My mission hasn’t changed, nor have my responsibilities, but when I’m standing here, looking at the anger in her eyes, the thinly veiled hurt, I want to forget it all. I just want to take her in my arms. I want to beg her to stay away from Noah.
She says I discarded her, but I have tucked her away in the deepest corner of my heart, somewhere nobody else can reach. I have tucked away every smile, every word, every inflection of her tone deep within me so that I can have it when my heart is breaking and I feel lonely. This is the most difficult sacrifice I’ve ever had to make, and I can see that I’m not the only one who’s suffering.
“Don’t, Alex.” Her voice trembles as she says my name, and I belatedly realize that I have approached her, and my hand is now touching her cheek.
I should mov
