NOAH
I felt the blood drain from my face.
"I am selfish," he said, the words falling like lead weights. "I am heartless. I am manipulative. I use people and I throw them away when the friction becomes too much. I'm toxic. I'm controlling. I'm a piece of shit criminal who doesn't know how to exist without a target."
Each word was sharp, precise. He wasn't just confessing; he was stabbing himself with the truth of my accusations. He was stripping himself bare, showing me the rot he believed lived inside him.
"You weren't wrong," he whispered, his eyes blazing with a terrifying intensity. "Not even a little."
I opened my mouth, a "no" forming on my tongue. I wanted to tell him I was just angry, that I didn't see him that way anymore, that the man carried me out of that bar drunk or looked after Cyan couldn't be all those things. But he didn't let me speak.
"So stay the fuck away from me."
