We Could've Been

Prologue

Cyanna stands at the altar of her own wedding and feels nothing. The moment she has chased her entire life, the joy she imagined since girlhood, arrives and leaves her hollow.

She turns to Karys and asks him to come inside with her. Once they are alone, she tells him the truth plainly: she is not marrying him. The words land between them, and she waits for comfort, for something to hold onto. Karys gives her none of what he feels. He smiles instead, burying everything, and asks only whether she is ready.

Cyanna reaches for his hand. She needs approval, needs someone to tell her this is right, even though doubt is already eating at her. She takes his hand, trying to feel something, searching for a certainty that never comes.

They walk together without speaking as the doors open. Neither says what they actually mean. The ceremony starts, and they both step into it.

Every part of Karys screams to stop it, to take her and run. Instead he walks her forward, and it feels like dying.

The doubt rises in Cyanna's throat, ready to be voiced, but she stays silent. Her hand passes from Karys to Damari.

Damari lifts her veil and sees her tears. He assumes they are for him, reads them as love, and takes what he believes is his.

Karys says "I do." He kisses her head. Then he steps back, giving her away in the only way left to him.

Cyanna forces a smile onto her face and proceeds with marrying Damari, choosing the life in front of her over the truth she cannot say.

They exchange vows. They exchange rings. The guests cheer, celebrating a union built on a silence only Cyanna understands. She hides her regret behind the smile she has fixed in place.

Later, Karys tries to soothe his heartache. He orders tequila and a paloma, and he brings Cyanna food, still caring for her even now. He wants to protect her, so he makes her promise to call him if anything goes wrong. Cyanna promises, though it is already too late to confess what she feels.

Damari interrupts them and pulls Cyanna back to the reception.

Karys tells her he will be ready. If she calls, he will run to her. Then he leaves when she leaves.

Chapter 1

Karys Hill stands in the venue, phone in hand, waiting on Cyanna to confirm she is coming. The silence from her stretches on, and it gnaws at him. Damari, by contrast, is all excitement, and Karys latches onto that energy, ready to celebrate with Cyanna and her plus one. Then he learns the truth: Damari is her husband. Worse, Damari is his old rival. The celebration curdles in his chest.

Karys needs Cyanna to answer him, so he texts her a threat to pull up on her. Nothing. He turns to Damari and asks where she is. Damari shrugs her off, casual, dismissive, as if Cyanna's absence is a small thing. Karys presses him, and Damari says flatly that she is not talking to him or sleeping with him. Karys does not expect that.

Damari wants sympathy for his marriage, and he makes his case. He reveals that Cyanna had a miscarriage six months ago. The words hit Karys like a physical blow. Anger rises in him, hot and immediate. Cyanna never told him. Six months of not knowing, and Damari is the one who gets to say it out loud.

Damari wants to justify the distance. He says they had agreed to wait on kids, that he was not ready. Karys cannot let that stand. He calls Damari out on his callousness, names it for what it is, and walks away.

Karys calls Cyanna. He calls repeatedly, relentless, until she finally picks up. She is in his hotel room. He demands the truth, wants to know why she is not there, why she has gone silent, why he had to hear about her miscarriage from Damari.

Cyanna wants to avoid the conversation. She claims she is fine, busy with a final walk-through, her voice steady in a way that tells him nothing. Karys pushes, wants her to open up, but she refuses to discuss it now and ends the call. The line goes dead.

Karys warns her he will pull up on her. She admits she knows. The call ends.

Chapter 2

Cyanna can't face what her marriage to Damari has become. She stays away from him, burying her regret instead of dealing with it.

She watches Karys play in the Los Oceania post-season. She wants to see him shine on that field, but she holds herself back.

Karys once told her to call him if things fell apart. She hides her miscarriage and her loneliness from him instead. When he calls, she ends it without telling him the truth. She won't say the words that would bring her comfort.

She celebrates Karys's win alone in silence, then turns off the game. Feeling good isn't something she allows herself, so she shuts it down.

Jackie tells Cyanna the Reynold's project is approved. It's a real win in a stretch of her life that has none. She takes it without celebration.

