AllFreeNovel
Share Us
For the last four months, I’ve been coming here a few times a week. Sometimes, I stay in the hotel nearby so I can be close. That week when I first got back was like that.
I’d returned to Wilmington heartbroken. Nothing had changed except everything about me and my heart. I left here a single woman who’d just found out her ex had been murdered and returned as a married woman who’d just split up with her husband. All in a matter of weeks. It’s the sort of outlandish drama you’d hear on some daytime tv talk show.
In my sorrow, I needed to be near Grams, whether or not she remembered me. Seeing her during those times helped even more. But as soon as I was by myself, Malik would return to my mind.
He’s there again now that I’ve gotten into the play and I’m reading from memory.
I keep wondering if something is wrong with me. Why can’t I let go of Malik?
I went through so much shit just knowing him. From being kidnapped to alerting Dad’s family about my identity, then walking the thin line between life and death.
But I can’t forget him. My heart won’t allow me to, and my soul forbids it.
I love him...
I fell for the devil and I can’t unlove him, no matter how hard I try.
He’s the guy you can’t forget. Even when death was calling to me, I was trying to find him. I believed if I could, I would have everything.
When I went back to Boston for my store’s opening, I knew he wouldn’t come.
Malik Volkova locks himself off to the world, but there are things about him I can figure out. That was one of them. Yet, like an idiot, I looked out for him. Every time the door opened, I hoped it would be him. When I saw Jeanne and Kelly walk in, I hoped he wasn’t too far behind. Each time, disappointment buried itself deeper into my heart, and I accepted the sad truth that I might not be able to move on.
As the evening wore on, I realized that truth was something I was going to have to live with if I had to live without him.
It’s awful that I have unimaginable wealth now, but not the one thing I want.
Before I left Boston, Dru and I made arrangements so she’d take care of the store there while I’d drop by from time to time, and focus on opening our others.
Honestly, I doubt I’ll be able to go to Boston at all. If I do, it will just be if I absolutely need to. I don’t think I’ll be able to wrap my head around being there and not see him or be with him. Or worse, I would hate to run into him and his new woman. Or God, his new wife, if he decides to remarry.
I can’t do it.
Grams suddenly gasps, and I look away from the book. She brings her hands up to her cheeks, then places one at her heart.
“Rafe,” she mutters my grandfather’s name. Hope sparks in my heart. This is the first inkling of a memory she’s had since I’ve been back.
“Grams. Do you remember him?”
“There!” She points across the garden. I follow her gaze.
When I see Malik standing by the roses, my breath staggers and my heart trips over itself.
“Rafe,” Grams repeats with awe filling her voice.
It’s Malik’s hair. He has the same blond hair as my grandfather, and I suppose they were roughly the same height, too. From here, if I didn’t know better, he could pass for a younger version of my grandfather. From when he was in the Air Force.
What’s he doing here?
Yes, I know that as of last week, we’d gone over the sixth-month mark. I was gearing myself up to receive the divorce papers any day now, but I never actually thought I’d see him again. Andhere?
What is he doing here?
My nerves spike when he walks over. Grams smiles wider, convinced she’s looking at my grandfather.
“You came back,” Grams says heartily.
Malik glances at me. I find myself lost in those eyes I never thought I’d be staring at again.
