"Because I still love you."
It was like a freight train hit me with the words.
Like some storm I hadn’t been expecting.
Like a trap I had walked directly into.
My breath caught, my body tensed as I stared at him, at Gabriel — at the man who had once loved me, at the man who had spent years ignoring I was alive, and now — suddenly, suddenly —
He was standing here, making this statement.”
I exhaled slowly, squeezing my voice to remain steady. "You don’t get to say that."
Gabriel’s jaw clenched. "Why not?"
"Because it’s too late."
His golden eyes burned. "It’s not."
I let out a sharp laugh. "Five years, Gabriel. Five years of nothing. Five years of silence. You think you can just—erase all of that with three words?”
Gabriel let out a huff and ran his hand through his hair. "I know
