“Restoring balance because I won a competition fairly?” I asked with a sharp laugh.
“I see how terrible it sounds now,” Brendan confessed quietly.
“It always sounded terrible, Brendan,” I countered. “You just had a group of friends enabling you.”
“I lost almost all my friends because of this,” he complained bitterly.
“That isn’t an apology,” I reminded him coldly. “That is simply a consequence of your actions.”
“My father cut off my allowance, Liam refuses to talk to me, and Scarlett moved to Europe,” he rambled desperately. “My entire life fell apart.”
“My graduation was ruined, my self-esteem was shattered, and my passion for dance was nearly destroyed,” I stated firmly. “For three years, you trained me to feel guilty for things I never did.”
“I am truly sorry, Chloe,” he finally whispered.
“Sorry for which of the ninety-six acts?” I asked quietly.
“For every single one of them,” he replied, closing his eyes.
I watched him.
He didn’t cry or make a dramatic scene, and I was relieved. I had no interest in drama anymore.
“I don’t expect you to take me back,” he added softly.
“How thoughtful of you,” I replied sarcastically.
“Can you ever forgive me?” he asked desperately.
I remembered the dizzy girl sitting outside the clinic, my mother holding my hair on the bathroom floor, and the life I had built in Arizona.
“I don’t know if forgiving you even matters,” I answered smoothly. “What matters is that I no longer need to hate you to stay away from you.”
“Does that mean it doesn’t hurt anymore?” he asked.
“It means you no longer get to decide what I do with my life,” I said, picking up my bag and turning toward the exit.
“Chloe,” he called out one last time. “Were you actually happy after you walked away from me?”
I looked down the hallway, thought about everything I had survived, and smiled.
“I am learning to be happy without asking for anyone’s permission,” I said clearly, walking away for good.
Before flying back to Tucson, I bought a new pair of black dance shoes and called my mother from the terminal.
I told her seeing Brendan had felt far less overwhelming than I expected.
Then I opened the revenge folder one final time, saved a copy to an external hard drive for safekeeping, and deleted it from my phone.
