My body instinctively turned back to her when all I wanted to do was walk away and not look back. “It’s over, Emerson. I’m sorry, but it is.” I faced forward again.
“What about Lizzie?”
I stilled again, thinking about the young girl who made me smile when she smiled. But my affection for her was gone too. I turned back to Emerson and saw the tears running down her cheeks, her makeup ruined. “I said I would try. I tried.”
She shook her head. “I love you…”
I didn’t say it back.
“We’re meant to be together, Derek. Don’t do this. Don’t hurt me like this.”
I’d been hurt more than she would ever possibly understand. “I’m sorry, Emerson.”
“Please…”
I turned away and kept walking, ignoring the sound of her tears as they echoed in the stairway. I could hear them every time I dropped a floor, heard them when I was halfway to the bottom, heard them even when I finally reached the door on the ground floor.
When I was on the sidewalk in the cold air, I could still hear them.
Like an echo that wouldn’t fade.