Chapter 32
I was laughing, but somehow–tears still slipped down my cheeks.
Seeing me like that, he panicked.
Like a kid who just broke something he couldn’t fix.
His hands trembled as he tried to wipe my tears away.
I dodged, wiped them myself with the back of my hand.
“Zach, I’m expensive.”
“Others see my worth. I let myself be cheap only in front of you–because I used to love you. Not because I was desperate or clingy.”
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He closed his eyes, like he was wrestling with the last bit of pride he had left.
“Juliet, without you… I’m really tired.”
“Please… come back to me?”
I stood there in silence, staring at him.
He slid down the wall, sitting on the ground, arms wrapped around his knees.
“I went to the old apartment today.”
“When I knocked, and heard footsteps from inside, my heart started pounding.”
“I thought, when you opened that door… I’d finally tell you I was wrong.”
“I’d say I’m willing to do anything–just
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please come back.”
“But when the door opened…”
“I saw a stranger. A girl I didn’t recognize.”
“She smiled sweetly and asked who I was looking for.”
“In that moment, I panicked.”
“I hoped she was just a friend crashing at your place.”
“But then she told me–she was the new
owner.”
“That’s when I realized… I’d really lost you.”
We both knew what that old apartment
meant.
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I let out a long sigh and sat down beside him.
“Zach, I don’t regret standing by you back then.”
“But we want different things now. And when that happens… people part ways.”
His voice dropped low.
“So… you really got rid of the pup?”
The moment he brought it up, tears welled again–completely out of my control.
The only real sacrifice I made in this whole relationship… was that little pup that never got to be.
I knew Yolanda had told him.
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“I gave you a chance,” I said softly.
“You’re the one who threw it away.”
At my answer, he suddenly started slapping himself across the face–hard.
Tears streamed as he hit himself over and over again.
He opened his mouth like he wanted to yell at me for not telling him sooner,
but the words never camè.
He didn’t have the right.
He lit another cigarette, took a few desperate drags.
“Juliet… I know you hate me. I’ll—”
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“I don’t hate you.”
I cut him off, looking him in the eyes.
“Zach, I don’t hate you.”
I just… don’t love you anymore.
And without love, what is there left to hate?
He dropped the cigarette and pulled me into a crushing hug.
His tears soaked into my skin, hot against my neck.
“No, no, Juliet, no! You should hate me!”
“Please–hate me. You have to hate me!”
I stood there and let him cry, but this time, I didn’t pat his back.
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I didn’t whisper it would be okay.
His hands finally fell to his sides, defeated.
He slumped against the stair rail, red–eyed and hollow.
“So… we’re really never going back, are we?”
I didn’t answer.
Just stood up and walked upstairs.
From the balcony, I watched his figure stumble away into the dark.
I wiped away the last of my tears, tossed the tissue into the trash.
If I could let go of the pup, why would I hold onto the man who wasn’t worth it?
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