Forever After All: Chapter 61

I stare up at Elena’s house and lean back against my car, my eyes on her window.

“Are you ever going to talk to her?”

I jump in surprise, my eyes widening when Sarah walks up behind me.

“You’ve been coming here every night for two weeks now. This is getting creepy, Alec.”

I smile nervously. “I’m sorry. I didn’t realize you were aware of my presence. I didn’t mean to disturb you.”

I don’t even know what I’m doing here. I keep telling myself that I’ll do what’s best for her, that I’ll let her go. When she married me, she never had a choice. I want her to find her own happiness, I don’t want to hold her back and chain her to me. Yet I can’t get myself to sign the papers.

Sarah smiles and leans back against my car, standing next to me. She looks up into Elena’s window the way I just did and shakes her head.

“So instead of calling her, you just stand here for hours in hopes of catching a glimpse of her?”

I look away and shake my head. “No… I… I don’t mean to come here, yet somehow this is where I end up every night. It isn’t intentional, it’s just… I don’t know.”

She laughs. “Alexander Kennedy, flustered. Never thought I’d see the day.”

I look down at my shoes, unable to even force a smile.

“She’s going on a date tomorrow, you know? She’s moving on. It’s about time. It’s been a month since you two separated.”

I freeze, my eyes finding Sarah’s. I feel sick, the feelings coursing through me are ones I can’t even describe. Violent anger, intense fear… and regret. Intense fucking regret.

Sarah pats my arm. “It’s for the best,” she says. “Elena has had a tough life so far. She deserves to be loved, to be spoiled. She deserves to be swept off her feet. And you… you can’t give her what she needs, can you?”

She smiles as she walks away, and I stare after her. Elena… on a date. My mind spirals out of control, showing me images of her with someone that isn’t me. If she goes on that date, will she kiss him the way she kissed me? Will she smile at him? Will she ask him about three good things that might have happened to him that day? All those things that she used to reserve for me, will she give it all to someone else?