Page 73 of The Yoga Teacher

Then, finally—

“I wan’t comparing you.”

Her breath caught.

He swallowed hard, his throat working like he was trying not to choke on his own words.

“Not because I was loyal,” he continued, voice brittle and low. “Not because I wanted to protect what we had.”

His mouth twisted into something that wasn’t quite a smile. Just pain.

“Because I thought I didn’t have to.”

He wasn’t being cruel. He was just telling the truth.

And it hurt more than cruelty ever could.

“You were separate,” he said. “You were... untouchable. Our marriage felt like this fixed thing. Something I couldn’t break, even if I tried.”

Hannah stared at him, her heart thundering in her chest.

She wasn’t angry.

She wasshattered.

“You thought we were permanent.”

Daniel nodded slowly. Miserable. “Yeah. I really fucking did.”

Tears burned behind her eyes.

But she couldn’t let them fall. Not yet.

“So it’s not that you didn’t think she was better than me,” she said, her voice small. Barely more than a thought aloud. “It’s that you didn’t think I mattered at all.”

His face crumpled. He looked gutted. Sick.

“No. No, that’s not—”

But she was already backing away.

Already shaking her head.

Already breaking.

“That’s so much fucking worse, Daniel.”

He didn’t try to argue.

He just stood there, shoulders hunched, like he wanted to rip himself out of his skin. The shame rolling off him in waves.

But it didn’t matter.

Because no matter how much it hurt him now—

It had already destroyedher.

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