When Alvarez had gone, the three of them sat with what was left. And it was Lia who broke first, not into tears, but into motion. She stood and gathered her coat from the back of the chair, and her hands were shaking as she pulled it on. "I have to go," she said. "I have to get away from here. " Henry pushed himself upright despite the protest of his ribs.
"Lia, don't you understand? " She rounded on him, and now the tears did come hot and furious. "This is on me. He came after you because of me. You were in that truck because I said yes to a phone call, and you almost died on that road, and the only reason any of it happened is that I let a man like Simon into my life and couldn't get him out cleanly. If I stay near you, I'm a target painted on your back.
The kindest thing I can do for you, the only decent thing, is to take my mess and walk out of here so it stops landing on you. " There it was. The same logic he had used on her 2 years ago turned now and pointed at himself. "I'll spare you from me. I'll decide what's best for you and leave before you can argue. " He recognized it instantly because he had built his whole retreat out of those same boards. And so he did the one thing the old Henry would never have done.
He did not let her go. "No," he said. "Henry. " "No. Listen to me. " He held her gaze and refused to release it. "An hour ago you told me what you needed.
You said you needed to know I wouldn't run the second things got hard, that I'd stay and say so instead of building a wall and calling it kindness. You said you'd rather I tell you no to your face than vanish. He drew a breath that hurt all the way down. So, I'm telling you no. To your face.
You are not walking out that door to protect me. That's not your decision to make alone the same way leaving was never mine to make alone. I learned that the hard way. I learned it so well I drove up a mountain in the rain to undo it. Lyra stood frozen with her coat half-buttoned, the tears running freely now.
I spent two years thinking the brave thing was to step back. Henry went on. It wasn't brave. It was just fear wearing a nicer coat. You want to know if I've changed, watch.