“But you… you saw me,” Louis whispered, stepping closer again, his voice gaining a fragile strength. “When you gave me ‘Luminous Void,’ when you described the darkness and the hidden light, you saw past the brokenness. 

You saw the potential, the truth of who I am, beneath all the scars. No one, not even Joyce in our deepest intimacy, ever truly saw me like that. 

She saw a reflection of her own ambition, a canvas for her own ego. You saw me.”

He reached for her hands, intertwining their fingers, his grip firm, anchoring. “And then, when you confronted me, when you demanded I fight for us… it was like a supernova igniting in my own personal void. You didn’t give up on me. You didn’t let me retreat into the shadows. You pulled me back, Cheryl. You showed me that I wasn’t broken beyond repair, that there was still light within me worth fighting for.”

His gaze intensified, burning with an unwavering conviction that had been absent for so long. “I have been a fool. A coward. But no more. Joyce… she is a ghost of a past I refuse to inhabit any longer. Her influence, her manipulation, her destructive presence… it ends now. I reject her. I reject everything she represents. She has no claim on my art, on my future, and certainly no claim on my heart.”

But when I saw her hurting you,” he said, his voice breaking, “something in me finally snapped—and for the first time, I didn’t freeze, I chose you.

He squeezed her hands, his voice dropping to a fierce, tender declaration. “Cheryl, I love you. I love your mind, your spirit, your incredible talent. I love the way you see the universe, the way you translate its mysteries into scent, the way you make me feel like I can finally breathe again. You are my muse, my partner, my anchor, my guiding star in a cosmos I thought I was doomed to navigate alone.”

His eyes, still glistening with tears, held hers with an intensity that promised an eternity. “I choose you, Cheryl. Every single part of you. The brilliant artist, the compassionate soul, the woman who saw through my darkness and found the light. I choose our shared vision, our art, our future. I want to build a life with you, a universe of our own, free from shadows and filled with the scent of possibility.”

Cheryl’s own tears were now flowing freely. The hurt was still there, a dull throb, but it was overshadowed by an overwhelming wave of relief, of love, of profound connection. 

His confession was everything she had longed for, everything she had fought for. It was raw, honest, and courageous.