You were never mine to love

I loved you in silence.
Not the kind of love that asks to be returned, and not the kind that ever needed permission.
Just something quiet that grew inside me while you lived your life without ever noticing I was part of it.
You never looked at me the way I looked at you. You never knew I was there, loving you in the background of everything. And I learned to exist like that, unseen, unheard, and completely yours in a way you were never mine.