Chapter 2

2.

Overwhelmed by pain, I spun around and fled.

When I finally reached the front porch, I collapsed hard onto the concrete.

For ten long years, Garrett had consumed my every waking thought.

Whenever the loneliness became unbearable, I would hold the promise ring he gave me.

I would whisper to myself that he was coming back soon.

A pair of polished black leather shoes suddenly appeared in my blurred vision.

I looked up to find Garrett standing over me, alone.

"Go inside. We need to talk."

His tone was as cold as frost.

Without offering a hand to help me up, he unlocked the door and stepped inside.

I struggled to my feet and slowly limped through the doorway.

The apartment remained exactly the way it had been before he left.

Ten years ago, we moved in here together into this place he bought.

Back then, his favorite thing was pulling me onto the sofa and holding me tight.

He used to whisper, "This is our home, Gemma. I will love you forever and never let you down."

"I assume you saw the press conference on the news," Garrett said, sitting at the far end of the couch, watching me with detached eyes.

"Of course I did," I replied, wiping my tears.

"So, what kind of explanation do you have for me?"

We had been college sweethearts, studying together, sharing cheap meals, and planning our future wedding after graduation.

Then he was selected for a top-level research initiative.

That single assignment took a decade.

For ten whole years, he was forbidden from contacting the outside world or visiting home.

"You are thirty-five now, aren't you?"

He picked up the calendar on the coffee table.

September 18th was circled in bright red ink with a little star beside it.

That was our anniversary, and the date he had originally promised to return.

Yet today was only September 10th.

If not for the broadcast, I would never have known he was back in town.

"Yes. I am one year older than you," I said, my voice trembling.

"I have no interest in marrying a middle-aged woman," he said flatly. "At your age, it is simply too late to start anything worthwhile."

Every single syllable hammered into my chest like lead.

He was discarding me simply because I had grown older.

I was young once, but I spent all those golden years waiting faithfully for him.

Those ten years were filled with suffocating solitude and endless longing.

I had truly believed everything would be worth it once he came home.

Yet this was what I got.