"Everyone in that chamber heard the ancestors." Her throat tightened, but she pushed through. "And I have been tearing myself apart trying to figure out a version of this where no one gets hurt, and there isn't one, Dex."
He didn't interrupt. His thumb moved in slow circles against her hip.
"You deserve someone who is completely yours. Not someone who is split in half. Not someone who wakes up carrying guilt she can't put down." Her eyes burned, but she managed to hold her tears back. "I can't be the reason you lose yourself trying to hold on to something I can't give you in full."
Silence stretched between them. Long enough for her to hear his breathing change. Long enough to feel something shift through their matebond that wasn't hers.
"Are you done?"
She blinked. "What?"
"Your speech. The real one, not the brunch version." He tilted his head. "Is there more, or can I talk now?"
"I'm serious, Dex."
