Page 32 of The Promises We Broke
Epic. The word hit me like a physical blow, because he'd been right about that. We would have been epic. We would have been the kind of love story people told their grandchildren about, the kind that lasted lifetimes and inspired poetry.
We would have been everything.
"I'm sorry. I won't ask for your forgiveness because I don't deserve it. Hate me if you need to. Hate me to make it easier for you to let me go. Gage."
I folded the letter carefully, the silence in the room heavy with everything I'd just shared. Aunt Helen was crying too, her face soft with understanding and pain for what we'd both lost.
"That boy loved you with everything he had," she said finally.
"And he left anyway."
"Because he thought leaving was the only way to protect the people he cared about. Because he was seventeen and terrified and didn't know that there might be other options."
I stared down at the letter in my hands, reading the familiar words with new understanding. He hadn't left because he didn't love me enough. He'd left because he'd loved me too much to let Regina destroy me too.
"I kept this letter for eleven years," I said quietly. "Through college, through other relationships, through building a career and convincing myself I'd moved on. I told myself I kept it because I was angry, because I wanted to remember how much he'd hurt me."
"And now?"
"Now I think I kept it because I knew it was the closest thing to the truth I was ever going to get. That the boy who wrote this was in just as much pain as I was."
My phone buzzed with a text from Blake.
Heard about your session today. How is our favorite patient progressing?
Blake continued: Right. And I'm just professionally interested in whether my husband will stop hovering over every patient file like he's personally responsible for the entire town's medical care.
Despite everything, I smiled. Blake had a way of cutting through my defenses that was both annoying and necessary. Her next text came through before I could respond.
Seriously though, how are you holding up? Xander said the session went well but you looked like you'd seen a ghost afterward.
I'm fine, I typed automatically, then deleted it. Blake deserved better than empty reassurances.
It's complicated. He's different but also exactly the same. And I don't know what to do with that.
Come over for dinner tomorrow. Amelia misses her Auntie Billie, and I could use someone to talk to who understands complicated feelings about Farrington men.
The invitation was exactly what I needed. A reminder that I had my own support system, my own chosen family who would help me navigate whatever emotions Gage's return was stirring up.
I'll bring dessert, I replied.
Perfect. And Billie? Whatever you're feeling right now, it's okay. There's no wrong way to handle this.
Chapter 11
Gage
The constant attention was starting to make my skin crawl.
I sat at Booker's kitchen table, my casted leg stretched out to the side, watching Reece fuss over my breakfast like I was an invalid instead of someone who'd been feeding himself for most of his twenty-nine years. She'd already checked my medication three times, asked about my pain levels twice, and was now hovering near my elbow like she expected me to collapse into my eggs.
"I'm fine," I said for what felt like the hundredth time since Barrett's birth four days ago. "Really. You don't need to watch me eat."
"I'm not watching you eat," Reece said, but she didn't move away from the table. "I'm just... making sure you have everything you need."
It was strange to have someone I barely knew so invested in my wellbeing, and yet she felt so much like family to me already. I imagined this was what people with normal loving parentswould have had. Those people who had someone looking out for them, caring to an extent that they smothered you with love and affection and you never really knew how lucky you were.
The thought of Regina acting as a nursemaid sent a shudder down my spine. No one needed that sort of attention from someone like her. I still couldn't quite believe that she was gone, that she'd given up on this town she'd fought so hard to dominate that easily.
