Page 126 of The Forever Rule

I rolled my eyes, knowing that I needed to focus on my checklist, before Aston got here. Lightning crackled in the sky, but it was far enough away. I checked myphone, but he hadn’t texted any updates. That meant he was driving.

I really hoped that it didn’t start raining while he was driving. If anything, we could just wait out the storm here.

I bit my lip as worry slid through me, hoping he wasn’t driving through the rain. When the door opened, I smiled brightly, turning toward it, but it wasn’t Aston.

Instead, Meredith stood there, her eyes wide, and I stiffened, wondering if I needed a weapon.

The last time I had seen this woman, she had tugged on my arm and said horrible things. And then she had thrown herself at Aston, and we hadn’t heard from her since.

While he had said it was out of character for her, I didn’t know her enough to know what was in character.

“Excuse me? We’re not open.” Which should have been obvious since the place was empty and full of cobwebs. There was only the master lock on the outside, so I hadn’t locked it fully. The neighborhood was safe enough, but now I was kicking myself for leaving it at least somewhat open.

Meredith looked around the place, and licked her lips, before holding up both hands.

“My office is across the street, and down a few buildings. I saw you walking in, I swear, I wasn’t stalking you.” She winced. “Although, you don’t have to believe me. You can look me up on my profile to see where I work so you can see the address. Or ask Aston.” She paused. “Not that he would want to hear from me either.”

“Is there something I can do for you Meredith? Because we’re not doing this. I’m not going to continue whatever this drama is you think that we have.”

The other woman swallowed hard, her face paling. “I’ll leave. I promise. I just wanted to say.” She sucked in a deep breath. “I just want to say I’m sorry.”

My eyes widened, and I wasn’t quite sure I had heard her right. There were only a few feet between us, and yet I could practically sense the nerves rolling off her.

“I’ve just had a really shitty year.” She let out a hollow laugh that held no humor. “And I realized that my shitty year shouldn’t have affected you. But it did because I made it so. I tried to fix my old mistakes from before, and just ended up making more.”

“I’m really not following,” I said, wondering exactly why she was here apologizing. While I appreciated it, it felt off.

“I thought I could step into the person that I had once been, and fix things, but it turns out that I can’t do that. And I’m so sorry, Blakely. I’m sorry that I hurt you in the process. Because I did. Some part of me wanted to, because I was hurting, but the real me wouldn’t have wanted to.”

Everything she said sounded true, I heard the sincerity in her voice, but I was still so confused. “You see, when Aston and I were engaged and we were trying to plan the wedding, my family was trying to make it thisevent. In the middle of things, my mom and his mom were fighting, his dad was ignoring us.” She paused. “Which inretrospect makes a little sense. He was really good at ignoring things.”

I laughed with her despite myself. “So it seems. I never had the chance to meet him.”

A splash of humor filled her gaze before she blinked it away. “You weren’t missing anything. He never liked me. Of course, he never really liked anyone. Though he might’ve liked his other family.” She paused. “But I’m off-topic here.” She let out a deep breath, rolling her shoulders back. “As we were planning the wedding, I found out I had cancer.”

Of every single thing she could have said, that hadn’t even crossed my mind. “Meredith…I’m so sorry. That’s terrible. I want to ask if you’re okay now, but I don’t want to pry.”

She wiped away a tear and rolled her eyes. “I need to stop crying. I’m trying to apologize to you and explain. This is not about me. But I’m fine now. I had to deal with a few things and turned my pain inward. I pushed everyone away, not knowing what I wanted. Yes, I broke up with Aston. I didn’t want him to see me like that. Which makes no sense because I know he would’ve been great.”

Part of me wanted to reach out and hold her, to help pull that pain away, but I knew neither one of us would truly welcome the action in that moment. “He would’ve stood beside you. He’s a good man.”

“The best. But he didn’t love me. Just like I didn’t love him.” She shrugged, that sad smile on her face. “And he would’ve stayed with me throughout all of it, and thenwhen could he have walked away? He couldn’t leave the sick woman, and then the woman who bravely fought and beat cancer.I did beat it.I’m in remission. I have wonderful doctors and thankfully my body reacted well to treatments.”

“I’m glad to hear that you’re okay. That must have been so scary. Do you have anyone?” I couldn’t imagine pushing everyone away in that moment. Though, in the end, I couldn’t imagine her pain at all.

A small smile covered her face. “My mom. When she’s not planning a wedding, she’s pretty great. She didn’t understand why I pushed Aston away, and when I was sick and trying to just wonder exactly what I was supposed to do, she kept prying into why I would let a good man go. But that’s the problem, he was a good man. Is a good man. And somehow, it twisted inside me that he was such a good man that I made a mistake by letting him go. And I’m not going to have any excuse other than when I realized my mistake I tried to fix it. Only I hurt a lot of people along the way. I’ll apologize to him too. In fact I was trying to do that first, I just don’t know how to contact him without sounding like the horrible reject that I am. Blakely, I’m sorry. Everything that I did was unlike the person that I was, but that means it’s the person that I am now. And I don’t want to be that person anymore. So I’m sorry.”

It took me a moment to get through everything that she had said, and while part of me didn’t want to believe her, because it was such an outrageous story, I saw the sincerity in her eyes. She was scared and was nowowning up to it. “I can’t speak for Aston. But I’m sorry you went through all that. That you didn’t have anyone really to lean on for it.” At least at first.

“I made my own mistakes, and I’m living up to them. I lost a lot of people because I didn’t want them to know. Which sounds ridiculous. I’m sorry for being a jerk. And honestly, I can see you two are great together. I’m oddly just not good at not winning? Which is not the greatest thing to know about myself.”

“He’s not a prize to win over.” I pause. “Which makes me sound like I don’t like him. I love him.” I paused. “I do. I love him.”

“I’m glad. And I can see he loves you. I’m sorry. So sorry for what I did.

“Well, I’m going to head back to my office and then try to forget that I’m such an idiot. Or maybe I should remember that way I don’t do it again.”

I moved forward without thinking and wrapped my arms around her. She stiffened for a second, before she hugged me back, laying her head on my shoulder.

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