umm, this came out of nowhere and it's a little different, but...
No matter how many times he said it, she couldn't believe it.
He cared for her, as a friend. He was too old, too experienced. They could never be together.
But tonight, Kristina got the message loud and clear. She realized that she didn't matter to him, at least, not the way she wanted. She had deluded herself into thinking that she meant something to him. It was all in her head. And she needed to let him go.
Ethan sat at the bar with an untouched drink in front of him. He didn't know what else to do. He could see it on her face, like she was shattered inside. He broke her heart tonight. And she broke his. She said goodbye to him. It wasn't the "bye, I'll see you later" farewell between friends. It felt more permanent. He she have stopped her from leaving. But he had to take care of something first and she needed to be with her family. If only he'd been able to explain. He didn't think she'd want to hear him out now.
He was too late.
How could she let herself get like this? She always went after the wrong things. Popularity. Money. Kiefer. Ethan. Everything always backfired. She should have known better than to go after Ethan the way she did. She tried to change herself for him. Sam had warned her about this a long time ago. How putting aside everything for a guy made you lose yourself. How the only way to truly be happy with anyone else was to know and be happy with yourself first. Who was she? She had to find out before she let this—him consume her any more than she had already let it.
No matter how many times he said it, she couldn't believe it.
He loved her, more than anything. He would always be there for her. They could get through anything together.
Sam was the luckiest woman in the world to have him. She had just finished telling Jason about her diagnosis. She waited until they got back to the Penthouse, using the silent car ride home to figure out what she was going to say. When they finally sat facing each other on the couch, she told him everything. How she'd hidden her symptoms from him. How she was in denial until Nikolas caught her in the middle of one of her stomach-turning headaches and insisted she go to the hospital. She told him how the doctors didn't know how they had missed it before. How there was a possibility that it may be related to her injuries from the car bomb. She told him not to worry, it was benign.
He knew he still had to worry. He knew that a benign brain tumor was still dangerous. She said the tumor was growing slowly. She had to have surgery. There was always a risk with surgery. At least she most likely wouldn't need radiotherapy or anything like that. He would stand by her even if she did.
She was worried about her mother and sisters and Jason. She didn't want to put them through anything else right now. It wasn't fair to them. Hell, it wasn't fair to her. She was never one to feel sorry for herself, but how much could she and her family take?
He held her in his arms. She wanted to cry. But she was tired of crying and being sad. She moved away from him and said she needed to call her sisters. To make sure they were okay.
He still saw the tears in her eyes as she got up and made her way up the stairs. There was nothing he could do.
She thought about being with her family earlier. They did always survive the worst life had ever thrown at them. She could handle this. She would be fine.