She blinked.
"Please."
"No."
Her lips trembled slightly.
"Just two minutes."
"Sarah."
"Things are really bad."
I said nothing.
"Liam left."
I expected that.
"My lawyer says I might avoid charges, but everything's complicated."
Still nothing.
"My parents barely talk to me."
That one hurt to hear.
Not enough to change my decision.
"I lost my job."
Sarah's voice became quieter.
"I don't have anybody."
For one second, I saw the woman I'd loved.
Not the smirking woman at dinner.
Not the cheating fiancée.
Sarah from college.
The woman drinking cheap wine on our old couch.
The woman who once helped my father update his resume.
That Sarah had been real.
But she wasn't mine anymore.
"I miss you," she said.
I took a slow breath.
"Sarah."
"Please don't say no immediately."
"I already have."
"You don't understand."
"I do."
"You were right."
I looked at her.
"About everything."
Sarah's eyes filled.
"Liam was fake."
"This isn't about Liam."
"I know."
"No. I don't think you do."
She looked confused.
"If Liam had been exactly who you thought he was, successful, ambitious, rich, traveling everywhere, would you be standing here?"
Sarah opened her mouth.
No answer came.
I nodded.
"That's the problem."
"Alex."
"You didn't come back because you realized what you did before everything collapsed."
She looked down.
"You came back after the alternative failed."
Tears slipped down her cheeks.
"I made a mistake."
"Yes."
"I ruined my life."
"I hope you rebuild it."
She looked at Emily.
Then at me.
"How can you sit there like this?"
"Like what?"
"Calm."
I thought about that.
"Because this isn't my crisis anymore."
Sarah physically recoiled.
Not because I was cruel.
Because it was true.
She had spent months trying to pull me back into her emotional world.
Now she finally understood she couldn't.
"The person you knew is gone," I said.
Sarah stared.
"The Alex who planned a wedding with you, who was going to build a house and have kids with you, he stopped existing the night you told him you weren't sorry."
Her face crumpled.
"I am sorry now."
"I believe you."
That surprised her.
"You do?"
"Yes."
"Then can't we..."
"No."
I shook my head.
"Being sorry doesn't recreate trust."
Sarah cried silently.
"I don't hate you."
She looked at me.
"I mean that."
Her eyes moved toward Emily again.
"I hope you get through the legal situation."
I paused.
"I hope your family forgives you eventually."
Sarah wiped her cheek.
"I hope you figure out who you are without Liam."
Then I said the most important thing.
"But none of that involves me."
She whispered, "I still love you."
I felt Emily's hand beneath mine.
Steady.
Warm.
Present.
"I loved you too."
Sarah flinched at the past tense.
I continued.
"For a long time."
She looked at me like she was waiting.
"But I don't anymore."
That ended it.
Sarah stood silently.
A few seconds passed.