Page 16

She closed the door, a dreadful knot pulling tight in her stomach.

She wanted nothing more than to throw her arms around his neck, to bury her face in his chest and feel him hold her together.

But his posture remained fiercely guarded. He stood near the center of the living room, keeping a safe distance, refusing to cross the invisible boundary.

"Why did you lie to me?" he asked. There was no anger in his tone. The lack of fury made it so much worse, leaving only a profound, exhausting grief.

Lily wrapped her arms around her ribs, trying to hold her own heart in place. "I was terrified. Ethan forced his way onto the project. I was so scared that if I told you, you would walk away. You said you wouldn't compete in a triangle. I thought... I thought if I just got through the deadline, he would leave, and you would never have to know. It was cowardly, Jason. I am so sorry."

Jason absorbed her words, his jaw ticking. He needed the full truth. "Did you see him outside of the office?" he interrogated, his dark eyes locking onto hers, searching for any trace of deceit. "Did you two meet up after hours?"

"No," Lily swore, shaking her head frantically. "Never. Only at the agency, during the day."

"Did you have personal conversations?" Jason pushed, his voice tightening. "Did you sit there and reminisce about London?"

"He tried," Lily admitted, the shame burning her cheeks. "He brought up the past, he even brought a gift he kept from years ago, but I shut it down. I left it on the table. We only talked about the pitch, Jason. I swear to you. I didn't want him there."

Jason swallowed hard, his chest rising with a deep breath. "Did anything happen between you two? Did he touch you?"

"No! God, no, Jason," Lily cried, stepping forward, desperate for him to believe her. "He didn't touch me. Nothing happened. It was strictly a business transaction."

He studied her face, taking in her swollen eyes and trembling hands. He believed her facts, but the emotional betrayal remained. He shook his head, a devastating gesture of defeat. "You didn't just lie to me about this weekend, Lily. You have been lying to me, and to yourself, for a lot longer than that."

She blinked, a fresh tear spilling over her lashes. "What do you mean?"

"We have been together for months," Jason said, his voice dropping into a raspy register. "But it feels like we only exist in pieces. It is like you are never actually all in. You always have one foot out the door."

"That isn't true," she pleaded, taking another desperate step forward.

He held up a hand, stopping her in her tracks. "Lily, you rarely want to meet my friends. We have been dating for half a year, and you still haven't met my parents. Every single time I invite you, there is an excuse. A deadline, a headache, a pitch. I always respected your boundaries. I told myself to give you time. But it hurts. It hurts knowing the person I am with might not care anywhere near as much as I do."

"I do care about you," a sob broke past her lips.

"Do you?" he asked, searching her eyes, begging for a reason to stay. "Do you really want to be with me?"

"Yes! I want to be with you so much, Jason. You are everything I want."

"Then what do you feel for me?" he pushed, stepping closer, desperate for the truth. "Tell me what you actually feel."

The words rose in her throat. I love you. They battered against her teeth, begging to be set free. But the suffocating terror of her past, the fear of giving her heart away only to have it crushed again, clamped her throat shut. She hesitated. The words remained agonizingly trapped, refusing to cross her lips.

Jason watched the internal battle play out across her face. The hope in his eyes withered, replaced by a devastating clarity.

"I see the doubt in your eyes, Lily," he whispered, a broken edge to his voice. "I see the hesitation. And the thing is... I don't have any doubts about you."

He took a deep breath, his chest rising and falling. "I love you."

The three words she had been desperate to hear hung in the space separating them, beautiful and entirely heartbreaking.

"It has been hardwired into me for months," he continued, his voice cracking under the emotional strain. "I am tired of being afraid to say those words, terrified it might push you away. But I am losing you anyway."

"No," Lily wept, reaching out to grasp the fabric of his shirt. Her fingers curled into the cotton. "Please, Jason. Do not say that."

"I can't do this anymore," he said, gently but firmly prying her fingers from his shirt, uncurling her grip one finger at a time.

"Please don't leave me," she begged, the tears blinding her. "I do not want anything to do with Ethan. I swear to you, I don't want him!"

Jason looked at her, his expression a heartbreaking mixture of devotion and defeat. "Maybe you don't. Or maybe you do, and you just don't know it yet. Maybe you are denying it to yourself. But I refuse to stick around to find out. I cannot put myself in this position anymore, Lily."