I hadn’t been in the bedrooms, and once I stepped into the main, a photo of us on the nightstand caught my attention. Reaching for the frame, I took out the photo to hold in my hand. It was one of the first pictures we took together. It was our first official date.
We looked so young.
My eyes sparkled against the sun coming in through the window of the restaurant, only revealing his contagious smile and structured features as his hair flowed around his handsome face.
I remembered that night as if it were yesterday.
“Shit, Elias,” I breathed out to myself. “Where did we go wrong?”
“I ask myself that every day, Capri.”
I spun around, and our eyes connected. He stood by the door, looking at me with uncertainty and sadness.
“Did you have your house manager put this photo here for me to find?”
He shook his head. “You couldn’t be more wrong. You’re the only family I’ve ever had. Did you ever think about that? Do you ever think about how hard not having you in my life was for me? Did you think I could just forget about you? Forget about our dreams? The future we planned? Our love? You think it would have been that easy for me?”
“I don’t know, Elias!” I shouted, feeling frustrated. “Because I don’t know how to stop loving you either! So what?” I held my hands out at my sides. “You built and decorated a home exactly how we planned to. When did you build this?”
“A few years ago.”
“I can’t believe you.”
He stepped toward me. “Then believe me when I say I wanted you with me always.” He was over to me in three long strides, grabbing my face with his hands. Holding on to it for dear life. “I love you, beauty. Even when you weren’t with me, you were with me. I made sure of it. Every country, every state, everywhere around the world that I’ve traveled for work, you’ve been there with me. In my heart, in my soul, you complete me.”
I couldn’t believe I tore apart our past.
But now I was tearing apart our future.
And the irony was not lost on me.
It symbolized how broken we truly were.
Piece by piece.
Bit by bit.
We were figments of who we used to be.
“I love you,” he repeated breathlessly.
“I know… I do… and the truth is, I lov?—”
My cell phone rang in my back pocket, unfortunately breaking this moment when I was going to finally tell him how much I loved him too and that I needed to be with him.
Except our time was cut short when my cell phone wouldn’t stop ringing.
“Capri, don’t?—”
I looked at the screen. “It’s Ava.”
Something in my gut.
In my heart.
Told me… screamed at me... to answer her call, and I did. Never expecting what followed.
“Oh my God, Capri!”