"What if something worse had happened to him because of my lie?" she whispered. "That thought alone should have stopped me. Right there and then." Her fingers trembled, curling tighter as if trying to hold onto something solid. "But it didn't. Because I was… ugly. Because I just wanted him."
The last words barely came out.
"And I… I just…"
She couldn't finish. The sentence dissolved into silence, her eyes filled with a quiet, crushing sadness that no longer tried to hide itself.
"You aren't." Marcella just shook her head before Selena could retreat further into her own words, the motion quiet but firm, as if cutting through something fragile before it could harden into certainty. She did not raise her voice. She did not rush. Her tone remained steady, grounded in a patience that came from years of watching a certain person break themselves over things they could no longer change.
