice barely above a whisper.<\/p>\n
He stepped closer, searching my face as if trying to read something. \u201cI didn\u2019t mean it like that,\u201d he said quickly. \u201cIt\u2019s just\u2026 I felt alone. Like I already lost you.\u201d<\/p>\n
The words hit me harder than his lie.<\/p>\n
\u201cLost me?\u201d I repeated, a bitter laugh escaping. \u201cYou told a stranger I was dead.\u201d<\/p>\n
\u201cI know,\u201d he admitted, running a hand through his hair. \u201cAnd I hate myself for it. But somewhere along the way, we stopped seeing each other. We stopped talking\u2026 really talking.\u201d<\/p>\n
I wanted to scream at him, to throw every ounce of pain back in his face. I had spent nights crying quietly beside him, thinking he was just tired, just distant\u2014not replacing me.<\/p>\n
\u201cSo your solution was to bury me?\u201d I asked coldly.<\/p>\n
\u201cNo,\u201d he said, his eyes softening. \u201cMy mistake was pretending instead of fixing things.\u201d<\/p>\n
Silence filled the room. The divorce papers I had hidden in the drawer suddenly felt heavier than ever.<\/p>\n
\u201cI was going to leave you,\u201d I confessed, my voice trembling. \u201cI already planned everything.\u201d<\/p>\n
He nodded slowly, as if he deserved nothing less. \u201cMaybe I deserve that.\u201d<\/p>\n
I looked at him\u2014really looked at him\u2014for the first time in months. Not the stranger from the dating site. Not the man who lied. But the person I once chose.<\/p>\n
\u201cWhy did you come back to tell me?\u201d I asked.<\/p>\n
\u201cBecause when I realized who I was becoming,\u201d he said quietly, \u201cI knew I\u2019d lose you for real this time.\u201d<\/p>\n
Tears blurred my vision, but I didn\u2019t let them fall.<\/p>\n
\u201cI don\u2019t know if I can forgive you,\u201d I said honestly.<\/p>\n
\u201cI know,\u201d he replied. \u201cI just needed you to know the truth.\u201d<\/p>\n
For a long moment, neither of us moved.<\/p>\n
Then I walked past him, opened the drawer, and pulled out the papers. I held them in my hands, feeling the weight of every choice, every hurt, every memory.<\/p>\n
This time, there was no pretending.<\/p>\n
Only truth\u2014and whatever came after it.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
You will\u2026 forgive me,\u201d he finished, his voice strangely calm. I stared at him, my heart pounding so loudly I was sure he could hear it. Forgive him? For erasing … <\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":90606,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[1],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-90605","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-uncategorized"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/dynenews.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/90605","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/dynenews.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/dynenews.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dynenews.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dynenews.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=90605"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/dynenews.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/90605\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":90735,"href":"https:\/\/dynenews.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/90605\/revisions\/90735"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dynenews.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/media\/90606"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/dynenews.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=90605"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dynenews.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=90605"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dynenews.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=90605"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}