Chapter 68

• “I can’t keep doing this, Cole,” Funmi’s voice trembled, the words just barely escaping through the cracks of her composure. She stood in the dim light of the living room, arms crossed over her chest, a tightness in her posture that told me everything I needed to know. She was breaking, just like I was.
• I couldn’t look her in the eye at first. Every time I tried, I felt the weight of everything we hadn’t said pressing against my chest. There was so much between us—so many things we hadn’t spoken of, things we should’ve said but hadn’t dared. And now… now it was all coming apart.
• “What do you mean?” I asked, though I already knew. I just needed her to say it. I needed her to admit that we were both drowning in the same suffocating silence, surrounded by lies that had become harder to ignore with every passing minute.