Page 115 of The Fate Of Us

“The kiss in your apartment?” She questioned, pulling her head back to see me, ourmouths barely brushing.

I met those candle flame eyes, before shaking my head. “How right this felt when I kissedyou for the first time. How I knew… how I always knew that this was it for me. You were it.”

“And is that a good thing? Me being it?”

I nodded, brushing our noses as I leaned down to reach her. “You are everything good in thisworld, Adaline. And the fact that you’re here with me right now, after everything…” I pecked her lips once more, before locking the eyes I’d fallen in love with more than a decade ago. “I’ve never felt calmer.”

Her eyelids batted, like my words had a physical effect on her. I didn’t know whether thatwas a good or a bad thing as she pushed her hands against my chest, my body straightening as she sat up. Her eyes held me like her hands had, solid and warm and stable. All the things she made me feel without realising it.

Then she looked around, for what I wasn’t sure, until she made a beeline for the lamp bythe bed, flipping the switch and illuminating the room.

“Sit.” she instructed softly, pointing to the bed. I did as she said, as she sat across fromme on the pristine white sheets, her legs crossed underneath as she tucked her loose curls behind her ears.

A soft inhale broke the silence, before she looked at me, her hands lacing through mine,and said, “No more secrets.” her head fell forward before cranking back up. “Before this goes any further, before we…”

I held her eyes as she whispered. “This ends tonight. All of this. Everything we won’tsay to each other. It stops, right now.” Another inhale. “Because I think I’ve finally released how much I missed having my best friend in my life, how much I missed having you fill my days, all the quiet moments.” her pulse pounded through my hand as she barely whispered, “I missed you, Nate.”

It felt as though the castle walls I’d built to keep her out, built to forget Adaline Moore and the love I had for her, crumbled brick by brick as I cupped her jaw and whispered, “I missyou.”

She nods, a glimmer of a smile gracing her lips. A smile of relief. “So, no more secrets.Okay?”

I nod back at her. “Okay.”

Her hands drop mine as she says, “You start.”

“What do you want to know first?”

“Everything.” She sucked in a breath, readying herself. “I want to know everything.”

I chuckle. “Well, that narrows it down—”

“Sunfall,” she says, her face graced with a whisper of a smile. But her eyes held nohumour at all. Instead, they told the story of a girl who’d waited far too long for the truth. “I want to know why you never came back for me.”

I ran a hand over my stubble, a groan slipping out from my lips that I could still feel heron, before meeting her eyes again.

Here goes nothing.

“I did come back for you.”

It was awful how I felt her fear. How I felt the way her stomach dropped. How I felt hermapping out the truth behind my words. All the while, her mouth began to gape, and her brows became threaded with questions.

But the way her eyes welled up almost instantly was what broke my heart.

“Wha… what do you…” She shook her head. “What?”

My head fell forward in a nod. “I came back for you, the day we promised to see eachother again.” My eyes held hers as an ocean of tears perched on her lash line. “That was how I had a copy of the last book you wrote before we never saw each other again.”

“You came back?” I nod. “Well, why… why didn’t you—”

I shook my head at her. “No… this is the part where you tell me your secrets, Addy.” Hereyes grew wide again. “This is the part where you stop lying about you and Asher.”

Part of me felt gutted, by the way she pulled her head back, a smile like she didn’tknow what else to do except laugh at what I’d said spreading across her face. “Me and Asher? What are you talking about?”

My head fell backwards, a groan I’d kept trapped since the moment I found the Polaroidof those two erupting out of me. “Addy, stop it. You just said you didn’t want any more secrets. That you wanted to know everything.”

“Yeah…”

Sarcasm pulled my head back. “Well, excuse me for thinking you would do the same.That you’d finally stop denying that you cheated on me with Asher. Which, by the way, I don’t even know why you keep denying, seeing as though I have the evidence to back it up.”

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