Page 129 of Abyss

Beguiling, bewitching . . .

But mostly . . . betraying.

A drop of something wet falls onto one of the papers underneath, and when the breeze touches my face and my cheek tingles, I realize it’s my tear. Brushing the back of my hand over it, I pick up a handwritten note.

The night you walked out of your house in Christmas pajamas and bare feet.

A stone lodges inside my throat, a sob bubbling in my chest as I pick up more pieces of paper.

The time you scraped up your hands and knee, and I wanted to hold you hostage in my bathroom and kiss your lips.

The night you told me you were afraid of the dark.

When I heard you crying in your sleep.

The night you went into that dark shed, and I could hear your heart over the thunder that broke the sky.

When you made peppermint cookies for Kansas.

The time I painted orange over my head and heart on the life-size outline of myself. The time I painted you.

More tears drip down my cheek, staining the papers underneath, but I don’t dare move or turn around when footsteps tap the pavement behind me.

Footsteps that reverberate through me, setting every molecule alight, every heartbeat dancing, every butterfly soaring.

Footsteps that echo, even in the recesses of my dreams.

He’s here . . .

I read the next note.

The night I told you what I was afraid of.

My tears tumble over my lids as I raise my head, barely able to hold myself steady against the gentlest breeze and whispered words I’ll never forget—-a piece of himself he gave to me even that night.

“Finding someone worth changing for, only for her to realize I’m not worth the trouble.”

Chapter Thirty-Six

KAVI

Ispin around, leaning against my car for support, to find him staring back at me. Goosebumps ripple over the expanse of my skin under his smoldering gaze.

One month.

One month of happiness flits by like a summer breeze, but one month of heartbreak lingers like an eternal winter.

There hasn’t been a day, a waking moment, where I haven’t conjured him up in my thoughts. Not a second that’s passed where I wasn’t feeling like I was suffocating without him.

I shake my head, my chin trembling, indicating the box in my hand. “This isn’t fair.Youaren’t being fair.”

His hands are buried inside the pockets of his suit pants, and while I look like I’m shattering all over again, he looks confident . . . like he’s never been broken.

How dare he look so self-assured and righteous, standing under a beam of light, when I’m over here drowning in the shadows?

Hudson takes a step closer, and I try to melt into my car. “I loved you more with every memory, Kav.”

I swing my head left to right, a heaviness I’ve never felt on my chest threatening to snuff out my breaths.

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