The sob feels like it lances through him. A knife to his goddamned gut. She's killing him slowly, cut by cut. He's going to bleed out.

"Which is why I said that we have to move forward," he says, his voice rough. "No one ever gets anyone back. That's now how life works. You only ever lose people. You - " He runs his hand through his hair roughly. It shakes. His throat clenches. He tries again. "We can try something else here. Try to figure out something else. But I can't be the person you knew back at camp. Honestly, Sonia, I've told you, I was lying to you, planning to leave. Why would you even want that Byerly back?"