I can see you

Chapter 26

(ROSY'S POV)

I came back. I don't know when exactly, just that I blinked, and the world looked different. It was sharper and softer all at once. The light had weight and the sound of the tires on the road felt like a warning I couldn't comprehend. My fingers were trembling in my lap and my throat was burning like I hadn't used it in years.

Rosy.

That was the name Edward whispered when he looked at me. Like it meant something solid, something safe. That was who I was now. Wasn't I? But I wasn't alone in my own mind.

"You think this means you've won?"
The voice was quiet and familiar inside me.
"You're just a replacement. You aren't real."

Riya. She was not screaming or violent. She was just there... watching and waiting.

I closed my eyes and breathed slowly. It didn't make her leave but it reminded me I still could. For now atleast. Edward didn't say anything during the drive but I could feel him glancing at me like he was watching for signs that I might fracture again. He wasn't wrong to worry.

We didn't speak until we were home. Even then, I wasn't sure which one of us was doing the talking. I finished telling him everything I remembered. The fire, the blood, Roy, my mother's last words, the bus, the flower.

He didn't interrupt. Didn't ask questions. He just sat there quietly like the silence between us might break if he moved too fast. I turned toward him. The room was bathed in cold moonlight, and his face was carved in stillness. He didn't look like the boy I had once longed to know. He looked like someone holding their breath.

The boy who had lost his brother. The man who had fallen in love with his brother's killer.

"Roy lied about the phone because he wanted you out of the house," Edward said suddenly like he could read my mind, his voice soft and faraway. "He sacrificed himself for you. You didn't kill him."

I opened my mouth, but no words came. Because they didn't feel like mine yet. Everything inside me felt warped and disjointed like someone had dug into my memories with a gloved hand and rearranged the furniture.

I didn't even know if I was real. Was I truly Rosy? Or just a soft mask Riya made to survive? A pretty lie stitched together with ballet ribbons and forgotten names?

---

The house was quiet. Too quiet.

As we stepped inside into the place we had tried to make feel normal I felt it: the weight of the unanswered questions we had both buried. Now they were rising, filling the air between us like smoke.

Edward closed the door behind us. He stood in the hallway, as if unsure how to cross into this version of me.

"Rosy..." he said, and I felt the pause. The hesitation. Like he was testing if the name still fit.

I didn't answer. Not to see if it felt like mine but to see if it would hurt. It did.

"I know all of this must be overwhelming," he said, stepping closer. "But I want you to know that I'm here for you. I'm not going anywhere. No matter what happens. No matter who you are."

He stopped just shy of touching me.

"I just want you to be safe."

Another pause.

"And about Roy... I get it if you still love him. I know you did. But I need you to know-"

"Edward," I said, cutting him off, my voice calm but hollow, "do you really think I'd be sleeping with you if I didn't like you?"