Chapter Four
Kingston couldn’t sleep. He lay on his back, staring into the darkness, Ashley’s steady breathing beside him.
Her back was turned, as it had been every night since the reunion.
He hated himself for snapping at her in the car.
For the way her voice had gone small when she’d said she just wanted honesty.
And yet, the minute she’d asked about Rebecca, he’d felt cornered, exposed.
Like someone had ripped a scab off a wound he hadn’t wanted to admit was still bleeding.
He turned onto his side, staring at the faint glow of the alarm clock.
His chest tightened as his mind drifted backward, years ago, to a time when things were simpler.
He first saw Rebecca Jane in the crowded hallway of their second-year med school building. She had her hair pulled into a messy bun, a stethoscope looped around her neck like she’d been born with it. She was laughing at something one of her friends said, her green eyes bright, her smile infectious.
Kingston remembered thinking, That girl lights up the whole damn room.
She wasn’t just beautiful. She was magnetic.
Confident in a way most twenty-year-olds weren’t.
When she looked at you, it was as if you were the only person that mattered.
They met properly a week later in the library, both reaching for the same pharmacology text.
Their hands brushed, and she teased him about needing it more than he did.
He teased her back about never studying. That was the beginning.
Their relationship bloomed quickly. Study sessions turned into late-night coffee runs.
Coffee runs turned into dinners. Dinners turned into weekends spent tangled in sheets, their textbooks forgotten on the floor.
For nearly a year, Rebecca was his world.
They were inseparable, the kind of couple that drew knowing smiles from classmates.
She challenged him, made him laugh, made him feel like he could conquer anything but it wasn’t perfect.
Rebecca had a restless streak and she wanted more than what was in front of her.
More attention, more adventure, more everything.
She talked often about leaving after med school, maybe working abroad, maybe specializing in something glamorous.
Kingston, in contrast, craved stability.
He wanted roots. A family. A home to come back to after grueling shifts.
Their differences came to a head one night after exams, when Rebecca confessed she wasn’t sure she wanted the same future he did.
“I don’t want to be tied down too young,” she’d said, twirling her wine glass, her tone casual but her words sharp. “Marriage, kids, it’s not for me. Not yet.”
Kingston remembered staring at her, a weight settling in his chest. He’d already imagined a future with her, but in that moment, he knew they were heading in opposite directions so he ended it.
She cried. He did too, though he never admitted it to anyone and just like that, Rebecca Jane became a memory.
Ashley Kennedy wasn’t a spark. She was a slow burn.
He met her during his residency. She was on pediatrics, and he’d been pulled in for a consult.
He remembered walking into the ward and finding her kneeling beside a scared little boy, holding his hand and making him laugh despite the IV taped to his arm.
Her kindness was the first thing he noticed.
Her laugh was the second. Ashley didn’t demand attention the way Rebecca had.
She was steady, grounded. She worked hard, cared harder, and carried herself with a quiet strength that drew him in.
At first, he just admired her from a distance.
Then came coffee breaks, small conversations, shared complaints about lack of sleep.
Somewhere in the blur of endless rotations, admiration grew into something deeper.
He fell for her slowly but completely, like rain soaking into dry earth.
Their first date wasn’t glamorous. A cheap diner, greasy fries, and coffee that tasted like burnt rubber but she made it feel special. She made him feel special.
A year later, he proposed. Not with fireworks or fanfare, but in their tiny apartment, kneeling awkwardly on the carpet with a ring he’d saved for months to buy.
Her yes had been breathless, her eyes shining, and for the first time in a long time, he believed he’d found exactly what he’d been searching for.
Their wedding was simple. A modest ceremony with family and close friends.
Rebecca didn’t cross his mind once that day.
Or the day after. Or the year after that.
With Ashley, life unfolded in all the ways he’d dreamed.
They bought a house, had children, built careers side by side.
She was his partner in every sense, steady when he faltered, warm when the world turned cold.
For years, he thought he’d closed the door on Rebecca Jane.
It was two years into his marriage when he saw her again. Kingston had been walking through the hospital corridor when he heard her laugh, the same unmistakable sound that had once hooked him. He turned, and there she was. Rebecca Jane, older now, sharper somehow, but just as magnetic.
She smiled when she saw him. “Kingston Robert. Of all places.”
At first, it was nothing. Just colleagues, as it should have been.
They nodded in passing, exchanged polite hellos.
Occasionally, they covered shifts together, small talk filling the space between patient charts but small talk grew.
It started with reminiscing, funny stories from med school, the professors they’d both loathed.
Then came the personal questions. How was Ashley?
How were the kids? Did he ever miss the old days? He’d answered honestly. Too honestly.
Rebecca had a way of listening that made him feel…
seen. Not just as Dr. Robert, husband, father, provider but as the man beneath all that.
The man who sometimes felt buried under the weight of responsibility.
He told himself it was harmless. That he could be friends with her.
That his marriage was solid enough to withstand an old flame flickering back into his life but affection has a way of growing quietly, like ivy through cracks.
One day you think you’re in control, the next you’re tangled.
He didn’t remember the exact moment it shifted.
Maybe it was when she touched his arm during a late-night shift, her fingers lingering a fraction too long.
Maybe it was when she admitted she still thought about him sometimes.
Maybe it was the night they stayed behind after rounds, talking until dawn, and he realized he didn’t want to leave.
By then, he knew he was in dangerous territory and yet, he didn’t stop.
Kingston sat up in bed now, scrubbing his hands over his face.
How did I let it get this far? He loved Ashley.
God, he did. She was his wife, the mother of his children, the person who had stood beside him through every storm.
He wanted to protect her, to keep their life intact but Rebecca…
she was a ghost resurrected, reminding him of who he used to be.
Of a time before bills and diapers and endless night shifts.
She made him feel alive, wanted, reckless.
And yet, every time he looked at Ashley, guilt gutted him.
He thought of her eyes at the reunion, the way they’d shimmered with hurt when she asked about Rebecca.
The way her voice had cracked when she whispered she just wanted honesty.
He’d brushed it off, snapped at her, because admitting the truth would shatter everything but lying was shattering her too.
Kingston lay back down, staring at the ceiling, his mind a battlefield of past and present, desire and duty, love and betrayal.
He didn’t know how much longer he could walk this line without falling.