Chapter 20
CHRIS
The morning of the wedding
I wake to the alarm the hotel provides, seeing its five a.m.
I check my phone for messages and there is nothing there. I toss my phone to the floor and roll over, facing the wall, my bones and eyes screaming from how long I’ve been awake.
How long I’d been searching for all night.
With dry eyes and an even drier mouth, I sit in my misery, missing the face below the burning sun. Missing the fingers, I should’ve held but didn’t.
Hearing Ros giggle and say childish things to me.
Hearing her sob. Listening to her cry. Wiping her tears. Holding her.
Looking at her face in the night. Bathing her in the moonlight. Listening to her secrets, praying I could protect her, always.
Wondering, was it too late or too early to fix what I had broken.
T
