Page 148 of Check & Chase
I sit up straight, shocked. “What? How did that happen?”
“I might have mentioned that you were considering other options after the Bears debacle. Willis has always admired your work. And it gets you away from that cesspool of drama with the Bears. Away from Mitchell.”
Away from Chase. The prospect is both liberating and devastating. “I need to think about it.”
“Don’t think too long. Willis needs an answer by Friday.”
Three days to decide the course of my future. No pressure.
After hanging up, I sit in my empty office, the weight of everything crashing over me. I need my mom.
I dial her number, and she answers on the second ring.
“Emma, sweetheart. How did the hearing go?”
At the sound of her voice, everything breaks. The tears I’ve been holding back for days come pouring out.
“Mom,” I sob into the phone. “I don’t know what to do.”
Through hiccupping sobs, I tell her everything. The hearing, Tyler’s testimony, the job offer from Jackson, seeing Chase and how broken he looked. How I still love him despite everything.
“And I was so mean to him, Mom. When he suggested the break, I just… I couldn’t handle it. My whole world was falling apart, and it felt like even he was giving up on us. So I said horrible things and walked away.”
“Oh, sweetie,” Mom soothes gently. “You were under an incredible amount of stress. People don’t always make the best decisions when they’re hurting and scared.”
“But what if I was wrong? What if he really was just trying to protect me, and I was too angry to see it?”
She’s quiet for a moment. “Can I tell you something about your father and me?”
I sniffle. “Yeah.”
“When we first got engaged, his parents hated me. Thought I wasn’t good enough for their precious son. They made our lives miserable for months—nasty comments, excluding me from family events, the works.”
I’ve never heard this story before. “What did you do?”
“Your father wanted to elope. Said we should just run away and get married in Vegas, away from all the drama. And I was furious with him for suggesting it. I thought he was choosing the easy way out instead of standing up to his family.”
“But you married him anyway.”
“Eventually,” she says with a small laugh. “But not before we had a huge fight and didn’t speak for two weeks. I was convinced he didn’t love me enough to fight for us. He was convinced he was protecting me from his family’s cruelty.”
“What changed?”
“We both realized we were making decisions based on fear instead of love. Fear of what other people thought, fear of getting hurt, fear of not being enough. Once we started talking honestly about our fears instead of just reacting to them, we found our way back to each other.”
I absorb this, wiping my nose with a tissue. “So what are you saying? That I should forgive Chase?”
“I’m saying that love isn’t about never making mistakes, honey. It’s about being willing to work through them together. The question isn’t whether Chase made the right choice—he clearly didn’t. The question is whether you think he made it from a place of love or a place of selfishness.”
I think about Chase’s face when he suggested the break, the pain in his eyes, the way his voice broke when he said he loved me more than anything.
“Love,” I whisper. “Misguided, stupid love, but love.”
“And what does your heart tell you to do with that information?”
“I don’t know. I’m scared, Mom. What if I forgive him and he hurts me again? What if we can’t get past this?”
“Those are fair concerns. But what if you don’t try, and you spend the rest of your life wondering ‘what if’? What if the love you two have is worth fighting for, even if it’s messy and imperfect?”