Cyanna reviews a new inquiry from Hillcrest Holdings. She weighs whether she has time for the renovation. She decides to schedule a meeting before committing, keeping the option open.

Jackie asks about dinner with Damari. Cyanna deflects. She won't let the question get anywhere near the truth.

She admits to herself that her marriage is dead. It just needs to end.

Cyanna comes home after three days apart from Damari, sensing she has to finally speak. She doesn't get to start the conversation. She overhears Damari planning to divorce her after another year and keep something from her.

Damari is hiding a relationship. He plans to lie about a business trip.

Then it becomes clear. Damari knows the prenup. He's positioning himself to take half through alienation of affection.

Cyanna chooses not to expose Damari yet. She wants to see how far he'll go.

Karys keeps calling, and she lets every call go to voicemail. She stays off social media entirely, afraid of what she might see or say.

Chapter 3

Karys arranges an in-person meeting with Cyanna, wanting access to her, at the cost of ambushing her through business channels. He uses the professional framework as a lure because he knows she will not agree to see him otherwise. The arrangement gives him proximity, but it also sets the encounter on false terms from the start.

Karys reveals he is Hillcrest Holdings, wanting to force the meeting to continue, which costs Cyanna her planned quick exit. The disclosure lands as a trap closing, since she came prepared for a routine business discussion and now faces him directly. Her escape route narrows before she can use it.

Cyanna tries to leave and end the meeting, wanting to avoid him, but Karys stops her by grabbing her wrist. The physical restraint turns a verbal ambush into a confrontation she cannot easily dismiss. It changes the scene from an exit into a standoff.

Karys demands they sit and eat, wanting honesty from her, which forces Cyanna to confront him instead of fleeing. He pushes past her resistance by making the meal a condition of the conversation. She must either engage or cause a scene, and he counts on her choosing engagement.

Cyanna claims her problems shouldn't burden him, wanting to protect him, but it deepens the emotional distance between them. She frames silence as kindness, yet the effect is withdrawal. Karys hears rejection where she intends restraint.

Karys corrects her that both deserve happiness, wanting a shared future, though he keeps his deeper hope unspoken. He answers her deflection with a claim about them together, not just about her alone. The words move the encounter toward intimacy, but he withholds the full weight of what he wants.

Karys orders her to sit and eat, wanting control of the encounter, and Cyanna reluctantly complies. He reasserts authority after the emotional turn, perhaps because control feels safer than vulnerability. She sits, but her compliance is not trust.

Karys messages staff about lunch, wanting to keep her there, while Cyanna avoids his gaze. The practical arrangement extends the meeting and removes her excuse to leave. Her averted eyes show that she understands the trap has tightened.

Cyanna asks why he is staring, wanting to deflect, but Karys presses her about no longer confiding in him. She tries to make his attention the problem rather than her own withdrawal. He refuses the distraction and names the distance between them.

Cyanna admits life sucks but gives no details, wanting to stay closed off, which frustrates Karys further. The partial confession gives him something without giving him access. Her guardedness makes him push harder.

Karys realizes she knows he has heard her news, wanting to address it, after her husband let it slip carelessly. The realization explains her evasions and gives him a way past them. He understands that silence has already been broken elsewhere.

Cyanna reveals her husband left her alone to deal with the loss, wanting to confess her pain, which makes her fear breaking. The admission exposes the wound she has been protecting. Once spoken, she cannot control what it releases.

Karys tells her she is safe to break with him, wanting her to lean on him, and presses her to finish her confession. He offers himself as the place where her composure can fail. The pressure is both comfort and demand.

Yanieca interrupts, wanting to insert herself into the meeting, which forces Cyanna to pull away and mask her feelings. The intrusion shuts the confessional moment before it can resolve. Cyanna retreats behind composure again.

Cyanna corrects Damari's name and exits, wanting to escape the awkward scene, leaving the conversation unfinished. She uses the correction as a small deflection and then removes herself. The unfinished confession remains between them.

Karys refuses to remove Cyanna from the party list and leaves Yanieca behind, wanting to end the relationship and pursue Cyanna. He makes his choice visible in the aftermath. The encounter ends without resolution, but his direction is clear.