Chapter 3
The silence after she hung up told me more than the call.
Grace sat beside me on the floor.
Her face was tight with anger.
“She is not just a friend,” she said.
“I don’t know what she is.”
“Yes, you do.”
I did not answer.
Because part of me did know.
Brianna was not a secret lover.
At least, not in the simple way people mean when they say affair.
She was something more complicated.
She was the voice in Melissa’s ear.
The witness to every fear.
The keeper of every escape route.
The person Melissa trusted more than the man she claimed she wanted to build a life with.
By evening, Melissa came alone.
At least, she walked up to my door alone.
I checked through the window first because I no longer trusted anything.
Her eyes were swollen.
Her hair was tied back messy.
She wore jeans and the cream sweater I had bought her last Christmas.
That hurt.
I opened the door but did not step aside.
She looked past me at the boxes.
Her face crumpled.
“You packed my things.”
“You kept an apartment.”
She nodded slowly.
“I deserve that.”
I almost laughed.
“You deserve more than a sentence.”
She looked down.
“Can I come in?”
I wanted to say no.
But this had been her home too.
Or at least I had thought so.
I moved aside.
She walked in like a guest.
That was the first time I understood we had already lost something we could not simply apologize back into place.
She stood in the living room.
Her eyes moved over the boxes.
The empty hook where her coat used to hang.
The cleaned table.
The missing candles.
“I’m sorry,” she said.
I stayed standing.
“For which part?”
“All of it.”
“That’s too easy.”
She nodded.
“You’re right.”
She took a shaking breath.
“I should have told you I was scared to move in.”
“Yes.”
“I should have told you I kept the apartment.”
“Yes.”
“I should have stopped Brianna from insulting you.”
“Yes.”
Her eyes filled again.
“I didn’t know how.”
I stared at her.
“That’s not true.”
She flinched.
“You knew how. You chose not to because correcting her felt scarier than hurting me.”
That landed.
She covered her mouth.
I kept going because if I stopped, I might comfort her.
And I was tired of comforting people through the pain they caused me.
“You let her use me as a symbol. I wasn’t Aaron anymore. I was the controlling man, the boring man, the man who might trap you, the man she had to protect you from.”
Melissa whispered, “I know.”
“No, you don’t. Because if you knew, you wouldn’t have brought her into my house over and over and watched her test how much disrespect I would accept.”
She sank onto the couch.
Then immediately stood again like she remembered it was mine.
“I was weak.”
I shook my head.
“You were loyal to the wrong person.”
She looked at me then.
“She saved me after my parents divorced.”
“I believe that.”
“She picked me up when my mom was crying on the bathroom floor. She drove me to class. She let me sleep at her place. She told me I didn’t have to become my mother.”
I softened despite myself.
Melissa saw it and stepped closer.
“But then she started making every choice feel like survival. If I wanted to stay with you, I was naive. If I trusted you, I was blind. If I loved you, I was disappearing.”
“Did you tell her to stop?”
“No.”
“Why?”
Melissa’s tears fell.
“Because I was afraid she’d leave too.”
There it was.
The root.
Not evil.
Not simple.
Still destructive.
I sat across from her.
“So you let her push me out before I could leave you.”
Melissa nodded.
“I think so.”
The honesty hurt.
But at least it was real.
Then my doorbell rang.
Melissa froze.
I knew before I opened the door.
Brianna.
She stood on my porch with crossed arms and a face full of contempt.
“I knew you’d try to corner her.”
Melissa jumped up.
“Brianna, I told you to wait in the car.”
I turned slowly.
“She came with you?”
Melissa’s face drained.
“She insisted.”
I laughed quietly.
Of course.
Brianna pushed past me into the house.
I blocked her with my arm.
“No.”
Her eyes widened.
“Excuse me?”
“You do not walk into my house anymore.”
Melissa said, “Bri, stop.”
But Brianna ignored her.
“You think you can isolate her from me?”
I stared at her.
“Listen to yourself.”
“You’re proving my point.”
“No. You are.”
Brianna turned to Melissa.
“See? This is how it starts. He decides who you can talk to. He decides where you can live. He decides when your friends are allowed inside.”
Melissa’s face twisted.
I could see the old fear rising.
The old training.
Brianna reached for her hand.
“Come on. We’re leaving.”
For one suspended second, I thought Melissa would go.
Then she pulled her hand back.
“No.”
Brianna blinked.
“What?”
Melissa’s voice shook.
“I said no.”
Brianna laughed.
“Don’t be stupid.”
Melissa flinched, but stayed still.
“You don’t get to call me stupid.”
“I’m trying to save you.”
“No,” Melissa said, crying harder now. “You’re trying to keep me scared.”
Brianna stared at her.
The mask slipped.
“You ungrateful bitch.”
The words hit the room like a plate shattering.
Melissa stepped back.
I moved between them.
“Leave.”
Brianna’s face reddened.
“You think she’ll choose you? She always comes back to me.”
Melissa whispered, “Not this time.”
Brianna looked at her with pure betrayal.
Then she smiled.
A cold, terrible smile.
“You should tell him about the lease.”
My stomach dropped.
Melissa turned pale.
I looked at her.
“What lease?”
May you like
Brianna’s smile widened.
“The one she signed for both of us.”
