I was still trapped in the mindset that polyamory was something Celeste allowed me to do, and protecting that "main" relationship with her had to be my first priority, I could not see how I was treating Bella as an accessory to my relationship rather than as a real person. I did not realize that thinking Bella just needed a primary of her own was actually a way of saying her feelings for me were not okay, and that she needed to transfer those feelings to someone else.
