Page 109 of Love Me

“How was your night? You made quite the statement.”

“Nothing happened,” I say, walking to her.

She expels a sigh of relief.

When her eyes seek mine, she clutches her chest. “I am hurting, Kaden, and these letters help with the heartache.”

Rain breaks through the clouds, falling in angry streams down the windows. The sky itself wants me to stay, wants us to go through the carnage we put each other through.

“I’ll leave if you tell me to. If my presence causes you more pain than my absence, I’ll do it. I’ll do anything for you.”

“I think if you leave, I’d die of a broken heart. Don’t leave.”

“I am so sorry … for the pain I caused you at my hands, with my words, with my actions…”

A heartbreaking cry pierces the room, and she covers her face.

“Shh, no baby. I’d take fucking everything from you… I caused it, all that pain, that anger…” Her hands drop like my restraint. My feet eat the distance separating us.

On the bed, she jumps in my arms while I hold her with sheer desperation. She buries her head in my chest, crying while I kiss the top of her head, caressing down her spine.

“Please forgive me for being so damn stubborn, petty, and blind. For believing all the crap I feed myself to vindicate my heartbreak.”

“Stop crying, please, it’s killing me.”

She lifts her chin, palming my cheeks. I lean my forehead against hers, and we breathe each other in.

Finally, after two years of being exhausted and lost, it feels like I broke free of my dark prison and found my way back home.

Even with puffy eyes and tear-stained cheeks, she’s gorgeous. Her beauty strikes every cell of me, electrifying my insides.

She’s the image of my dreams, the face of my life, the essence of my being.

“Honesty?” she asks, hope lacing her soft voice. Her words carry a melodic tune, filling my insides with yearning.

“Only ever honesty from now on.”

“The anger is not completely gone. There’s a part of me that is still mad at you. But I am even more mad at myself… at the injustice that happened to us.”

“Me too, baby. I’m mad at everyone and everything. I have been dying inside. Missing you, loving you, and seeing you with—”

“You were not the only one who kept their vow.”

It’s a cacophony of emotions awakening my comatose soul.

Thunder strikes, illuminating this vast patch of land. It’s just us and our emotions running high.

“I love you,” I say, needing her to believe me.

She places her hands on my chest, fisting my shirt, clawing her way inside of me with no way to escape. She smiles at me tentatively, feeding me life.

This woman of mine.

“Why?”

“Because I was born to love you. And nothing you would do or say would change the fact I’m yours. I love you with every beat of my heart, every fiber of my being….You madden me. Terrify me even more. But you’re mine and mine alone.”

“I love you too, Kaden, and I will love you for an eternity.”

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