He leaned in, eyes soft and pleading. "You've seen it yourself—Mandy has always been closer to me. I know I can be a good father to her. Bonnie... leave Justin. Be with me."
He grabbed her hand, his grip urgent.
Bonnie sat in silence for a long moment, her expression conflicted. It was a look I knew well—the burden of a woman trying to balance the world on her shoulders.
"Brandon, you don't understand," she finally said, voice strained. "My relationship with Justin... it's complicated."
"I know the person I love is you. My heart has always been yours. But I can't just divorce him." She looked away, staring at the ground. "Justin... he did me a favor. I owe him."
The shifting sunlight cast shadows across her face, but I didn't need to see her eyes to hear the grievance in her tone.
For years, I had been deceiving myself.
I thought that if I loved her enough, if I sacrificed enough, she would eventually forget Brandon. I thought I could love her into staying.
But the truth was brutal: no one can compete with a ghost from the past. I was just the lucky fool who occupied the title of "husband."