Pulling up to her apartnt complex, Henry parked the car and took a deep breath.
Whatever this eting was about, he would face it with a level head. He couldn’t allow old emotions to cloud his judgnt, not when it ca to Carla.
The mont Henry pressed the doorbell, the sound echoed briefly before the door swung open. Before he could even say a word, Carla threw herself into his arms, catching him off guard.
"Henry, please help forget about him. I’m in a ss right now, and I don’t know what to do!" Carla sobbed, clutching his shirt tightly as if holding onto him would anchor her to reality.
Henry froze, his arms hovering awkwardly at his sides. He hadn’t expected this level of desperation. "Carla, calm down," he said gently, though his voice carried a firm edge. He placed his hands on her shoulders and gently pushed her back just enough to look at her tear-streaked face.
Her makeup was slightly smudged, her eyes red and puffy from crying. She looked nothing like the confident, glamorous woman she portrayed in public.
"Let’s sit down and talk," he said, steering her toward the sofa inside her spacious apartnt.
She collapsed onto the couch, burying her face in her hands. "I feel like my whole world is crumbling. Everyone is laughing at , Henry. Do you know how humiliating it is to be overshadowed like this? To lose to her?"
"Carla," Henry started, keeping his voice asured, "you need to stop comparing yourself to others. What’s happening with Alexander and Rain has nothing to do with you anymore."
Her head snapped up, her eyes blazing with frustration. "How can you say that? It has everything to do with ! Alexander was supposed to be mine. I was the one by his side for years, and now he’s flaunting his perfect little life with Rain as if I never existed!"
Henry’s jaw tightened. "And what exactly do you want to do about it? You called here for help, but what are you really asking, Carla?"
"I don’t know!" she shouted, her voice breaking. "I just... I can’t handle this pain, Henry. I feel so lost. I need you to help forget him, even if it’s just for a mont."
Her words were laced with desperation, and Henry felt the weight of her plea settle heavily on his shoulders. A part of him wanted to remind her of the past, of how she had left him broken in the sa way Alexander had now left her. But another part of him, the part that still carried a flicker of the love he once had for her, couldn’t ignore her pain.
"Carla," he said after a long pause, his voice steady but firm, "I’ll help you, but not in the way you think. Running away from this or trying to forget him won’t solve anything. You need to confront your feelings and move on, for your own sake."
Her lips trembled, and fresh tears welled in her eyes. "But I don’t know how," she whispered.
Henry sighed deeply and leaned back in his chair, running a hand through his hair. "Then let’s start with you figuring out who you are without Alexander. It’s ti to stop defining yourself by him or anyone else."
Carla stared at him, her expression a mixture of anger, sadness, and sothing he couldn’t quite place. For the first ti in years, she looked truly vulnerable.
The room seed to shrink around Henry as he processed what was happening. Carla stood before him, her dress pooling at her feet, her bare form illuminated by the soft glow of the room’s lights. His heart raced, but not out of excitent... it was a mix of shock, anger, and confusion.
"Carla..." he managed to choke out, his voice rough and low, but she didn’t give him a chance to say more.
She bit her lower lip, her eyes glinting with desperation. "I want you to make feel good like you did before. I want you to make feel wanted..."
Henry’s mind scread at him to act, to push her away, to leave, but his body felt frozen in place. The weight of her words and the vulnerability she wore like a cloak made it harder to react logically.
When he finally found the strength to move, Carla was already straddling his lap, her lips capturing his in a searing, desperate kiss.
It was not a kiss filled with love or tenderness, but one driven by need, a need to feel validated, to feel anything but the pain Carla was drowning in. For a fleeting mont, Henry’s body betrayed him, responding out of instinct rather than reason. But then reality slamd into him like a tidal wave.
With a sharp inhale, he grabbed her shoulders and firmly pushed her back, breaking the kiss. "Stop!" he barked, his voice louder than he intended.
Carla froze, her eyes wide with shock, her chest heaving from her uneven breaths.
"This isn’t right," Henry said, his tone laced with a mixture of anger and disappointnt, mostly at himself for not stopping things sooner. "I’m not going to be your escape from whatever you’re feeling right now. And you deserve better than to reduce yourself to this, Carla."
Her expression twisted with hurt and frustration, and tears began to spill from her eyes. "I just... I don’t know what to do anymore, Henry. I feel so empty, so worthless..."
Henry sighed, his heart aching for the woman he once loved, even if she was now a shadow of who she used to be. "You need to find your worth within yourself, not in soone else, not in Alexander, and not in ."
He gently but firmly moved her off his lap and stood, keeping his gaze firmly on her eyes, refusing to let it waver. "Put your dress back on, Carla. You’re better than this. And you need to start acting like it."
Carla looked stunned, her vulnerability stark in the silence that followed. Slowly, she reached for her dress, pulling it back over her shoulders. Henry took a deep breath, trying to steady himself, and turned toward the door.
"For what it’s worth," he said without looking back, "I hope you find the strength to heal. But I can’t be part of this."
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