AllFreeNovel
Share Us
Ella
LETTER
JESSE
DEAR ELLA,
You’re marrying that asshole in three days.
I’m . . . I don’t know what to say. How to feel. I’m so messed up right now. I was about to leave the CIA last Christmas, and then A.J. told me you were engaged. After I threw up, and killed my mark, I told Thatcher I’d stay. Why quit if you’re marrying someone? Why stop doing something I’m so good at?
You think I make furniture for a living. You think that’s my only job. In my shop . . . working with my hands. That’s my cover story, Ella. But it was going to become my real story. My real job soon.
I guess this is fate. We’re not meant to be together. I’m no good for you.
But I have no idea how I’ll watch you marry that man and not put a bullet in his head before he can say I do.
I’m so sorry I waited so long. I’m sorry you fell in love with another man and did what I asked you to do: move on.
I’m so, so fucking sorry.
Jesse
CHAPTER TWELVE
ELLA
SUMMER 2021 - WALKINS GLEN, ALABAMA
I wasn’t supposed to cry at my dress rehearsal dinner. But there I was in the bathroom, escaping for a minute alone to try and swipe away the tears that had been aching to break free all night long.
Tears for the fact I was about to marry a man who wasn’t Jesse. All because Jesse said he was bad for me. Too broken for me. Forced me to move on.
But how in the hell do I walk down the aisle and marry Brian?
Brian wasn’t my lifelong friend. He didn’t make my heart leap from my chest with just one look. He didn’t have my insides twisting whenever we shared the room together.
Brian didn’t have me feeling . . . anything.
He was the safe choice.
Safe because he couldn’t hurt me.
He couldn’t break my heart and rip it in two.
Unable to stop the tears from escaping, I gave in and let them flow.
I could barely breathe as I stared at myself in the mirror, willing the pain to go away.
I just wanted it to stop. It all needed to stop. No more loving a man who’d only ever cause me pain.
“I have to move on. I have to move on.” I repeated the mantra again, hoping I could convince myself. Hoping those words would somehow ease the death grip fisting my heart that only wanted to beat for one man.
I hated that man right now. Hated him so much for ever letting me wind up in this very situation.
We should’ve been together after New York.
“How could you walk away from me after that weekend?” I murmured under my breath, the words still coming out strangled with emotion despite my soft tone.
