Page 160 of Say My Name

“Yes.”

“Did you tell her?”

“Yes.”

“And?”

“She didn’t say it back.”

That answer has lived inside me every hour since I left her condo.

She held on to me while she cried, her voice breaking over my name as if it were the only word she had left.

Then she let me leave.

Cliff is quiet long enough that I check the screen to make sure the call hasn’t dropped.

The words land like a physical blow, something I’ve wanted to hear for so long I stopped believing it was possible. “She loves you,” he says.

“You can’t know that.”

“I’m her brother.”

“That doesn’t make you psychic.”

“No, it means I’ve spent her entire life watching what she does when she cares about someone.”

“She made a choice.”

“She got scared.”

“Fear doesn’t erase the choice.”

“I didn’t say it did.” His voice hardens, the easy friendship gone. “But don’t turn her worst defense into proof that none of it was real.” The accusation finds its intended target.

I stare at the floor.

“I watched her shut everyone out for six years,” he continues. “After her last relationship, she stopped needing anybody. At least that’s what she wanted us to believe. She built a life where no one could get close enough to take anything from her again.”

“She told me about her ex.”

“I know.”

My head lifts. “How do you know?”

“Because she told me she told you.”

The words rearrange the last two weeks. She went to her brother, the person she trusts most, and told him she’d let me see the one part of her history she keeps guarded. She told him about the risk she took on me.

“She still couldn’t choose me.” Her trust doesn’t change the fact of the ending.

“Maybe she couldn’t choose you when you asked. That isn’t the same as never letting you matter.”

I close my eyes.

“What did she say about the acquisition?” I ask.

“Only that it’s confidential, the numbers are messy, and her team is handling the initial review. Why?”