He sighed, and the bed squeaked with his movement. He stopped in front of me and lifted my face to his.
“I know, sweetheart.”
“Know what?” I whispered.
Aspen inhaled slowly, drawing his shoulders back, his eyes glossy.
“I know it’s over.”
I couldn’t speak around the ache in my throat.
“That’s what you came to say, right?”
I heard her cries.
That naïve, younger version of myself.
She still clung to the fantasy of her prince sweeping her off her feet. Still clung to a life that would never exist.
But her voice was small, trampled by reality and by a stronger one that wanted to experience a life she never imagined.
My throat ached, and it traveled into my eyes.
“I don’t want to hurt you.”
He framed my face, wiping away an escaping tear with his thumbs as his own pooled.
He blinked aggressively as he tried to hold them back.
“And I don’t want to take one more single fucking thing from you,” he said hoarsely.
What have we become? Why did this have to happen to us?
“I’m sorry.”
He pulled me into his arms, murmuring into my hair.
“What did I tell you about apologizing to me?”
“I never wanted to be the one to add to your pain. I want you to heal.”
He drew back, and there was strength in his expression.
“I am.”
I turned his words over, his face, searching for the lie.
Then he eased back his mental block, and my knees buckled at the truth laid bare in his emotions.
Aspen caught me, holding me tight.
We grieved a future we might’ve had. We forgave a past that destroyed a love that was never meant to be. We held each other as we broke and reforged something new, but just as precious.
“You deserve the world, Lucille. And I know Ronen will give it to you.”
I peered up at him with a wet smirk. “Ronen? I plan to give it to myself.”
Aspen smiled, dimples and all. “I imagine you’re going to have to fight him for that honor.”
