Page 166 of The Ache That Stayed
My head snapped toward her.
“Don’t reduce this.”
“I’m not,” she said evenly. “I’m removing what doesn’t matter.”
My jaw tightened. “She betrayed me.”
“Yes.”
No hesitation. No cushioning.
“And you’re… what?” I let out a breath, sharper now. “Going to tell me to understand it? Accept it?”
Her gaze didn’t waver.
“I’m going to tell you that you don’t get to pretend this is simple.”
That was what triggered it.
“Are you justifying her?” I asked, the edge slipping through now. “Is that what this is?”
“No,” she said calmly. “I’m telling you a truth you don’t want.”
Silence stretched.
“She made a choice. Crossed a line,” I snapped.
“Yes.”
“She’s mine.”
The words slipped out before I could catch them. Across from me, her expression didn’t even flicker.
“Yes,” she said. “But she is still her own.”
Something in me resisted that instantly.
“What are you implying?” I asked.
She held my gaze.
“I’m saying that what you feel for her is not something you can measure against what she’s done and expect it to balance.”
I let out a quiet scoff.
“If you force her to choose,” she continued, “you will get your answer.”
My gaze sharpened.
“But she won’t be the same woman when she gives herself to you.”
That landed deeper than anything else. Because I knew she was right. Logic told me to walk away, cut the loss and restore control. Any man in my position would have done exactly that.
But Roxanne wasn’t something I could remove. She had threaded herself through my life too completely. Without her, everything collapsed.
“She could destroy me,” I said.
“And you would let her,” my mother replied.
