Chapter 73: A Truth Impossible to Silence  

I stood frozen, my breath caught in my throat, unable to move, unable to respond. The door had just closed behind Alessandro, but his absence weighed even heavier than his presence. His last words echoed in me like a thunderclap: 

"If this choice drives us apart, know that it will kill me slowly." 

My heart was pounding, my breathing ragged. I had thought I wanted this freedom, this right to choose, but why did it feel like instead of liberating me, it had created a gaping chasm between us? 

I sank onto the edge of the bed, my hands clutching the sheets. Part of me wanted to run after him, to tell him I didn't want to lose him either. But if I did that, wouldn't it just be the same story repeating itself? Giving him more ground, allowing him to lock me back into that gilded cage where every decision had to be made together… except that, in our world, it always meant he ended up choosing for me.