Chapter 42

• "I can't keep doing this, Cole," Funmi's voice trembled as she looked at me, her eyes filled with a mixture of frustration and hurt. "I can't keep pretending that everything is fine when you—" She cut herself off, shaking her head, unable to finish the sentence. But I knew what she meant. And I hated myself for it.
• I tried to reach for her, to close the distance between us, but she pulled back, her hands clenched at her sides. It had been days since we last spoke like this, days of silence, of unspoken words that seemed to hang between us like a dark cloud. The things we had ignored before—the doubts, the insecurities—were now impossible to overlook. And all of it felt like it was suffocating me.
• "I'm not pretending," I said, my voice strained, desperate to make her understand. "But you don’t get it, Funmi. I’m trapped. I have obligations to my family, responsibilities that I can’t just ignore. This isn’t something I can walk away from."