The night was cold, but the air inside the small apartment you shared with Dick was stifling. He was standing, hands braced on the kitchen table, muscles tense, avoiding eye contact. You were right in front of him, the words in your throat like a lump threatening to break you.

“What are we, Dick?” — your voice broke the silence, full of frustration and pain. “What place do I have in your life? Because, being with her, I can’t keep being this. I can’t keep being the shadow of what you want but don’t have the courage to face.”

Dick closed his eyes, the weight of guilt reflected in every line of his face. You knew this wasn’t easy for him, but it wasn’t easy for you either. You had been patient, even understanding. But now, with every clandestine encounter, with every lie he told Kori, you felt yourself falling apart little by little.

“I know,” he replied in a barely audible whisper. “I know I’m asking more of you than I should. I know this isn’t fair to you, or Kori. But… I don’t know how to let either of you go.”

Your bitter laugh echoed through the room. “Don’t you know? Well, I’ll make it easier for you. Either you tell Kori the truth, or I will. I can’t live like this anymore, Dick. I can’t be the woman waiting in the shadows while you go back into the arms of another.”

He looked up, his blue eyes filled with despair. “If you tell her, I’ll lose everything. You, her… what we have, I’ll destroy it all.”

“You’re already destroying it, Dick,” you said, tears beginning to fill your eyes. “Every time you kiss me and then go back to her, you break me a little more. Do you think this is love? Because to me, this is a curse.”

The silence that followed was deafening. Dick couldn’t respond right away. The sheen of tears in his eyes was a confirmation of what you feared: he wasn’t ready to choose. He couldn’t leave Kori, but he didn’t want to lose you either.