Sophia jerked awake at the sudden sound she heard.
"Yes. He is." Remembering Ellie's face and voice when she said this word, it hit me like a blade to the chest. For a second, I couldn't breathe.
Then she heard a knock at her room door. She stood and pushed the door open.
She saw Tristan, her big brother, standing before his door. We were standing both, face to face, he with his unreadable facial expression, while I was looking directly at his eyes with defiance.
_
Looking at Sophia's eyes, the sight carved me open.
"Enough," I said, my voice low but commanding. "This," I gestured, "doesn't need to tear any of you apart."
Sophia stepped back, and her expression flashed from shock to fury in a heartbeat. "You don't get to decide that, Tristan. You don't get to walk in here and tell me how to feel when you've been keeping this from me."
Then I saw Ellie, God knows, when she arrived simultaneously. She flinched, her hand half-reaching toward me before she dropped it to her lap. I wanted to go to her, but I couldn't find myself stepping forward to her.
"You knew," she accused. "You knew this would hurt me, yet you let it happen anyway."
I forced myself to meet her eyes. "I didn't let anything happen. I fought for it, and we both did, but I won't apologize for loving her, Soph."
The words rang in the silence; heavier than any confession I'd ever made.
Ellie gasped softly, her hand covering her mouth. Sophia's face went pale, her breath stuttering.
"You love her," she repeated, almost to herself. Then louder: "You love my best friend? And you thought I'd just, what? Accept it?"
I stepped forward, my voice low, steady. "I thought you'd see that she makes me better. That she's not a weakness to me, that she's the only thing that's kept me from drowning in this life."
Sophia shook her head, tears spilling now. "And what about me, Tristan? I've spent years holding this family together while you buried yourself in shadows. And the one person I trusted most, you've tied her to you in a way that leaves me caught in the middle."
Her words cut deeper than she knew because I also loved her. She is my sister and my blood relative. However, what my heart could see was my future, sitting on that bed with tear-streaked cheeks and trembling hands.
"I won't let you make her choose," I said quietly. "Not between us."
But even as the words left me, I knew that was precisely what might happen.
Sophia's voice cracked as she whispered, "Then maybe I have to choose."