Jackson: Can’t sleep.
Seb: Everything good?
Are they fucking joking me right now?
I see red.
Who the hell cares if everything is good with Peters?
What am I going to do?????
FUCKKKKKK
Maddie’s dated over the years. I’ve heard it through the grapevine.
But it was never serious.
If it had been, I would’ve known, and trust me, I would’ve intervened.
She was always too focused on work, too driven, too determined to climb the ladder as fast as possible to give anyone else the time of day.
Exactly what I wanted for her.
It’s been ten years since we broke up, and seven since Camila’s funeral. I never gave up. I would never.
But it was also never meant to take this long to get back together.
There was always something, or some reason, it wasn’t the right time to walk back into her life.
And believe me…I tried.
The first time, Mason interfered.Again. But that time…I understood. Their family was drowning in a crisis that shook them to their core, and she didn’t need me complicating it.
Another time, four years ago to be exact, she had just gotten licensed and landed her first real job as an architect.
She was barely keeping her head above water, trying to prove she belonged.
I wasn’t going to show up like some knight in shining armor after waiting years, acting like I could fix everything.
I know what those early years are like.
Architecture isn’t a hobby. It’s nearly a decade of schooling, exams that gut you, internships that drain you, then licensure boards that decide whether you’re “good enough.”
After that, you pray your dream firm hires you and pray more that you don’t screw it up.
There was a point when I blamed Mase. For not being married to Mads yet, my beautiful goddess. For not having children or living the life we always dreamed of.
But I take full responsibility now, because ultimately, I made the decision.
I was the idiot who listened to his twenty-two-year-old logic. I convinced myself walking away would “set her up for success.”
That loving her from a distance was noble.
What the hell was I thinking?
After I tried to see her two years ago and I was turned away, I took a step back. I thought maybe if I stopped pushing and used some patience…she’d come to me.
Instead, I gave someone else the opening.
