Chapter 43 #2
His intention hadn’t been to break his vows, to walk away from his husband and daughter. It had been to protect them; to shield the people he loved from any harm and wrongdoing.
And Elijah?
My god, Elijah.
He’d kept that flame burning all along. Settled for their love to stretch across oceans, holding onto the hope that someday… his family would come back together again.
For fuck’s sake, Gabriel had fallen victim to his so-called friend.
And he played the hand he was dealt the only way he knew how to ensure the safety of his family.
In my eyes?
He did right by them.
As much as I love Elijah—and trust me, I so fucking do—I need to step aside and let this beautiful family find their way back to each other again. I refuse to stand in the way of their happiness. I refuse to break their bond.
My lips touch Elijah’s mouth for one final kiss. I need to give myself that one last moment of being in his light, of inhaling his breath, of feeling those foreign words fall gently across my lips; I need the memory of us because that is what we have become—us.
“Elijah?”
“Mm-hmm…”
“Will you speak to me in Spanish?” It’s an odd request, but he doesn’t hesitate.
“Eres tan hermoso, mi amor. Estoy tan enamorado de ti.”
He breathes those beautiful Spanish sentiments across my lips, and then translates softly into English… “You are so beautiful, my love. I am so in love with you.”
I inhale every foreign word, English too. Swallow every passionate breath he breathes into my mouth.
He hums between sentences, deep and throaty, and my heart swells to twice its size, falling in sync with his.
I drag his plump lower lip into my mouth, sucking the plush feeling of it into memory as I wait—wait for those beautiful words to filter through my heart and land in my soul for keepsake.
And then, I do the impossible… I step back, out of his arms.
He stares at me, attempting to swim through my tears, to read the thoughts racing through my mind.
But, he can’t.
I won’t let him.
“I’m going to pick up the girls,” I say—calm. Stoic. “I’ll bring Ana back here before I leave.”
“Leave?” Where are you going?”
“Away. With Emilee.” I pause. “We’ll be gone… for a while.”
Probably forever.
“But she just got back from Spain,” he argues. “Why would you do this?” Panic quivers through his voice and coils around those heavily accented words, making them more difficult to understand. “Por qué?”
I bring my hands up to his handsome face, fingers tracing that always-present five o’clock shadow that looks so goddamn sexy on him. “Because I’m giving Ana her parents back. I’m letting Gabriel have his husband back.”
“And what about me?” he asks, voice thick with desperation.
“I’m giving you your family back, Elijah.”
“But I don’t understand…” His chest rises and falls as he fights for the air that I just stole from him.
I place my hand over his heart. “This right here, Elijah…” His heart thumps wildly against my palm. It’s the strongest heartbeat I’ve ever felt. “It belongs to your husband.”
“Then marry me, Alex.”
“You already have a husband.”
“I have an ex-husband,” he fires back.
But it doesn’t matter; with or without the “ex,” love overrides that hyphenated word… and there’s a lot of love within the Garcia family.
“That wasn’t by choice, and you know it.” I blink away tears as we stare at each other.
“I have a choice now, baby, and I choose you.”
I look right into those soulful eyes as I speak words I don’t even mean… “You don’t have me anymore, Elijah.”
My fingers tremble as I run them across the stubble on his cheek, loving the feel of his rough skin. Tears cloud my vision, but I fight them back—needing to be strong for once.
If only for him.
Only for this moment.
I drag my thumb across his worried lips. I want to kiss them again, so badly; calm their worry… but I no longer can, so I don’t.
“If things were different, Elijah… I’d have chosen you too.”
A tear slips free from the corner of his eye just as I turn away. It slides down his handsome face and drops to the floor, joining the pieces of his broken heart.
I remember him once telling me I was the only man he’d ever cried for. It pains me to know that I was the cause of his tears… not once… but twice.
With battered breaths, his emotions swim to the surface as he watches me walk away, wordless and weary. I feel his stare boring into my back as I press my thumb to the print pad and wait for the elevator. When it arrives, I step inside, walking away from my heaven and descending into my hell.
“Goodbye, Elijah.” My voice fractures as it gets pinched between the doors.
My knees give way, and I fall to the floor, desperately pawing at my temples as my heart riots with my brain.
It’s noisy and neurotic. Worse than any migraine I’ve ever suffered through.
My lungs join in on the fight, and I gasp for air that doesn’t seem to exist anymore.
My whole fucking body protests against this gut-wrenching separation.
And by the time the doors slide open to the garage—
I’m crawling.
Through a puddle of tears….
and a bleeding heart.