Her arms are crossed against her chest like she's trying to protect herself from what's coming. His thoughts are all jumbled together and he doesn't even know where to start. He sits down on the couch and she follows him, even though she winces at their sudden proximity.
"Where have you been staying?" he asks, unsure of what to say.
She rolls her eyes at him, knowing full well he's trying to buy himself some time. She's always been way more direct than him.
"Not that it's any of your business, but my parents' house."
He can't hide the surprise on his face. She loathes that house. She'd swore up and down that she would never set a foot back there again after her parents had passed away. It held too many memories. She hadn't wanted to sell it though, because a small part of her wasn't ready to let it go yet, to let them go. It would have never crossed his mind to look for her there, in Normandy, which is probably why she'd stayed there in the first place.
"What about you?"
"Huh... at the apartment in Maranello. It made sense, with the training and all..." She nods sharply. "I thought you'd stay in Monaco. Here."
"In your apartment? Well, no." She lets out a humorless chuckle. "You leaving without a word seemed like a pretty clear message at the time, so I moved out a while ago."
"I'm sorry..."
"That won't cut it, Charles. Not this time." She takes a deep breath, and she looks up, blinking away unshed tears. "I just wanna know why..."
He runs a hand through his hair, trying to find the right words. But there aren't any.
"I fucked up."
She's silent for a little while, and her voice is shaky when she asks, "Do I know her?"
It takes him by surprise. He stares at her with widened eyes, and his heart plummets in his chest.
"What? No. No! That's not... It's not that."
"Really? Cause that's the only explanation I've got right now," she says, skeptical. "I still don't understand why you'd leave without saying anything. I mean, you want to break up with me? Fine." She throws her hands in the air, pissed off. "But I think I deserved at least an explanation. A note. Fuck, I would have settled for a text!"
"I fucked up." How many times has he said that lately?
"Yeah, you really did." Her brutal honesty is disarming but not surprising.
"I thought it'd be easier this way, you know? I realize it's stupid, and that it was wrong but... yeah. I just..." How can he explain it to her when he knows he was wrong? "I thought I wouldn't be able to leave if we had talked."
"So, what? You felt stuck?" She drops down the mask now, looks at him with tears rolling down her cheeks. "Or maybe you just weren't in love with me anymore? Because fuck Charles, I thought we were good! Fuck that, we were great!"
"It was never about you..."
"Really? Well, it didn't feel that way when I woke up alone!"
His eyes immediately linger on the closed door of their bedroom, the one he hadn't dared to step into yet. It had been hard enough to walk out of it...
"I never meant for it to end that way, I just... panicked, I guess. Everything just got to my head and I didn't know how to deal with any of it..."
The silence stretches between them. She's looking at her lap, toying with the hem of her shirt. When she talks, her voice is barely above a whisper.
"Did I... Did I miss the signs? Was there like... a warning sign or something?"
