Page 381 of Bad Prince
The ugliest question.
The one everyone asks when they think love is a hallway with two doors and all you have to do is pick one.
I shake my head slowly.
“No.”
Her brows pull together.
“No?”
“I’m not ending this because I have some perfect ending lined up with her.” I hold her gaze. “I’m ending it because you deserve more than me standing here with one foot still somewhere else.”
For the first time since she arrived, something in Isa’s face softens.
Not because it hurts less.
Because it’s finally honest. I go on before fear can clean up the truth.
“I don’t know what happens with Stella,” I say. “I don’t know if I get that. I don’t know if I deserve that. But I do know I can’t keep doing this with you while every real part of me is still tangled up in her.”
The fountain water catches the last gold light.
Isa looks down.
When she speaks again, her voice is smaller.
Not weak.
Just unguarded.
“I hate that I respect that.”
A humorless laugh slips out of me.
“Yeah. I’d hate that too.”
That gets the smallest smile from her. Then she draws in a breath and squares her shoulders like she’s putting herself back together piece by piece.
“So say it clearly.”
I go still.
She lifts her chin.
“Not the nice version. The real one.”
I nod.
My mouth feels dry.
“This isn’t fair to you,” I say. “And I can’t keep seeing you when I know you’re not the girl I would bleed for.”
Isa shuts her eyes.
Just for a second.
When she opens them, they’re shiny, but she doesn’t let a single tear fall.
