Reborn to Leave Her Behind novel · Chapter 19 of 24

Chapter 19: Why I Looked Away

We met on the footbridge over the river on Wednesday, at four in the afternoon, with students streaming past on both sides.

I had picked the place.

It was daylight and public, and I had a rule about that.

Erin stood against the rail with her hands in her coat pockets.

She had dark shadows under her eyes and a bakery bag she did not open.

"You wanted to talk," she said.

"I did." My lip had scabbed, and it pulled when I spoke. "I owe you my half."

"Your half of what?"

"Of why."

She waited.

A bicycle bell rang behind us, and a girl on a bike went past with her scarf flying.

"In the first life," I said, "I thought I was the one person who loved you right."

"You did love me."

"I loved you so hard I never let you choose a single thing."

She said nothing.

"I ran next door in my socks because I was afraid you'd leave, and I called it caring. I picked the apartment. I picked the couch. I knew your classes before you did, and I told your mother when you skipped one." My hands were gripping the rail. "At the hospital, when you were in the bed, I thought, I did this. Not Rhett. Me. I took the one thing you needed, which was to make your own mistakes, and I gave you nowhere to put your anger but me."

"Alec."

"Let me finish. This time I looked away because I finally understood it was your life. It wasn't because I stopped."

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