Chapter 127: Hundred and Twenty Seven

“Who were you on the phone with?”

Jacob’s voice was quiet, too quiet. It made the hair on the back of my neck rise. My hands fumbled as I set my phone down on the nightstand, the glow vanishing into black.

“Work,” I whispered, though even to my own ears it sounded like a lie.

He stared at me, unblinking. “Don’t lie to me, Willow.”

“Work?” He barked out a bitter laugh. “You expect me to believe that? At midnight?” He stalked closer, every step deliberate, predatory. “No. You were talking to him. Weren’t you?”

My heart slammed against my ribs. “Jacob, please.”

“Don’t lie to me!” His hand slammed against the dresser, the sound making me jump. “I see it, Willow. The way you look at him. The way you go quiet when his name comes up. You think I’m blind?”

I pressed back against the headboard, my pulse roaring in my ears. “It’s not -”

“Not what?” His voice cracked, but not from rage this time. He dragged a hand down his face, his breath ragged. “God, I’ve been killing myself pretending. Pretending I was enough. Pretending this life I built with you could erase him from your mind, from your heart.”

My lips parted, but nothing came out. My hesitation was all the answer he needed.

A bitter laugh escaped him, jagged and hollow. “It was him, right? Declan.”

I shut my eyes, as if closing them could erase the name from the air, but Jacob was relentless. He stepped back, dragging both hands over his face, and when he looked at me again his eyes were wet.

“I’ve always known,” he whispered, shaking his head. “God help me, I’ve always known.”

“Jacob - ”

“Don’t.” His voice cracked, breaking me apart. “Don’t stand there and pretend it isn’t true. You think I haven’t seen it? The way your whole body changes when he’s near. The way your smile is different when you talk about him. The way you… the way you pull away from me, like holding me is some kind of betrayal of what’s still inside you.”

Tears welled in my eyes. “It’s not like that.”

“It is!” His shout made me flinch. But then, just as quickly, his strength collapsed. His shoulders heaved, his breath ragged. He pressed his palms against his eyes, choking back a sob. “Tell me, Willow. Please. Do you love him?”

The question pierced through me. God, did I love me? The truth pulsed through my chest so violently it felt like my ribs were splintering apart, but I couldn’t make the words leave my lips.

Jacob let out a strangled sound, half-laugh, half-sob. His tears broke free, running down his face as he shook his head. “There it is. Christ. I was right.”

I staggered forward, reaching for him, but he stumbled back, as if my touch would burn. His whole body shook with rage, grief, betrayal. I felt tears roll down my cheeks. “Do you know what it’s like to love someone who will never be fully yours?” His voice cracked open, raw. “To hold you every night and know that no matter what I do, no matter how hard I try, part of you will always belong to him?”

My own sobs came now, violent and uncontainable. “Jacob, please, I love you. I do. I do.”

“I thought I could make you forget,” he wept, his chest heaving. “I thought if I loved you enough, if I gave you everything, if I carried Noah as if he were mine, you’d see me. You’d… you’d choose me.” He pressed his fist against his chest, as though trying to hold himself together. “But I was a fool. A goddamn fool.”

“Don’t say that,” I tried to reach for him again, and this time he let me. My fingers clutched at his arms, desperate, and he clung to me too, both of us shaking, both of us soaked in tears. For a moment we were two broken people holding onto the wreckage of something we couldn’t save.

“I wanted so badly to be enough,” he whispered into my hair, his tears hot against my skin. “For you. For Noah. I wanted to be the man who fixed everything that Declan broke.”

“You are enough,” I cried, my voice hoarse. “Jacob, you are my fiance.”

He let out a harsh laugh, but it was broken. “I’ll never be him, Willow. I know it. You know it. Hell, the whole world probably knows it. I tried to stand in his place, but I can’t. I’ll never be what he is to you.”

I opened my mouth, desperate to calm him, but he cut me off with a glare, his eyes wild and shining.

“And Noah.” His voice cracked again, “Every time I tuck him in, every time he calls me Dad,” He shook his head violently, his jaw tightening. “He’s not mine. He never was. And I resent it, Willow. I resent carrying another man’s child on my shoulders. I resent living a lie.”

My breath caught.

Oh.

He stepped back suddenly, raking both hands through his hair, his chest heaving. For the first time, he looked almost… broken.

“I should never have tried to take his place,” Jacob said, his voice quieter now, almost a whisper.

“You’re not,” I spoke through my tears, “I love you. You are my fiance, Noah’s father, in all ways that matter.”

“No, I’m not!” He tore back, his face twisted with anguish. “There have always been three people in this relationship. You, me…” His lips trembled around the name. “And him. Even when he wasn’t here, Willow, he was here. In your heart. In your eyes. In every damn breath you take.”

I sobbed so hard I could barely breathe. My body shook with the weight of it, with the truth I couldn’t deny.

“Do you think,” he spoke, “Do you think I don’t know you still think of him? Look at his socials. Watch his fucking YouTube videos.”

Jacob’s tears fell in a steady stream, his chest wracked with sobs he couldn’t contain. “I was pretending,” he whispered, voice trembling. “Pretending I could take his place. Pretending I could be father to a child who looks at me with love I don’t deserve. Pretending I could erase what you feel for him. But I can’t. I’ll never be him. And you’ll never stop loving him.”

He covered his face with his hands, shoulders shuddering, before forcing the words out through broken breaths: “I should never have tried to take his place.” He repeated, this time, as if to himself, “I can’t. And I’m done.”

“Jacob, please don’t -” My words dissolved into sobs, my chest aching, my heart splitting in two.

He looked at me, eyes red, face streaked with tears, and for a heartbeat I saw all the love he’d ever had for me. All the love he still carried, even now, even as it destroyed him.

“I loved you, Willow,” he said, voice breaking on every syllable. “God, I loved you so much it hollowed me out. But love isn’t enough. Not when half of your heart belongs to another man.”

He pressed a trembling kiss to my forehead.

And then he turned.

His footsteps echoed in the silence, heavy and certain. He didn’t look back. The sound of the door slamming behind him was loud, ringing with finality.

I collapsed onto the floor, my sobs echoing in the room. And for the first time, I felt the full weight of the truth.

There had always been three of us.

And now there were none.