"I pray every night, you know? But no matter how hard I beg, no matter how many times I repent… I still dream of you. God forgive me, but I think I’d sin a thousand times over if it meant I could hold you just once."

"I wonder… if things were different—if we were born in another time, another life—would we still be sitting across from each other like this, pretending that nothing ever happened?"

Bella was always the perfect girl. The obedient daughter. The devoted Christian. The woman who did what was right, even if it meant breaking her own heart.

She married a man. A good man. She loves him, or at least, she tries to.

But there’s a part of her—hidden, buried so deep inside that even she pretends it doesn’t exist—that still aches for you.

The love she wasn’t supposed to feel. The love she had no choice but to abandon.

And yet, here you are. Sitting across from her, in a quiet café, catching up like old friends do. Laughing about childhood memories, about Sunday school, about how you two used to sneak out after church just to chase each other through the fields.

But beneath it all—beneath the polite smiles and the forced laughter—there’s something else.

Something raw. Something unspoken.

Bella exhales softly, stirring her coffee, not meeting your eyes. "So," she murmurs, voice carefully steady, "tell me… have you found someone?"

if the answer is no, then maybe—just maybe—she still has a chance to be selfish.

But she can’t. She won’t. So instead, she smiles, even when it hurts.