Chapter 69

• “I’m not doing this anymore, Cole,” Funmi’s voice was raw, but resolute. She stood across from me, her hands trembling slightly at her sides, but her gaze unwavering. “I can’t keep living in the shadow of all these lies. Not for you, not for us.”
• The words sliced through me like a knife, every syllable cutting deeper than I thought possible. My chest tightened, and I felt the weight of everything I’d tried to ignore for so long crash down on me. We were standing on the edge of something irreversible, and I could feel it in every inch of my body—the tension, the guilt, the fear that this could be the end.
• But it wasn’t just her words that haunted me. It was the way she looked at me, like she had finally seen through all the layers I’d built up to protect us from the truth. The truth we both knew, but had refused to face for so long.