Page 19 of Crossed Paths
My fingers tighten around the picture. Something twists in my stomach. A mix of guilt, nostalgia, and something I don’t want to name just yet.
Why this photo, Hunter? Why that night?
Before I can get any further down that rabbit hole, I hear his footsteps on the stairs.
I quickly slide the frame back into place.
Chapter 7
Hunter
Itake the stairstwo at a time, dragging my T-shirt over my head as I go, still damp from the shower, my hair a mess.
She might’ve gone.
Shecould’vegone.
She hesitated outside the door for so long, and after last night… I wouldn’t be surprised. Not really.
But when I reach the living room, there she is. Standing by the bookshelf, fingers grazing the edge of an old frame.
She doesn’t look up right away.
Just points to the photo.
“That’s us,” she says.
I nod, heart still thudding. “Yeah.”
“The night before my wedding.”
I push my hair back with one hand, exhaling. “Worst night of my life.”
She blinks, surprised. “Really?”
“I hated him.” The words come easy now, too long held in. “I didn’t know all the reasons yet. Not the full picture. But I hated the way he looked at you. The way he talkedlike you were something he’d won. Like marrying you was the achievement.”
Her lips part, but she doesn’t speak.
I swallow. “Back then, I just knew he wasn’t right. I hated him because he was taking you away. Because he got to stand next to you and call it his place.”
She lets out a soft breath. “I didn’t actually love him.”
That knocks the air out of me more than I expected.
I watch her closely. “Then why did you marry him?”
She turns, finally meeting my eyes. There's no anger in her face, just reflection—like this is something she’s only recently been able to admit out loud.
“I thought I was in love,” she says. “But what I was really in love with was the idea that someone wanted me. That someone chose me.”
My throat tightens, but I don’t interrupt.
“I was twenty-four. Thought I needed to settle down, make a plan. Everyone else seemed to be pairing off, and here came Darren—polished, successful, certain. And he asked. So I said yes.”
There’s no bitterness in her voice, only the dull weight of hindsight.
“My stupid twenty-four-year-old brain thought that was enough. That being wanted equalled love. Turns out, it doesn’t.”
