After 999 Nights, He Said We Were Never Together Chapter 16

After 999 Nights, He Said We Were Never Together Chapter 16

The color slowly drained from Ryan’s face.

Thomas and Helen sensed that something was wrong. Their expressions turned grave as they looked at him.

“What happened now? Did you two have another argument?”

“It wasn’t an argument. There were only some misunderstandings, and I wanted to…”

His attempt to reduce everything to a misunderstanding made Sophie laugh in disbelief.

She set down her knife and fork, straightened in her chair, and fixed him with eyes sharp enough to cut.

“A misunderstanding? That’s what you’re calling it? Then why did you come all the way to Spain talking about

apologies?”

Seeing how angry she was, Richard and Grace grew anxious and tried to explain.

“Sophie, Ryan was wrong. He owes you an apology.”

Thomas and Helen looked even more confused.

Their hard-won peace had already been shattered, and Sophie no longer wanted to speak in riddles. She told

them everything.

“Ryan and I had an intimate relationship from the time we were eighteen. We never made it public, but in my heart, I believed we were together. Then Isabelle came back from Europe, and Ryan told me she was the woman he had always loved. I was only his closest friend.”

“I didn’t argue. I stepped aside. I moved to Spain because I wanted to end that relationship completely. I put an ocean between us, Ryan Blackwood. Why are you still refusing to leave me alone?”

Sophie’s voice grew more intense, and tears gathered in her eyes.

This time, she cried only for herself.

For the girl who had loved for so many years and waited for so many more.

For the girl who had been dismissed, misunderstood, abandoned, and ignored.

Neither pair of parents had ever heard the full story from Sophie or Ryan before.

All four turned toward Ryan, waiting to see whether any of it was untrue.

He kept his head lowered.

His silence was answer enough.

Thomas and Helen’s faces went cold.

Richard and Grace reacted even more violently. They glared at their son and demanded,

“Is everything Sophie said true? Ryan Blackwood, how could you do something like this?”

Ryan couldn’t deny it.

His chest felt trapped in a crushing grip. He could barely force the words through his throat.

“Yes. I wronged Sophie. I’m sorry, Thomas. Helen.”

The boy they had cherished for more than twenty years was the man who had betrayed their daughter.

Thomas and Helen couldn’t accept it.

Rage overwhelmed them. Unable to remain at the same table with the Blackwoods, Thomas struck the table,

took Sophie with him, and left.

Richard and Grace followed, apologizing repeatedly.

Thomas looked at his longtime friend without hiding his disappointment.

“If this were anything else, there might be room to talk. But this is about Sophie. Richard, don’t say anything

more. Whatever happens now will happen. There is nothing to negotiate.”

Ryan watched the Whitfields walk away, and his heart twisted into a knot.

Guilt and regret crashed over him like a tide until he could barely breathe.

For the first time, he truly understood that he and Sophie had reached the end of the road.

Neither surrender nor apology could repair what he had done.

She was no longer the girl he could win back with a few soft words.

She would never give him another chance.

Once lost, she was lost completely.

Some relationships, once destroyed, could never return to what they had been.