Epilogue
SIMON
My heart was doing crazy things in my chest. It’d been ten years since I’d put together the contents of the time capsule, and while I’d never forgotten what was in it, I wasn’t sure what to expect about its condition.
As the lock clicked, the end of the capsule released. I lifted the open side and peered in, smiling from ear to ear when I realized that it was all still completely intact. “The guy who sold this thing to me promised it was good quality. I’m happy to report that he wasn’t lying.”
Abi laughed, but when I glanced at her, her eyes were wide and her cheeks were flushed. Her hands were clasped in her lap and her spine was ramrod straight, like she was doing her best to fight the urge to grab the capsule from me and peer into it herself.
Excitement and curiosity shimmered in those eyes, but I could see the nerves running through her as well. Or maybe I was just projecting because I was nervous as fuck.
I’d been preparing for this moment for ten years, and while I was confident that I was doing the right thing, I wasn’t as confident that she would think it was. Even so, I stuck my hand in and withdrew the paper I’d rolled up inside the metal tube.
“You’re kidding me?” Abi groaned. “Another letter? That’s what’s been in there all this time?”
“Yep.” I uncurled it, holding the paper at both ends to keep it from rolling into itself, and I glanced down at the bold lines and sharp angles of my handwriting. “Do you want me to read it to you?”
“Yes, please,” she said, an audible tremor now in her voice. “Just remember that you promised this would prove that you loved me. Our track record with letter does not instill confidence.”
“If it makes you feel any better, this was the first I ever wrote you and I meant every word that I said in it then. I still mean them today, even if I wish that we hadn’t had to wait so long for it.” I held the letter open, but before I started reading it, I knew I’d better explain. “Do you remember that I told you I’d been butting heads with my dad for a few weeks by the time graduation rolled around?”
She nodded. “Of course.”
“Well, that night at the party, I gave you this capsule hoping that the predictions I made in the letter were untrue. If they were, I planned on just explaining why I’d written what I had and I hoped you’d be happy that it never went down that way, but obviously…”
“Your predictions turned out to be true,” she guessed out loud.
I sighed. “Too fucking true. So, you’re sure you want me to read it?”
“Yep.”
“Alright, then.” I cleared my throat and lowered my gaze to the feelings I’d penned so long ago, knowing now without a doubt that I hadn’t just been some lovestruck kid. My feelings for her had been as real then as they were now, and although I really wished I could’ve turned back the clock and left this key with her so that she might’ve opened it herself during her lowest points, I was also happy that I got to be here for the moment when she realized what this really was. “Just remember that I was eighteen when I wrote this. Some parts may be cringy now.”
“Simon!” she squealed, exasperation in her wide eyes. “It’s been ten years. Just freaking read it already.”
“Dear Abigail,
I’m supposed to be getting ready for graduation right now, but I have a feeling I might not have time to do this later and I can’t be ready for this day, potentially the last day we have together, without knowing that I have a plan in place to let you know how much I love you, in the event that the worst should happen.
That sounds dramatic. I can only picture the way that you’re going to roll your eyes when you read that part, but it’s true, my baby. I think I’m going to have to leave. Dad still wants me to go to Harvard and the ultimatum is coming. I can feel it.
Things in my house are becoming tenser by the day and he refuses to listen to reason. I haven’t wanted to tell you about it because you’ve worried about me enough recently. I don’t want to burden you with this too, but the storm is coming, and since today is the day we close this chapter of our lives, I suspect it will be here sooner rather than later.
It is for that reason that I will likely have to leave, but I need you to know that I will never stop loving you. Not for a day. An hour. Not even for a minute. For however long we may be apart, I will love you with every breath I take, Abigail Walker, and I promise, one day, I will find you again.
I don’t want to go, which is why I’m writing this to you. To explain why I have to go anyway. My father is relentless about this. He’s changed, Abi. I don’t know who he’s become, but there’s no reasoning with this version of him. There is no mercy. Sometimes when he looks at me, I feel like he wishes he was looking at Brooks, that I had been the one taken instead.
Not that it matters, I suppose. I’m all he has left and he’s going to mold me into whatever he was planning for both me and my brother, and I doubt I’m going to have any choice in the matter. The only thing I really feel like I have a choice about right now is who I love and that’s you, Abi.
One day, I’m going to be able to tell you in person again that I love you more than anything, but I’m saying it here now and I guarantee that it will not change. Not ever. One day, I’m going to be able to put this ring on your finger and I know it sounds crazy. We’re teenagers, but you were meant to be my wife and I cannot wait until I can make that happen. One day, baby, I hope I will be able to.
Until then, I’m going to have to ask you to bear with me. To never stop believing that you are my one true love and to know that every day I am fighting to find my way back to you.
I love you, my gorgeous, Abs. I always will.”
When I looked up, Abigail was crying, her eyes wide and wet, her hands folded over her mouth. She sat on her knees, her shoulders shaking as she stared at me like she couldn’t believe she’d had my proposal in her possession for ten years.
I turned the tube upside down, holding my free palm under the opening. A diamond ring slid out of the capsule, landing slowly right in the center of my palm. It was the ring I’d bought for her when we’d been eighteen, and while it was a smaller stone than I would have gone for now, it was still perfect.
The golden band was slim and classic, the brilliant-cut stone fastened with little golden clasps that held the diamond suspended safely in the middle. On the inside of the ring, the words For All Eternity had been inscribed.
I moved onto one knee and pressed the ring between my thumb and index finger, holding it out toward her. “I knew that I wanted to be with you forever, just like I know it now. Abigail Walker, will you make me the happiest man in the world and marry me?”
Abi wiped her tears with the backs of her hands, her gaze on mine as she nodded. “Of course, I’ll marry you, Simon. Yes!”
A grin broke out across my face and my eyebrows shot up, joy unlike anything I’d ever felt coursing through me. Abi still seemed to be processing, blinking these long, slow blinks as she held a trembling hand out to me, a radiant smile starting to spread on her lips. “All this time, you planned on marrying me no matter what?”
“I told you that night that my love for you was timeless, Abi. I wasn’t lying.” I took her hand and finally, after so many years, got to put my ring on her finger. As I slid it into place, my heart was pounding and I brought her hand up to my mouth to kiss it. “For all eternity, my love. There you have it. It’s official. I have always belonged to you and only you, irrespective of whatever twists and turns we faced along the way.”
***
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