Not until his voice came, soft, broken.
“Ava.”
I closed my eyes.
Of course he came.
Of course he would come with that wounded look in his eyes, with that voice like an apology wrapped in silk and splinters.
“I shouldn’t have come here,” I murmured, still staring at the condensation on the window. “But I needed to breathe. And you needed to… stop pretending.”
Liam stepped closer, but he didn’t sit. He stood just across the table like the space between us might bite him if he crossed it.
“I never meant for you to hear it like that.”
I turned then—slowly. “But I did. And you can’t undo it.”
His jaw clenched. “Ava—”
“You used me, Liam,” I whispered, the words tasting like ash. “You let me believe that night was real. And maybe it was, for a second. But it wasn’t about me, was it?”
“
