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463 Words
THE SPACES BETWEEN US – Rose’s Return
The baby clothes were folded neatly in the crib. Len sat on the edge of the bed, one hand resting on her swollen belly, smiling faintly as Tripp hummed in the next room. For once, her world felt steady. Safe.
Then the knock came.
Not gentle. Not polite.
A heavy, desperate pounding.
Len frowned, stood carefully, and opened the door.
Her heart stopped.
Rose.
Alive. Flesh and blood. Leaner, scarred, eyes burning with something Len had never seen before.
> “You’re alive,” Len whispered, knees trembling.
Rose’s jaw tightened, tears pooling in her eyes.
“And you didn’t wait for me.”
---
The next few minutes blurred.
Rose stumbled inside, clutching Len’s arms like proof she wasn’t dreaming.
> “I was in a coma, Len. Months. No one thought I’d wake up. When I did… you were gone. Moved on. Married him.”
Her voice broke, bitter and raw.
> “You were supposed to be mine. We promised each other forever.”
Len’s eyes filled with tears.
> “Rose… I mourned you. I buried you. I thought— I thought I lost you forever.”
Rose’s gaze dropped to Len’s belly.
Her face twisted.
> “You’re carrying his child.”
---
Len stepped back, voice shaking.
> “Tripp saved me, Rose. He gave me a reason to live when I couldn’t breathe anymore. But that doesn’t mean I stopped loving you. You were my first… my everything. But you were gone. And I had to keep moving or I would’ve broken.”
Rose’s hands trembled, fists clenching.
> “I suffered alone in that hospital bed, fighting to come back to you. And when I did… you’d already replaced me.”
Her tears finally spilled, choking her words.
> “Do you know how that feels, Len? To fight like hell just to come back to find out you’ve already been forgotten?”
---
Len collapsed into sobs, shaking her head.
> “You’re not forgotten. I think of you every day. But I can’t erase the life I’ve built now. I can’t erase him… or this child.”
For a long, heavy silence, Rose just stared. Her chest rose and fell like a storm inside her.
Finally, she whispered:
> “Then I’ll always be the ghost in your happiness. No matter how much you try to pretend otherwise.”
And with that, she turned and walked out into the night, leaving Len trembling, torn between two lives — one built from survival, the other reborn from the ashes.
---
Tripp returned minutes later, saw Len’s tears, and held her tight, but she couldn’t stop shaking.
Because Rose was alive.
And nothing would ever be simple again.
- Writer
