The Bet & The Heart.

CHAPTER XVII

Sofia stood in the living room, her heart pounding painfully in her chest as she faced Syafiq. The weight of their shared past hung in the air, every moment of joy now clouded by the ache of separation. Seeing him again stirred up a familiar longing, a bittersweet reminder of everything they had lost—and everything she had never truly let go of.

"Syafiq..." she began, her voice trembling as the tears threatened to spill over. "I thought I'd lost you for good. I didn't know how to reach you, how to make things right after... after everything fell apart."

He stepped closer, his eyes glistening with a mix of hurt and longing. "Sofia, I couldn't stay away," he said, his voice thick with emotion. "I had to see you. I needed to hear your voice again, to know if... if there was still anything left between us. Every day without you felt like a part of me was missing. I kept replaying everything in my mind, trying to figure out if you still felt the same way."

"I did," she admitted, her voice barely above a whisper, "but I didn't know what to do with it. I tried to convince myself that I could make it work with Nadhir, that maybe if I just pushed through, I'd forget about you. But every day, every single day away from you... it felt like I was losing a part of myself."

"Then why didn't you just tell me?" he asked, his voice breaking with the weight of the hurt he had carried. "Why did you let me walk away like that, Sofia? Why did you leave me in the dark?"

The words hit her like a punch to the gut. She shook her head, her tears falling freely now. 

"Because I was scared!" she cried, her voice cracking under the strain. "I thought I was doing the right thing, keeping you away from all the chaos in my life. But when you didn't chase after me, when you just let me go, I felt like I was the easiest thing for you to throw away. It was like... like I never even mattered to you."

Syafiq's eyes widened, and his breath caught in his throat. "No, Sofia... no," he said, his voice trembling with desperation. "You were never the easiest thing to let go of. You were the hardest. I thought by giving you space, I was doing the right thing. I thought... I thought you wanted to be free from me, and I was too proud to fight for you when I should have. But I promise you, I never stopped caring. I never stopped wanting you. I was just... I was scared too."

Her heart clenched at the agony in his voice, the depth of his regret mirroring her own. "It felt like I was fighting for us all by myself," she whispered, her voice trembling with emotion. "I kept hoping you'd come after me, that you'd show up and say that I was worth fighting for. But you didn't... and I felt like I wasn't enough."

"I'm so sorry," he choked out, his voice barely above a whisper. "I should have fought for you. I should have chased after you and told you that I couldn't imagine my life without you in it. But I let my pride get in the way, and I was a coward. I thought... I thought stepping back would give you what you needed, but I see now that all it did was hurt you."

Sofia's tears streamed down her face as she shook her head, the pain of their shared regrets nearly suffocating. "I'm sorry too," she whispered. "I thought I was protecting you by keeping my truth hidden, but all I did was push you away. I should've trusted you with everything, but I was so afraid of losing you that I ended up letting you go."

His hands reached for hers, and he held them tightly, his eyes locking onto hers with an intensity that seemed to pierce right through her. 

"You were never a burden, Sofia," he said, his voice raw with emotion. "You were everything I wanted. I just didn't know how to show it. I was scared that if I let my guard down, I'd end up losing you anyway, and I'd be left with nothing but my own regrets. But I see now that in trying to protect myself, I hurt you even more."