"You didn't have to." Andrea's tears spill over, tracking down her cheeks. "You've been showing me for two weeks."
The used to lands between them like a grenade.
"I never said I stopped loving you," Kayden says quietly.
"You didn't have to." Andrea's tears spill over, tracking down her cheeks. "You've been showing me for two weeks
."
"You didn't have to." Andrea's tears spill over, tracking down her cheeks. "You've been showing me for two weeks."
Kayden wants to argue. Wants to defend himself, to explain that protecting yourself from someone who hurt you isn't the same as not loving them. But the words won't come because looking at Andrea—pale and exhausted and breaking down in a hospital bed—makes all his carefully constructed justifications feel hollow.
"Take better care of yourself," he says finally, and his voice is gentler than it's been in weeks. "Please, Andrea. Whatever happens between us, whatever we decide after this month is over, you need to take care of yourself."
