ry moment, every lie. The System had warned me that Mark was a 'relapse risk,' but I had

a way he never was to me. She was his past, his chaos, his 'wilder' sid

m all those years ago, marrying some rich old man and moving

self-destructive spiral, and I was the junior executive assigned to keep him in line. Then Emily walked in. She was vibrant,

ventures collapsed. I was the one who pulled him from the literal and figurative wreckage o

oman who had abandoned him. He spent months chasing he

ing her marriage. That was it. He was devastated. And in his devastatio

was a happy ending. I thought he had fin

turned to when the seas got too rough. And I, the fool, had accepted the role. I had traded m

ssion. I had done the work. I had fixed th

in was sharp, but beneath it, a cold, hard clarity began t