Page 45 of Mending Our Chance

The only problem was that Felicity wasn’t home. I buzzed for the neighbor’s door and was told that she had been asked to watch Felicity’s plants for the unforeseeable future. At the lady’s response, a dead weight fell onto my chest. If I was in hell before, this was the bottom layer.

Had Argento and I been wrong about her? Had she cut and run? Would Felicity leave her business venture and her teaching over this?

My plans came to a screeching halt. Ambition evaporated and I felt deflated. Where my feet took me afterward, I wasn’t sure. I had royally fucked up. My duplicity had destroyed all the gains I had worked for, and even though I could see the path to my freedom, I wasn’t sure how to bring about the reconciliation of father and daughter.

The sky was bright blue with all the light pollution. Although winter was almost over, snow had been forecast and the heavens were hanging low. There was also little wind, everything was still as if waiting expectantly.

My head was down and I was blindly weaving my way through the crowd. People were getting out of my way and it was no wonder. I could feel my own negative energy permeating around me, warning others not to interact with me.

There came a flick of gold and a sparkle of diamond as I passed a store front. I knew it the moment I stopped and looked at it. My future. This was a reminder to not be distracted or veer from my path. I would reconcile father and daughter. Then Felicity would forgive me. I knew she didn’t hate me and wanted a future with me. She had told me again and again to put the business first—but it was high time she knew I was going to put her first from now on. I wasn’t going to give up. I would find her.

Suddenly, my feet had purpose again. Into the antique store I went. Nestled amongst the long lost treasures, I found the perfect, shiny orb for the woman of my dreams.

Emerging back onto the street, I was greeted with a flurry of white flakes—hopefully the last tantrum that winter would grace us with this year. It didn’t matter that I had no idea how I would solve these problems. It was enough to know that I would, in the end, come out on the right side of them. Now, all I had left to do was find the woman herself.

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