Silence filled the car, thick and suffocating. Asher’s words still echoed in my head, it was always you, but I refused to let them sink in.
Because they didn’t matter.
Not when he was still wearing my sister’s ring.
I turned away from him, staring out the windshield as the weight of it all pressed against my ribs. My hands were still shaking in my lap, but I forced myself to breathe past it. To remind myself that I had already decided how this would go.
I would walk away.
And he would let me.
“Ava,” his voice was quiet, strained.
I swallowed hard, not looking at him. “I’m done talking.”
A beat of silence. Then, with something raw in his voice, he asked, “Do you really not want me in the baby’s life?”
I flinched.
Because I wasn’t sure what was worse—the fact that he still had the
