“I always come back to you.”

Hardin Scott’s declaration that he always comes back to Tessa is both a promise of reunion and a sign of the cycle she is trying to leave. Spoken as she insists that she wants to live rather than merely survive their relationship, it reveals the gap between his certainty that they will reunite and her growing resolve not to organize her life around his returns.

The Promise of Return

When Tessa tells Hardin that she does not want to spend her life merely surviving, he stops pacing and tugging at his hair. He answers that he cannot let her go, insists that he always returns to her, and says he would eventually have come back from London before trailing off at the prospect of what they would do together. The unfinished thought leaves the future assumed rather than settled: for him, return seems to lead naturally to another shared beginning.

The expression carries weight because Hardin presents return as proof of attachment. He also declares that he cannot be without Tessa. But the promise is not a plan for changing the behavior that has caused their separation; it rests on the expectation that the two of them will find their way back to each other again.

The Contradiction in the Relationship

Tessa hears the promise against a history of separation and renewed closeness. She recognizes that Hardin says he cannot live without her while doing everything in his power to keep her away and shut her out. His return, then, does not resolve the conflict between desire and rejection. It reproduces it: the prospect of reunion can coexist with the actions that make staying together painful.

That contradiction also changes what Tessa believes love requires. She tells him she cannot spend her life waiting for him to come back, and that it would be selfish to expect him to spend his life running from her and their relationship. She believes he may be happier without their constant back-and-forth, free to focus on himself and his anger toward both of his fathers. Her wish for his happiness therefore does not function as another promise to wait; she says she loves him enough to want him to be happy even if they are apart.

Tessa’s Refusal to Keep Waiting

Tessa is surprised by her own resolve. She recalls that her thoughts had been directed toward Hardin and toward making him better and making him stay; now, although confused about where her new thoughts come from, she cannot ignore them. The expression that once offered reassurance has lost its power to settle what comes next. Hardin’s return may be predictable, but she no longer treats it as a reason to remain available for another cycle.

She says that she has run out of strength to keep fueling a fire that Hardin repeatedly extinguishes, and tells him that despite how hard they have fought, it is time to stop. When he cries out and throws a small lamp across the room, shattering it against the wall, Tessa does not move or even blink. The familiar outburst reinforces why she is drawing this boundary. She cannot comfort him, and does not trust herself to put her arms around him and promise that everything will be all right. In this scene, the promise of return remains emotionally forceful, but it cannot substitute for the change Tessa needs in order to live beyond their recurring separation and reunion.