"No," Arsene finally said, his voice soft, like a confession carried on the wind. His eyes wandered briefly toward Arnav, then back to the emptiness between them. An invisible ocean of memories and regrets. Before he decided to continue on his own “But what I did… I suppose it danced dangerously close to it. It might as well have been.”
He took a breath, steady but weighted, before continuing.
“I didn’t realize that what I said could be mistaken as a proposal. Honestly, I had no idea Raellyn would take my words and weave them into a promise. I mean… You know how things were back then, Sylvia and I were in the middle of a terrible fight at the time. On the brink of breaking apart. That is the worst fight of our lives. I was lost... vulnerable. And Raellyn... she was already so close to me
