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Let her go

Author: Kirizu
last update Last Updated: 2024-10-29 19:42:56

‘I wondered about that,’ she murmured.

‘If I was keeping tabs on you? I was.’ He looked grim for a moment. ‘If I was expecting to hear you’d gone into a decline, that wasn’t the news I got.

But…’ he paused ‘…Irene, my biggest doubt the more I thought about it was— even if it had happened for you, you hadn’t wanted to fall in love with me.’ He frowned. ‘I know circumstances made it a highly questionable thing to do at the time, but—was there more to it?’

A deep tremor ran through Irene, a feeling of having been understood that was extraordinarily precious. ‘Yes. After my parents and my Mother Superior died I couldn’t bring myself to get too close to anyone. So I was petrified over what I felt for you. Even up until yesterday, I think the last remnants of that fear made me say the things I did, but afterwards I realized I was only thinking of me, and that was cowardly.’

She saw him take an uneven breath.

‘Yesterday,’ he said, ‘my worst nightmare seemed to come true. That it was all over
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