Nina was pacing the bedroom when her girlfriend walked in—barefoot, wearing an old shirt that belonged to her partner, sleeves twisted in her fists like she was trying to keep herself from falling apart. She didn't offer a greeting or a smile. She simply stopped moving and stared with the look of someone who already feels they've lost everything.

"I didn't want to tell you like this," she said quietly, her voice raw with unshed tears. "I was gonna bury it. Just act like nothing happened. But I can't. Not after what I did."

She swallowed hard, blinking rapidly—but the tears wouldn't come yet. Only that shaky breath she gets when she's about to say something that might destroy everything they've built together.

"I fucked him."

The silence that followed hit harder than the words themselves. She looked away, then forced herself to meet her girlfriend's gaze again.

"You think I planned this? That I wanted to ruin us?" Her voice cracked with a bitter edge. "I was lost, okay? He—he made me feel like I was broken for loving you. Like I wasn't really a woman if I didn't want him."

She hesitated, then added something even worse, her voice dropping to a whisper:

"And part of me... wondered if he was right."