An Unexpected Invitation
To his surprise, Elise gestured toward the seat across from her again. “Sit.”
“What?”
“I want you to tell me the truth. All of it. Right here. One conversation. Then we never have to speak again.”
Jason hesitated. “Clarissa—”
“She can wait. This is your moment of choice, Jason.”
He looked between the two women—his past, and his present. And the shame that came with both.
He sat.
Jason sat across from Elise, his ex-wife, the woman he had once loved deeply but let slip through his fingers when life got difficult—and when temptation knocked. His throat was dry, his heart thudded like a guilty drum in his chest. He had faced boardrooms full of billionaires and sealed deals worth millions, but tonight, he felt like a schoolboy caught cheating on a test.
Elise stirred her drink gently, her eyes on the swirling liquid rather than on him. “So?” she said quietly. “Tell me the truth.”
Jason inhaled sharply. “You already know I cheated.”
She nodded.
“What you don’t know is… I regret it.”
Her eyebrows lifted slightly, but she didn’t interrupt.
“I was a coward. I didn’t know how to face your pain. I thought loving you meant always being strong, and when the accident happened—when you were in that bed and I saw what you had lost—I couldn’t bear the guilt. I didn’t know how to stay.”
Elise looked at him. Her voice was low, but steady. “You didn’t even try.”
Jason winced. “I know. That’s what eats me up. You were the strongest person I knew. And I abandoned you when you needed me most.”
A pause.
Then Elise asked, “Why her? Clarissa?”
He hesitated. “She reminded me of who I was before everything got complicated. Before… reality. She made me feel alive when I was drowning in guilt.”
Elise gave a small, sad smile. “So she was your escape. Not your future.”
Jason blinked. The truth in her words stunned him. He had never thought about it that way, but yes—Clarissa wasn’t love. She was refuge.
