Page 181 of Modern Romance September 2025 5-8
And her hands, her body, her heart yearned to reach out, grab him, hold him to her, until he understood she was right here with him.
She knew him.
She loved him.
But he was already walking away. Down the corridor. He was leaving her behind.
‘Sebastian!’ she called, but he didn’t turn, didn’t stop.
And she couldn’t help it. She kicked off her pumps and gave chase.
She watched him walk through the pillared entrance to the castle and down the stone steps. And still she chased after him.
He kept going. Across the field of green. Through the artillery walls.
The pilot greeted him. Sebastian’s mouth moved. She couldn’t hear him. But she felt the words leave his mouth. A harsh husk of demands.
He swung open the helicopter door.
The same helicopter she’d arrived in with him.
And then he turned. Waited for her. His body was stone. His eyes dark. His jaw set.
She slowed. Breathless and panting, she tried to ground herself, to feel the short grass beneath her bare feet. But she felt nothing but a hole in her chest. And it was spreading. Hollowing her from the inside out.
She arrived in front of him, her breathing ragged and fast.
‘The pilot will take you back to Arundel Manor.’
‘Sebastian, please.’
‘Get inside, Aurora.’
‘I won’t.’
‘There is nothing here for you anymore,’ he said. ‘It was a mistake to bring you here. And now you will go back. Back to where you belong.’ He didn’t touch her, didn’t kiss her. He simply walked away. Turned his back on her. On everything they could have.
‘I belong with you,’ she said to his back. ‘And you belong with me.’
He halted. ‘All that belongs to you,’ he said, ‘will be returned to you. But I will not be among your possessions. I am not something to have. I am not yours to belong to. I belong to nothing and no one.’
‘And the baby?’
‘Will be safer with you,’ he rasped, and she heard it. The break in his voice. ‘It will be happier with you.’
‘There is no danger here. You are not a danger to the baby,’ she said. Something broke inside her. Snapped. He was still punishing himself for a mistake he’d made when he’d been nothing but a child. ‘You can’t keep punishing yourself.’
He stiffened. ‘My punishment is not for you to decide,’ he said, and he kept walking.
‘I’m not afraid of you.’
‘You should be.’
‘I’m not afraid to get in this helicopter,’ she shouted. ‘I’m not afraid to walk away.’
‘Then get in,’ he called back.
‘You’ll miss me,’ she told his retreating back.
