Strings of Fate: The First Loop

CHAPTER 47

“The truth,” I muttered. “You want to talk about truth? The truth is, she gave you everything she had. And you… you treated it like it wasn’t enough. Like she wasn’t enough.”

James didn’t respond. He just stared ahead. Jaw tight. Hands fisted in his lap.

“She trusted you,” Inez said, her voice quieter but sharper. “You were her safe space, James. The only one she let in. She told me once… that you were the reason she started believing she could be loved without being fixed.”

James flinched like the words had landed right in the center of him. Good. I wanted him to feel that.

“She thought your chaos made sense with hers,” I said. “That maybe two broken things could build something whole. And instead, you took all that and smashed it.”

“I know,” he choked. “I know I did.”

“No, I don’t think you do,” I said, pulling harder at the wheel than I needed to. “Because if you did, you would’ve told her right away. You would’ve begged. Instead, you let her carry your silence. Let her wonder if she was paranoid or just not enough anymore.”

“She was enough,” James said, almost a scream now. “I was the one who wasn’t.”

His voice broke, splintered. He was crying again. But it didn’t move me this time.

“That’s the damn problem,” I said coldly. “You’re always not enough after the damage is done.”

From the back, Tim exhaled slowly. “You know what hurts the most? This wasn’t just some fling. It was Olive. Your friend. You didn’t just break Betty… you made her question everyone else too.”

That landed hard. Even James nodded, shame swallowing his features.

“Have you ever even tried to understand what Betty’s been holding together?” Inez’s voice came out shaking now. “She wakes up every day pretending she’s fine so no one else falls apart. And you? You were supposed to be her break from pretending.”

Silence again. Except now it wasn’t just silence. It was full of knives. I tightened my grip and pushed the accelerator harder. The lights blurred faster.

“I keep thinking about that last look on her face,” I said. “How empty it was. Like she’d finally run out of reasons to stay. You didn’t just lose her, James. You may have erased her.”

“I know,” he whispered. “God, I know…”

He sounded broken. But it didn’t change the facts.

“And if something happens to her,” I said, voice like ice, “I’m not blaming fate. I’m blaming you.”

We all stared out into the dark for a while after that. No one spoke. What was there left to say? Somewhere in the distance, the road bent north. Beyond it, the woods began. The kind of places GPS forgot and memory refused to keep.

As we turned the corner, I caught a flicker of something familiar, an old roadside café, closed and covered in dust.

I thought of Betty...

She always showed up for people, even when they didn’t deserve it. I glanced at James. He was trembling. And I suddenly realized something cruel. He didn’t need us to punish him. He was already living in a world where Betty’s absence was the loudest sound. And that was a sentence he’d carry for the rest of his life.

Still… I wasn’t sure if I wanted him forgiven.

Because love is supposed to protect.
And instead, he broke the only girl who ever made him whole.