Chapter 129: Hundred and Twenty Nine

The office was buzzing around me, but I felt like I was underwater. Like I was drowning and I had forgotten how to swim. I was aware of my surroundings, but my head wasn’t there. Words floated through me. Through the meetings, the report I was writing, but none of it touched me. I sat at my desk with my hands folded uselessly in my lap, staring at the same line on the screen for twenty minutes.

Everyone noticed.

“Willow, you look pale. Are you sick?” one of my colleagues whispered as they passed.

I forced a smile, shook my head. “Just didn’t sleep well.”

Not a lie. Not the whole truth either.

Every time I blinked, I saw Jacob’s face from last night - drawn tight, raw with anger, then soft with a kind of grief that broke me in ways I didn’t think possible. His words clung to me, rang in my head. There have always been three people in this relationship. And then the final blow: I’m setting you free.

And he had set me free. I hadn’t seen him. Hadn’t heard from him.

And now, I didn’t know what to do. How to go from here. What to tell Noah, what to tell my friends, my family.

Last night, I’d cried until there was nothing left. And still, here I was, hollowed out, somehow carrying all that weight into work.

I thought maybe I could hide in the humdrum of the office, disappear into numbers and words. Maybe it would be enough to distract me.

But Declan… Declan was watching me. I could feel it, the steady pull of his gaze from across the room. The entire time.

I tried to keep my head down. Tried not to notice. But every time I glanced up, I caught him looking, not with curiosity, not with judgment, but with a kind of quiet, unbearable concern.

At one point, he passed my desk and slipped me a little paracetamol.

By midday, my body was shaking from the effort of holding myself together. My throat burned from swallowing back tears. I felt myself slump in my chair, my head hitting the desk as I groaned lightly.

Declan finally moved. He crossed the room and leaned against the edge of my desk, his shadow falling over my papers. He kept his voice low, soft. “Willow… are you okay?”

The kindness almost undid me right there. I shook my head quickly, words tumbling out. “I’m fine. I’m just tired.”

He didn’t believe me. I saw it in the way his brows knit together, the way his jaw tightened. But he didn’t push, not here. Instead, he straightened, his voice quieter still. “Come on. Let me get you out of here. Lunch. Just the two of us.”

I wanted to say no. I should have said no. But the way he was looking at me all steady, patient, and gentle, it broke through my defenses. And I was hungry, too. My lips parted before I could stop them. “Okay.”

We left without a word to anyone else.

The moment I slid into the passenger seat of his car, the facade cracked. The silence inside was unbearable. Too close, too safe. I clenched my fists in my lap, staring at the dashboard, my breath uneven.

Declan didn’t start the engine. He just sat there, turned slightly toward me. “Talk to me, dove.”

Something inside me snapped.

The sob tore out of my chest before I could stop it, raw and ugly. I bent forward, covering my face with both hands. My body shook, and for a moment I couldn’t breathe.

Declan didn’t hesitate. He unbuckled his seatbelt, leaned over, and gathered me into his arms.

The moment his arms wrapped around me, I broke completely. I pressed my face against his chest, clinging to the fabric of his shirt like it was the only thing holding me together. The sobs came hard, racking my body, and I hated how weak it felt, but I couldn’t stop.

“It’s okay,” he murmured against my hair, his hand moving slowly up and down my back. “Let it out. I’ve got you.”

The warmth of his body, his familiar scent, the steadiness, the way his heartbeat thudded against my cheek, it undid me even more.

“He’s gone,” I choked out between sobs. “Jacob. He left me. Left us.. He said he’s done. He said I’ll never stop loving you, and, fuck, he’s right, Declan. God, he’s right.”

Declan’s arms tightened around me, his jaw pressed against the top of my head. “Willow…” His voice cracked.

I pulled back just enough to see his face. The anguish in his eyes, the tension in his jaw. Tears blurred my vision again. “I ruined everything. I broke us back then, and now I’ve broken this too. He said he was a fool to think he could ever take your place.” My voice cracked into a whisper. “He was right about that, too.”

Declan’s thumb brushed away a tear that streaked down my cheek. His expression was pained, but there was a fierceness in it, too.

“I heard him,” he admitted quietly.

I blinked at him, stunned. “What?”

“That night,” he said. “When you called. Before he came in. I heard enough. I didn’t say anything because I didn’t want to make it worse, but… Willow, I know.”

Shame rushed through me, hot and suffocating. “So you heard everything?”

He cupped my face, forcing my eyes back to his. “I heard the fight. I heard how much you’ve carried alone. And I hated it. I hated hearing you cry,” he breathed, “And that he hurt you.” He slowly peeled the shoulder of my top away, looking at the bruise on it, “I’m going to kill him, Willow.”

I shook my head. “No. He was hurting, too. So much. And I’m not justifying it, but I don’t want you to do anything.”

“You should have come to me. That night. Five years ago.”

Fresh tears slipped free. “I didn’t want to destroy your life. I didn’t want to take everything from you.”

He shook his head, his thumb stroking my face lightly. “You are everything, Willow. Don’t you see? Losing you was what destroyed me. Nothing else ever came close.”

A sob wrenched from my chest, and I buried myself against him again. His arms closed tighter, his hand cradling the back of my head as though he could shield me from all of it.

“I don’t just want you,” he whispered fiercely against my hair. “I want Noah too. I want to be there. I can’t pretend otherwise.”

My breath caught, my tears spilling harder. “Declan…”

He pressed his lips against my temple, lingering there, his voice ragged. “Let me in. Please. Don’t shut me out this time. I can take it. I can take all of it.”

And for the first time in years, I let myself collapse fully into him, trembling and broken, but safe in his arms.