Page 49 of Shattered Melodies

I flinched at the anger in his tone, at the bitterness that laced every word. But I couldn’t blame him, couldn’t fault him for the resentment that had built up over the years, the pain that had festered and grown like a cancer.

“Look, I…” I started, then faltered, unsure of what to say. Unsure of how to bridge the chasm that had opened up between us, the gulf of time and distance and unspoken regrets.

Liam sighed, his shoulders slumping like a puppet whose strings had been cut. He ran a hand over his face, his expression softening into something that looked almost like defeat.

“You better come inside,” he said, his voice low and tired. “It’s fucking freezing out here.”

I blinked, surprised by the sudden shift in his demeanor. But I nodded, following him into the house with the kitten still cradled against my chest.

The inside of the old Denison place was different than I remembered, the walls freshly painted and the floors polished to a high shine. But beneath the surface, beneath the veneer of newness and change, I could still feel the echoes of the past, the memories that lingered in every corner and crevice.

Liam led me into the kitchen, the harsh fluorescent light casting shadows on his face. He gestured to a chair at the table, his movements stiff and awkward.

“Sit down,” he said, his voice gruff. “I’ll make some coffee.”

I did as he asked, settling into the chair with the kitten on my lap. It had fallen asleep, its tiny body rising and falling with each soft, even breath.

I watched as Liam moved around the kitchen, his back to me as he filled the coffeepot and rummaged through the cabinets for mugs. I couldn’t help but notice the way his muscles rippled under his skin, the way his tattoos seemed to dance and shimmer in the light.

He had changed, had grown into a man I barely recognized. But underneath it all, underneath the ink and the scars and the hardened exterior, I could still see the boy I had loved, the boy who had captured my heart and never let go.

The boy who had been my everything, my whole world.

Liam set a mug of coffee down in front of me, the steam rising in lazy spirals. He sat down across from me, his own mug cradled in his hands like a shield, like a barrier.

For a long moment, neither of us spoke. The silence stretched out between us, heavy and thick with all the things we couldn’t say, all the words that had been left unspoken for far too long.

I could feel the tension crackling in the air, could see the way Liam’s jaw clenched and his fingers tightened around his mug. He was upset, that much was clear. And who could blame him? I had just shown up out of the blue, after twenty years of silence and distance, with a kitten in my arms and a heart full of unspoken apologies.

It was a lot to take in, a lot to process. And I knew that I needed to tread carefully, needed to give him the space and the time he needed to work through whatever he was feeling.

But I also knew that I couldn’t just let this moment pass, couldn’t just walk away and pretend like nothing had happened. Like seeing him again, being in his presence after all this time, hadn’t shaken me to my core and stirred up a whirlwind of emotions that I had been trying to bury for longer than I could remember.

I cleared my throat, trying to find the right words. Trying to figure out how to bridge the chasm that had opened up between us, the gulf of time and distance and unspoken regrets.

“Liam, I…,” I started, but he cut me off with a sharp, slashing motion of his hand.

“Don’t,” Liam said, his voice low and tight with barely-contained anger. “Just… don’t, Caleb. If you want to talk about what happened, about the past and all the shit that went down between us… now is not the time. I don’t have the capacity to not be mad at you, to not feel all the hurt and the betrayal and the fucking abandonment that you left me with when you walked away.”

I flinched at the raw pain in his words, at the way they cut through me like a knife. For a moment, I was stunned into silence, my mind reeling at the accusation. When I had walked away? But that wasn’t…

Sudden realization hit me like a bucket of ice water. Of course. In Liam’s mind, I was the one who had abandoned him. The irony of it was almost laughable, if it weren’t so painful.

I opened my mouth to argue, to defend myself, but the words died in my throat as I looked at him – really looked at him. The hurt in his eyes, the tension in his shoulders, the way his hands were clenched into fists at his sides. It was all so familiar, a mirror image of my own pain from all those years ago.

Because he was right, in a way. I had walked away, even if it wasn’t in the way he thought. I had given up, had stopped fighting for us when things got tough. And no matter how much I had regretted it, no matter how many times I had wished I could go back and do things differently I couldn’t change the past. Couldn’t erase the scars that we had both inflicted on each other, the wounds that had never fully healed.

All I could do now was try to make him understand, try to bridge the chasm of misunderstanding and hurt that had grown between us over the years. But looking at him now, seeing the pain and anger radiating off him in waves, I knew that this wasn’t the time. Pushing now would only drive him further away.

“Okay,” I said softly, nodding my head in understanding. The word felt inadequate, but it was all I could manage past the lump in my throat. “I get it, Liam. And I’m sorry. I’m so fucking sorry for… for everything. But you’re right. Now’s not the time to rehash the past, to dredge up all the old wounds and try to make sense of it all.”

I watched as surprise flickered across his face, quickly replaced by suspicion. He clearly hadn’t expected me to back down so easily.

“I just…” I continued, struggling to find the right words. “I want you to know that there’s more to the story. That things aren’t exactly as you remember them. But I understand that you’re not ready to hear it right now, and I respect that.”

Liam’s eyes narrowed, a mix of confusion and lingering anger in his gaze. “What’s that supposed to mean? How could things not be exactly as I remember them? You left, Caleb. You walked out and never looked back.”

I felt a flare of frustration at his words, at the certainty in his voice. But I forced it down, reminding myself that from his perspective, that was exactly what had happened.

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