The admission hung in the air, painful but necessary. For the first time in a year, Leo felt like he could breathe. He wasn't faking it anymore. He looked at Clara and gave her the only thing he had left: the truth.
"I can't be what you want me to be," Leo said, finally letting the truth out. "I wish I could make your heart believe it’s okay, but I'm a bad liar".
He walked into the living room. Clara was looking at a photo of them from two years ago, back when their smiles didn't feel so heavy. She looked up, her eyes searching his, begging for a reason to keep believing the illusion. "Tell me what you see," Leo whispered, his voice cracking.
For months, they had lived in what looked like a "perfect paradise" to anyone peering through the window. They went to dinners, laughed at the right times, and planned for a future that felt increasingly like a script they were forced to read. But inside, everything was "tearing at the seams".
Drainage Salford