Page 99 of Cuffed By Love

Twenty minutes later, I pull up on our old street. I stare up at the house Dev once lived in. My mind floods with memories. The day we first met. I could almost hear our laughter as we ran down these streets, or the countless water balloon fights we had growing up, or all the times Dev would make me angry and come knocking at my door to apologise and refuse to leave when I didn’t speak to him. I close my eyes and press my hand to my chest. My heart felt so heavy in my chest. I get out of the car and walk the short distance to where our tree was. Whenever I was having a bad day, I found myself here over the years. It’s been a year since I visited last. I bite back the sob when my fingers brush against the carving of our initials on the tree trunk.

“What are you doing, Dev?” I asked, watching him scratching away at the tree’s trunk.

Devin looks at me, his eyes glittering. “Staking our claim. Making this forever our tree.”

“I don’t think you can stake a claim on a tree.”

“Course you can, see. I carved our initials into it. For as long as this tree lives, it will be ours.”

I kneel and dig through the hidden groove and gasp when I feel something. I pull it out and see an envelope wrapped in a clear waterproof bag. My fingers tremble as I pull the envelope out of the bag. I see my name on the front in Devin’s handwriting, and the back of my eyes burn. I inhale deeply and pull the seal open. I gasp and pick up the torn pieces of what was once Dev’s letter to me. “No.” I whimper. I try to piece them together desperately, but the pieces were too small; it was unsalvageable. Someone had ripped it to shreds. I press the torn pieces to my chest and sob. “No.”

Now I’ll never know what he wrote in that letter. I’ll never know what his final words were to me. Who would tear the letter and why? No one knows about the secret spot but Dev and me. Did he tear it up when he came back after finding the letter still there years later? But then why would he tell me about the letter if he destroyed it?

I was absolutely gutted. I sat there for over an hour, going through the tiny pieces of paper one bit at a time, but it was hopeless. When I finally got home, I put on a pair of shorts and an oversized t-shirt and started cleaning. It’s what I do when I’m stressed, overanxious, or overloaded with emotion. I couldn’t just sit around. I had to do something.

The music was tearing through the speakers as I scrub furiously at the stove. It wasn’t even dirty, but there’s this one stain that was driving me nuts. I’m so lost in my head that I didn’t hear Ayla or Wyatt walk in.

“Oh good God, she’s cleaning,” Ayla utters, watching me wide-eyed.

Wyatt winces, his handsome face twisting with concern as he observes me. “This can’t be good. You go.” Wyatt says, pushing Ayla toward me.

“Nah uh, you go.” She turns and shoves him in my direction. “You’re the best at calming her down when she’s in a frenzy.”

Wyatt gives Ayla a wry look, and she shrugs defensively and gestures toward me. “Peach?” Wyatt calls out to me, approaching me cautiously. He clicks the music off, and I turn and scowl at him. “Hi, what’s going on?”

“Nothing,” I utter frostily and turn to scrub at the stove again.

“Right. Why don’t you put down the scourer and tell me what’s up, babe?” Wyatt tries again. Reaching over, he wraps his fingers around my wrist and lifts it off the stove slowly.

I slowly raise my gaze to him. “I did what you said. I asked him why he never said goodbye.”

“What did he say?” Ayla asks, walking over to stand beside Wyatt.

“He said he couldn’t bear to say goodbye to my face, so he wrote me a letter and hid it in our secret spot.” I pull the rubber gloves off, throw them on the side and gesture to the letter on the table. “That’s what I found. That’s the letter he wrote me—his goodbye to me, and it's been torn up.”

“Oh, Mira.” Wyatt sighs and pulls me into his arms when I choke on a sob.

“Who would tear it up? I don’t understand.”

“Mimi, it’s been sitting there for almost a decade. It might have disintegrated or decayed with time.” Ayla tries to justify, and I shake my head.

“No, it hasn’t! It’s been ripped to shreds. Look at it. It was wrapped in a waterproof bag.” I argue, pulling back from Wyatt and wiping away my tears.

“Peach, you can always ask him what he wrote?” Wyatt points out, brushing my hair away with his fingers. I shake my head and sigh.

“It’s not the same.” I sink down into the chair at the table and stare at the pieces of paper. “He said walking away from me was the hardest thing he ever had to do. He said he waited for me to reach out to him after I read his letter, but when I didn’t, he gave up and moved on. I didn’t get his letter.” I look over at Ayla pleadingly, “Did you see a note from him?”

Ayla shakes her head. “No, I wasn’t home when they left. Maybe it fell somewhere, or mum found it and thought it was rubbish and threw it in the bin?”

“Look, Peach, it doesn’t matter now. You finally got the answers you’ve been wanting to know. And it sounds like he was just as torn up about leaving as you were.” Wyatt says, perching down in front of me. “Now, you can both put this behind you and move on once and for all.”

“Maybe, but it’s easier said than done. I just wish I knew how to let him go.”

“I don’t think either of you ever truly will. There will always be a small part of each of you in one another’s hearts. You don’t ever really forget your first love, Mimi. Especially with a bond as profound as yours and Dev’s.” I close my eyes and sigh. Ayla was right. We’ve both emotionally held on to one another for far too long. Maybe it’s time to sever those ties and break that bond so that we can truly move on.

Three days flew by, and I was thankful it was a Friday night. It’s been a hell of a long week, and I’m feeling the afterburn. I’ve not seen much of Devin in the last few days. He’s been with his girlfriend doing god only knows what. I think they went away to some event together. Was I jealous? Maybe a little, but I’m determined to put Devin King out of my head and leave him where he belongs… firmly in the friend zone.

Ayla was out on a date, and Wyatt had yet to come home from his shoot. Yes, he’s a model and a social media influencer. A very successful one at that. He’s an ambassador and has worked with the biggest names in the fashion industry. My heart swells with pride whenever I see him on the front page of a magazine or in adverts. For all the hard work he put in, doing one crappy shoot after another, he stuck with it, and then social media became a thing, and it did wonders for his career.

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