Chapter One
Georgia
My dearest Jameson,
This is not our end. My heart will always remain with you no matter where we are. Time and distance are only inconveniences to a love like ours. Whether it’s days, months, or even years, I will be waiting. We will be waiting. You’ll find me where the creek bends around the swaying aspen trees, just as we both dreamed, waiting with the one we love. It’s killing me to leave you, but I’ll do it for you. I’ll keep us safe. I will wait for you every second, every hour, every day for the rest of my life, and if that’s not enough, then eternity, which is exactly how long I’ll love you, Jameson.
Come back to me, my love.
Scarlett
Georgia Ellsworth. I brushed my thumb over my credit card, wishing I could wipe hard enough to erase the letters. Six years of marriage, and the only thing I’d walked away with was a name that wasn’t even mine.
In a few minutes, I wouldn’t have that, either.
“Number ninety-eight?” Juliet Sinclair called out from behind the plexiglass window of her booth, like I wasn’t the only person at the Poplar Grove DMV and hadn’t been for the last hour. I’d flown into Denver this morning, driven into the afternoon, and hadn’t even been to my home yet—that’s how desperate I was to rid myself of the last pieces of Damian in my life.
Hopefully, losing his name would make losing him and six years of my life hurt just a little less.
“Right here.” I put my credit card away and walked up to her window.
“Where’s your number?” she asked, holding out her hand and wearing a satisfied smirk that hadn’t changed much since high school.
“I’m the only one here, Juliet.” Exhaustion beat at every nerve in my body. If I could just get through this, I could curl up in that big armchair in Gran’s office and ignore the world for the rest of my life.
“Policy says—”
“Oh, stop it, Juliet.” Sophie rolled her eyes as she walked into Juliet’s booth. “I’ve got Georgia’s paperwork, anyway. Go take a break or something.”
“Fine.” Juliet pushed away from the counter, vacating her seat for Sophie, who had graduated the year before us. “Nice to see you, Georgia.” She flashed a saccharine-sweet smile in my direction.
“You too.” I offered her the practiced smile that had served as my glue for the past few years, holding me together while everything else disintegrated.
“Sorry about that.” Sophie cringed, scrunching her nose and adjusting her glasses. “She’s… Well, she hasn’t changed much. Anyway, everything appears to be in order.” She handed back the papers my lawyer had given me yesterday afternoon with my new social security card, and I slid them inside the envelope. How ironic that while my life had fallen apart, the physical manifestation of that dissolution was held together by a perfect, forty-five-degree staple. “I didn’t read the settlement or anything,” she said softly.