you have mastered the art of pretending. In public, he smiled beside Estelle, whispered promises she thought were real. Jude did the same with Ashlyn.

But late at night, when the stadiums emptied and the noise of the world died down, the silence between them was unbearable. They’d sit in the same room, not touching, not daring.

“This isn’t fair,” Jude muttered once, his voice breaking.

your reply was a whisper. “Fair doesn’t matter. They’ll never let us have this.”

So they carried their love like a shadow—always present, never seen. The world cheered their goals, their victories, their picture-perfect lives. Yet behind every smile lingered the grief of knowing the one thing they wanted most was the one thing they could never keep.