A few days had passed since their encounter in the hospital. Austin's emotions were still raw, his mind unable to shake the memory of the woman—of Ally—sitting there, so blinded by her own denial. He could still hear her voice echoing in his head, still see the way she looked at him with contempt.
He couldn't forget it. He couldn't move past it. But he tried.
The day had been long, filled with meetings, phone calls, and far too much time spent wallowing in grief. But as the sun began to set, Austin found himself standing outside a café, unable to stop himself from thinking about the woman who had infuriated him to no end.
He hadn't planned on running into her again. He hadn't planned on anything at all, really. But the universe had other plans.
And so, as Austin stood there, looking up at the neon sign of a small café on the corner, there she was. Ally.
She looked different now, no longer the broken woman who had sat in the hospital room. She stood tall, her posture defiant, as though she had made a decision—to move on, to take charge, to pretend like the world hadn't fallen apart just days ago.
Austin's chest tightened at the sight of her, but before he could retreat into the shadows, Ally spotted him. Her face twisted with immediate recognition and disdain.
"You," she said, her voice low but fierce, "what the hell are you doing here?"
Austin smirked bitterly, crossing his arms over his chest. "Same as you, I guess. Trying to forget."
Ally rolled her eyes, shaking her head. "Trying to forget? I'm not the one who's still bitter and angry about everything."
"Really?" Austin's voice was sharp. "Because I'm not the one living in some fantasy land where everything is still okay. You're the one who refuses to face the truth. You're the one who refuses to believe your perfect husband was just as much of a liar as mine."
The words hit harder than he intended, but there was no taking them back now.
Ally's face turned red with fury, her fists clenching. "You have no right to speak about Dallas like that. You have no idea what he was to me. You have no idea what I'm going through!"
Austin's gaze hardened. "And you have no idea what I've been through. So don't act like you're the only one suffering here."
The silence between them was thick, charged with the weight of their emotions. But Ally was done holding back.
"You're just mad that your wife didn't love you enough, aren't you?" Ally snapped, her voice a mixture of anger and hurt. "She ran to someone else, didn't she? It must be so much easier to blame her, to make her the villain, than to face the fact that maybe you just weren't enough."
Austin's chest tightened, his eyes flashing with rage. He took a step toward her, the intensity of his anger evident in his posture.
"You don't know anything about me, or my life," he gritted out. "And you don't get to throw those kinds of words at me. Not when you've been sitting there, telling yourself that Dallas was perfect. You have no idea what he did. None."
Ally didn't back down. Instead, she stepped forward, standing her ground. "I'm not the one running around blaming everyone else for my problems," she said, her voice calm but filled with a quiet intensity. "I'm not the one holding onto this rage because it's easier than facing the truth."
Austin shook his head, his hands balling into fists at his sides. "You think I'm angry because of her?" he asked, his voice rising. "No. I'm angry because of you. Because you—" He stopped himself, the weight of his words heavy in the air.
Ally blinked, confused. "What do you mean by that?"
Austin stared at her, his voice barely above a whisper. "Because you refuse to see it. You refuse to believe that the man you loved was just as much a liar as the one I loved."
There was a long pause, a silent battle between them. Neither of them knew how to fix this. Neither of them knew how to move past it.
"You're a fool if you think it's that simple," Ally said finally, her voice hardening. "You think you have all the answers. You think you know how I feel. But you don't. You're just like the rest of them. You only care about your own pain."
Austin took a step back, swallowing the lump in his throat. She wasn't wrong, not entirely. He was consumed by his own grief, his own sense of betrayal. But what she didn't understand was that this wasn't just about his pain.
It was about the truth.
And she wasn't ready to face it.
"Good luck..." Austin muttered, turning to leave. He didn't know her name, but that didn't matter. He didn't need it to know that they were too far gone now. Too far apart to ever make things right.
As he walked away, he couldn't help but feel the weight of their fractured paths. They were enemies now. And no amount of words or apologies would ever fix that.