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Just like that.

No one stops him.

No one would be stupid enough to try.

The silence after he goes is monstrous.

I can’t breathe right.

Can’t see right.

The whole library feels too bright and too aware.

Stella is still sitting there.

Calm.

Collected.

All in.

I hate her with a force so clean it almost steadies me.

“I’m sorry,” she says.

I laugh once through my tears.

“No, you’re not.”

“Maybe I’m not,” she says quietly. “But I did save you from a wrecked, broken heart. He would never go all in on you—and you know it.”

That one lands so hard I nearly fold in half.

Because yes.

I do know it now.

I knew it every time he paused.

Every time another girl’s name changed his face.

Every time he gave me almost and I called it enough.

I grab my books too fast and one nearly slides off the table because I’m trying to leave before I actually collapse.

“I just needed more time,” I whisper, and I hate how small my voice sounds. “Now we both lost him.”

That gets her.

I can see it.

Good.

She looks almost stricken for one second.

I don’t care.

“Just go, Stella,” I say. “Leave me alone, okay?”