The rain had slowed to a steady drizzle, but the cold had settled deep into Emily's bones. Her clothes clung to her like a second skin, soaked and heavy. The rooftop no longer felt like a place of escape; it was a cage where the past confronted her, where James stood like a ghost she thought she'd lost forever.
She pulled her jacket tighter, trying to hold together the fragments of herself as she faced the man who had shattered her world.
"I don't even know where to begin," Emily said, voice rough from disuse and pain. "You left without a word. No goodbye, no explanation. Just… gone. And for months, I was left to wonder if any of it was real — if you ever really cared."
James's eyes flickered with guilt and shame. He swallowed hard and stepped closer, though still keeping a cautious distance, as if afraid she might break.
"I know," he whispered. "I don't expect you to forgive me. I don't even know if I deserve your forgiveness. But please… let me explain."
Emily crossed her arms, bracing herself for the flood of truths she hadn't dared ask before.
James took a deep breath, the cold air filling his lungs, steadying him. "After everything seemed perfect — or at least as perfect as life ever gets — I started to feel this crushing weight. It wasn't something I could just ignore. It consumed me. Depression… it's not just sadness. It's like drowning while everyone around you breathes freely. I was terrified, Emily. Terrified that if I told you, you'd see me differently. That you'd leave."
Emily's mind raced. She'd read about depression, seen it on screens and in books, but the reality — the raw, aching human reality — was so much more brutal. To think James had been fighting that darkness alone, and she had been left in the cold.
"Why didn't you trust me?" she asked quietly, a tear slipping down her cheek. "We promised. I thought we were in this together."
James's voice cracked. "I wanted to protect you. I thought if I carried it alone, it wouldn't hurt you. But all it did was destroy us."
There was silence between them, filled only by the soft patter of rain and the distant hum of the city that never truly slept.
Emily wanted to shout, to scream at him for abandoning her. But the anger tangled with sorrow, with a deep understanding of his pain. They were both broken — shattered by fears and silence.
"I spent nights wondering if you were okay," she confessed. "If you were alive. I felt so lost."
James took another step closer, the vulnerability in his eyes raw and real. "I was alive. Barely. And every moment away from you felt like losing myself piece by piece."
She swallowed hard, the storm inside her mirroring the storm outside. "How do we move forward from this? How do we fix something that's been shattered?"
He hesitated, then said, "By being honest, even when it hurts. By facing the darkness together."
Emily looked out over the city — the endless lights twinkling like distant stars, unreachable and cold. She thought about the nights she had spent alone, crying into her pillow, begging for answers.
Could this be the beginning of healing? Or was it just another false hope?
"I don't know if I can trust you yet," she whispered. "But… maybe we can try."
James reached out, his hand trembling, and gently brushed a wet strand of hair from her face. "That's all I ask."
As the rain finally began to ease, they stood on the rooftop, two fractured souls searching for a way back to each other — unsure if the road ahead would bring redemption or ruin.