Chapter 128: Hundred and Twenty Eight

I knew before he even spoke.

The house was too quiet when I came back that night, the air thick with loss and indecision. My steps felt heavy as I set my bag down by the door. I was already bracing for him. For whatever version of Jacob would meet me this time - the furious one, the wounded one, or the one that looked at me with such desperate longing it made me feel like I was being split in two.

He was on the couch, hunched forward, elbows resting on his knees. His head lifted when the door clicked shut. His eyes were red. His shirt rumpled. There was an empty glass on the table, I knew he had been drinking.

“Willow,” he said. Just my name. Flat, tired.

I froze in the doorway. “Jacob…”

He didn’t motion for me to come closer, didn’t reach for me. Just rubbed his face with both hands and let out a long, shuddering breath. “I know.”

My heart stuttered. “Know what?”

He gave me a look. It was broken, sad, almost pitying. “That you were on the phone with him last night.”

Heat flooded my face. My throat turned dry, useless. I wanted to lie, to cover, to scramble for some flimsy excuse the way I always did. But there was something in his eyes tonight that told me there was no use.

“Jacob, its -”

He cut me off, his voice sharp and aching. “Don’t. Don’t lie to me anymore. I’ve been lying to myself enough for the both of us.”

The floor felt like it was shifting under my feet. “It wasn’t -”

“It was,” he snapped, then pressed his fingers into his eyes like he was trying to hold himself together. His voice cracked. “God, Willow. Do you think I don’t see it? Do you think I haven’t seen it for years?”

Tears blurred my vision. “Please, Jacob, don’t.”

“Don’t what? Don’t say it out loud?” His voice rose, but it wasn’t angry. It was raw. It was pain spilling out of him, flowing and uncontrollable. “You’re still in love with him. You’ve always been in love with him. And I… I was fooling

myself thinking I could erase that.”

“Jacob, that’s not fair.”

He was not wrong. We both knew it.

He let out a hollow laugh, shaking his head. “Not fair? No. It’s not fair. To me. To Noah. To you. To any of us. Because I’ve been carrying this weight for years, trying to be something I can never be. Trying to be him.”

A sob broke from my mouth. I pressed my hands to my face. I sobbed into my hands, the sound muffled, pathetic. He kept going, voice trembling.

“There have always been three people in this relationship. You. Me. And him. Even when he wasn’t here, Willow, he was here. In your eyes. In Noah’s eyes.”

“Jacob,” I begged through my tears. “Please, Jacob, don’t do this. We can fix this.”

But he only grew quieter, sadder. His own tears slipped free now, carving down his cheeks. “I love you. I’ve loved you enough to stay. To try. To raise another man’s child and call him my own. But I can’t… I can’t keep living in his

shadow.”

My chest heaved. “You’re not in his shadow. You’re Noah’s father, you are my-”

“I’m not,” he said fiercely, cutting me off. Then his voice broke into a whisper. “I’ve tried to be. God knows I’ve tried. But every time I look at him, I see the truth. He isn’t mine. He never was. And you,” His lips trembled. “You’ve never

fully been mine either, have you? And God knows I’ve tried, Willow.”

The words gutted me. I wanted to deny them, to scream yes, I am yours, I chose you, I stayed with you, but the lie caught in my throat. My silence was answer enough.

Jacob closed his eyes, tears spilling freely now. “I should never have tried to take his place. I should’ve known better. But I wanted you so badly, Willow. I wanted the family, the love, the life we built. And for all these years, I almost

believed it was enough. I thought I could love you enough for the both of us.”

I dropped onto the arm of the chair opposite him, my body trembling, my face wet. “Jacob, I do love you. I swear I do.”

He looked at me, his eyes sharp through the blur of tears. “But not like you love him.”

My breath caught.

He wiped his face with the back of his hand, sniffed hard, and laughed bitterly through the tears. “God, I’ve been such a fool. Fighting for a place that was never really mine. Holding onto a woman whose heart already belonged to

someone else.”

“Don’t say that,” I whispered. “Please don’t say that.”

“I have to,” he said, his voice breaking. “Because it’s the truth.”

He stood then, unsteady, his hands clenched into fists at his sides. “I can’t keep doing this. I can’t keep pretending we’re whole. I can’t keep pretending you’re not still his.”

“Jacob…” I tried to stand, to reach for him, but my knees felt weak.

He stepped back, shaking his head. “No. Don’t. If you touch me right now, I’ll never let go, and I can’t… I can’t live like this anymore.” His voice cracked completely, and I saw the boyish softness in him, the vulnerability he tried so

hard to hide. He was crying openly now, chest heaving, face crumpled.

I broke then too, sobbing into my hands. “I never wanted to hurt you.”

“I know,” he whispered. His voice was gentler now, steadier. “But love isn’t about wanting. It’s about truth. And the truth is…” He dragged in a ragged breath. “The truth is, you’ll never stop loving him. And I can’t keep being the man

who always just tries to make you forget him.”

He stared at me for a long, aching moment, as if memorizing me. The ruins of us, the tears, the debris of the love we had for each other. Then his shoulders slumped, his voice soft and final.

“I’m setting you free.”

No sound left me. He had said it so softly, barely above a whisper, but the words had rung with a finality of sorts.

“Go,” he whispered, barely audible. “Be with him, if that’s what you want. Because I can’t keep holding you here. Not when you’ve already gone.”

He moved past me, so gently it almost hurt more. His hand brushed my arm, a ghost of a touch, one last tether, and then he was gone. The door clicked shut.

The silence that followed was unbearable.

I collapsed onto the floor, my sobs tearing out of me. I pressed my palms to my eyes, as if I could block out the sound of his voice, the truth of his words. But they echoed inside me anyway.

I’m setting you free.

Free. A word that felt like a curse. A word that tasted like loss.

Because the truth was, I wasn’t ready to be free.

I wanted Jacob. I wanted Declan. I wanted a life that didn’t exist, one where my choices hadn’t destroyed the people who loved me most. But there was no undoing what had been done.