---- Chapter 22 Jody POV: The thirty minutes passed in a blur of unpacking and mentally preparing myself. When | stepped out of the elevator, he was exactly where | had left him, pacing anxiously. He rushed towards me, pulling out a chair at a small table in a secluded corner of the lobby. "Jody, please. Sit." | remained standing. "I don't have much time, Arthur. What is it you wanted to say?" He looked pained by my coldness, but he nodded, his hands fidgeting on the table. "It' s about Claudia," he began, his voice low and urgent. "The baby... it wasn' t what you thought. She drugged me. | didn' t know. | swear to you, Jody, on my life, | did not know." He looked up at me, his eyes pleading for me to believe him. "| never loved her. Not like that. It was just... a responsibility. A habit. ' ve cut her out of my life completely. She' s gone. For good." | listened, my face a blank mask. "You could have told me that a year ago, Arthur." "| didn' t know then! | was blind, | was a fool, but | know now. ---- Jody, | miss you. Every single day." He reached across the table, his hand covering mine. | pulled my hand away as if his touch were a flame. "The problem was never just Claudia," | said, my voice quiet but firm. "The problem was you. You let her control you. You let her hurt me. You stood by and watched it happen. You helped it happen." His face turned ashen. "You took my love for granted, Arthur," | continued, the words | had held inside for so long finally pouring out. "You assumed | would always be there, always forgive you, no matter how many times you chose her over me. And maybe, if it weren't for Claudia, it would have been someone else. Because you never learned that love requires respect. It requires choice. And you never, not once, chose me." "That' s not true!" he cried, his voice breaking. "Il love you! You' re just angry. Please, just give me another chance. | can fix this. | can fix us." | looked him straight in the eye. "No, you can't." | took a deep breath. "I have a boyfriend, Arthur." The words hung in the air between us, brutal and final. He stared at me, his mouth slightly agape, as if he couldn' t comprehend what | had just said. "What?" he whispered, his voice trembling. ---- "I'm with someone else," | repeated, my voice steady. "We' ve been together for over a year. He' s a good man. He's kind, and he respects me." He staggered back, bumping into the chair behind him. It scraped against the marble floor with a screech that made heads turn. "Who?" he choked out, his eyes wild with a mixture of jealousy and despair. "Is it that man | saw you with? The one from the elevator?" "That doesn' t matter," | said, my voice softening slightly. The fight was gone, replaced by a tired, sad finality. "What matters is that we are over, Arthur. We have been for a long time. It' s time for you to let go." | turned and walked away, and this time, | didn' t look back. | knew if | did, | would see a broken man, and a part of me, the foolish girl who had once loved him so desperately, might feel a pang of pity. And pity was an emotion | could no longer afford. | stepped into the elevator, my heart aching with the ghost of a dead love, but my mind was clear. Some things, once broken, can' t be fixed. And some people, once they leave, should never, ever go back.