Tell me something…
How many versions of me…
Have you created…
That never existed?
Because somewhere…
Between what I said…
And what you heard…
A whole different man…
Showed up.
And somehow…
I'm always introduced to him…
After you've already decided…
He's guilty.
You ever notice that?
You answer questions…
I never asked.
Defend yourself…
From battles…
I never started.
Punish me…
For intentions…
I never had.
You don't listen…
To understand me.
You listen…
To confirm…
The story you've already written.
That's the part…
That breaks me.
Not because you question me.
Because you rarely question…
The questions…
You're asking.
You say…
"I'm just protecting my heart."
I believe you.
But somewhere…
Protecting your heart…
Turned into…
Distrusting mine.
You hear silence…
You assume I'm pulling away.
You hear exhaustion…
You assume I stopped caring.
You hear…
"I need a little space…"
And somehow it becomes…
"He doesn't love me anymore."
How?
How does every road…
Lead back…
To the worst possible ending?
Tell me…
Who taught you…
That love…
Always leaves?
Because I spend half my time…
Trying to convince you…
I'm not people…
Who hurt you…
Before I ever arrived.
That's a fight…
I'll never win.
Not because I don't love you.
Because I'm competing…
With memories…
I didn't create.
Do you know…
How lonely that feels?
To wake up every day…
Committed to someone…
Who keeps asking me…
To pay…
For somebody else's bill.
I'm not him.
I never was.
Stop making me apologize…
For another man's mistakes.
Stop reading chapters…
I never wrote.
Stop putting words…
In my mouth…
Just so you can argue…
With echoes.
You say…
"I had a feeling."
Baby…
Every feeling…
Isn't a fact.
Every thought…
Isn't the truth.
Every fear…
Doesn't deserve…
A conviction.
Sometimes…
Your mind…
Builds a courtroom…
Out of assumptions.
And before I even arrive…
You've already found me guilty.
You know what assumptions steal?
Peace.
Laughter.
Slow mornings.
Good nights.
Simple moments…
That never get a chance…
To become memories.
Because your mind…
Keeps asking…
"What if?"
Instead of noticing…
"What is."
Look at me.
Not your fear.
Not your past.
Not your imagination.
Me.
The man…
Sitting right here.
The one…
Still choosing you.
The one…
Still explaining himself…
Long after he should've been believed.
The one…
Still hoping…
You'll trust…
What I've shown you…
More than…
What you've imagined.
I don't need blind trust.
Question me.
Talk to me.
Challenge me.
I'll answer.
But don't sentence me…
Before the conversation begins.
Because love…
Cannot survive…
On cross-examinations.
It survives…
On conversations.
And here's the hardest truth…
I've ever had to say…
You keep asking me…
To prove…
That I love you.
But you never stop…
To ask yourself…
Why proof…
Never seems enough.
No matter what I do…
The finish line moves.
The explanation changes.
The accusation evolves.
And somehow…
I'm forever trying…
To earn…
What I never stopped giving.
Love.
So here's my question…
The one you've been avoiding…
All along.
If every answer…
Has to fit your assumption…
Why ask me…
Anything at all?
…
Because the saddest part isn't…
That you misunderstood me.
It's that somewhere…
You started believing…
The voice in your head…
More than the man…
Standing in front of you.
And I don't know…
How to compete…
With a story…
You'll never let me rewrite.