Chapter 17 – You Were Always Chosen
Jepoy listened from the kitchen, frozen.
“You think I betrayed you for money?” Lia snapped. “No. It was always David.”
Erica’s breath caught.
“I waited for him. I watched him dote on you. You. Always you.”
“I didn’t even want him,” Erica whispered.
“But you had him. Even blind, you had him.”
Lia's confession ripped through Erica like broken glass.
“I gave up everything, Erica. For love. And he never looked at me.”
Erica stood still, wounded.
“That’s not my fault,” she said finally.
Lia’s tears glistened. “No. But it ruined me anyway.”
That night, after Lia left, Erica sat by the window, silent.
“Was any of it real?” she asked the night.
Jepoy sat beside her, gently taking her hand. “This is real.”
And for the first time, she believed it.
She leaned into his shoulder, her voice quiet. “Stay.”
“I will,” he replied, “for as long as you’ll let me.”
The city blinked in the distance. And for the first time in years, Erica felt safe.
Even in the dark.
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