“Back to the life your mother walked away from.” He pauses at the door, silhouetted against the night. “You needed to understand where you came from before you could decide where you’re going. Now, you know.”
I clutch Sofiya tighter. “And what if I make the wrong choice? What if I go back to him and he hasn’t really changed?”
Grigor’s smile is sad, haunted by decades of what-ifs. “Then you’ll do what your mother did. What you’ve already proven you can do. You’ll leave again.”
He turns to go, but I stop him with one last question.
“Did you ever regret letting her go?”
He doesn’t turn back, but his shoulders tense. “Every single day of my life,” he confesses quietly. “But I never regretted respecting her enough to make her own choice.”
When the door closes behind him, I’m left alone wi
