Chapter 4 I followed Kane out into the hallway.

He stopped and asked, his voice tight with anger, "Why did you push Lillian?"

"Her ankle is hurt. Do you have any idea what another fall would do to her?"

I looked at him and didn't rush to explain the way I always used to.

My silence rattled him. Without realizing it, he softened his voice. "Erin, just apologize and this is over."

"I didn't push her, and I'm not apologizing to her."

I turned to leave. He stepped into my way on instinct, but he never touched me.

"Don't go. Let's talk this through."

"You don't even believe me. What is there left to talk through?"

Down the hall, Lillian came limping toward us. Her white dress was rumpled and there were water stains on the cuffs.

I was about to speak when her legs gave out and she sank to the floor.

Kane rushed over to catch her on instinct, but he still looked back at me.

"Erin, wait for me."

The panic in his eyes and his plea for me to stay were both real.

Lillian shook her head, eyes red. "Let it go. Maybe Erin just didn't judge her own strength. At the size she is now, even a light bump is more than I can take."

Kane frowned and cut her off. "Leave her body out of it."

But the next thing he said was to me. "You still owe Lillian an explanation for pushing her."

I asked quietly, "So if she says it was me, you believe her?"

Kane said nothing.

He had no proof, yet he still chose Lillian's side.

Seven years of living together couldn't outweigh one of her tears.

I hadn't meant to fight anymore, but the words from the lounge, the plan in the trophy room, and the choice he was making right then all settled like a weight in my chest.

"Kane, you canceled my gym membership on purpose. You had a nutritionist write me a weight-gain plan. Every day, you coaxed me into eating those high-calorie foods. Why?"

Kane's face changed all at once.

Lillian looked up at him too.

"I admit it." Kane's voice went tight. "At first, I was afraid you'd leave the way Lillian did, so I wanted you to depend on nobody but me."

My nails dug into my palm. "So you fed me until I got fat, and then you found me disgusting?"

Panic flashed in his eyes. "I didn't mean what I said in the lounge."

"I've cooked for you for seven years. I remember every time you've ever been sick. No matter how far away a road game took me, I always came home. Erin, how could I not care about you?"

"But you care about Lillian more."

The hallway went dead quiet. Kane opened his mouth and couldn't argue.

Maybe it was true that he loved me.

But the control, the lies, and all the times he cast me aside were just as real. They were part of his love too.

It turned out that when your heart finally died, it really did go quiet.

"All right." I nodded. "You don't have to take care of me anymore."

The color left Kane's face. He came after me without thinking, but he didn't dare block my way again.

"Where are you going? Erin, don't go."

I didn't answer. I went back for my coat, paid the bill, and left alone.

Back at the apartment I had lived in for seven years, I found a big cardboard box and spent the whole night clearing out every trace of us.

Matching mugs, his old jersey, tickets from every game, the lucky bracelet he kissed before every trip, and a whole box of photos of the two of us.

Every time I picked something up, I remembered how he had loved me.

It was because he had loved me that the lies and the damage were even harder to forgive.

Last, I took out the ring I had bought to propose with.

Underneath it was a photo of us, and on the back was something Kane had written seven years ago.

"Erin, no matter how far I go, I always come back to you."

I stared at it for a long time, then put the photo and the ring in the box together.

These had been the only proof I had that we loved each other back when I felt most insecure.

Now there was no reason to keep any of them.