Page 65 of The Yoga Teacher

“I deserve to hate myself,” he said. “Because I had everything. I had her. And I pissed it all away for nothing.”

“I love her,” he said, voice raw. “And I’ll love her for the rest of my life.”

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Daniel didn’t go home.

He couldn’t go home.

Instead, he drove. Not to anywhere. Just away.

He could feel her ring where it lay against his chest, strung on the delicate gold chain. It nestled against his skin like penance. Like proof.

He wasn’t entitled to it but it was all he had left of her. So he wore it.

He wore it even though it burned.

He wore itbecauseit burned.

Because it reminded him that there had been a time when he was loved by someone extraordinary. When her eyes lit upjust for him. When she believed in him, completely, stupidly, beautifully.

And he had ruined it.

He gripped the steering wheel tighter, blinking against the sting in his eyes. The night blurred around him—headlights, streetlamps, neon signs flashing promises for people with clearer consciences.

He hated himself.

This was shame down to the marrow. Rot in the soul. A bone-deep knowing that he had touched something sacred and shattered it with his own hands.

He hadhadher.

He had held something rare and real. A woman whochosehim every day even when he didn’t deserve it.

And he threw it away because a younger woman had shown any interest in him. Not younger than Hannah, younger thanhim.

Because he wanted to prove something—to the mirror, to the world, to himself.

God.

Daniel leaned forward, pressing his forehead to the steering wheel.

Hannah was gone. He understood that now.

She would go on to live a life without him—she would laugh again, rebuild, fall in love again.

And he would deserve none of it. Not her joy, not her healing, not even the memory of her.

But still—

Still, she existed.

She was walking around in the world, being the kind of woman who turned heads and held hearts and made people better just by being near them.

Andthat—that was worth becoming someone better for.

Even if she never looked at him again.

Even if she never spoke his name again.

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