Chapter 1
CHAPTER 1
GAbrIEL
Avery.
Here, in Sugar Creek. In my arms. Her warm breath heavy on my cheek as she exhaled her shock.
My heart began beating for the first time in nearly three years.
I’ve spent lonely days imagining what it would be like if I was ever lucky enough to see Avery again, but my imagination fell short. The relief, the love, the utter desperation was all on the mark, but I’d left out the gut punch. The reality of what I’d done poured over me when I saw her face.
When you’re in a sterile environment, gray paint and block walls and barely surviving, reality drifts away. Like looking into a well, your vision narrows and you see only the dark.
One day, you’re reintroduced to the light. Here are your things , they say, pressing your old clothes to your chest. You walk out of the gates, feeling like an intruder in the free world. Day by day, the fog burns off and realization dawns. You have made the two greatest mistakes of your life.
And then, on a rainy day that blends into all other days no matter the weather, the love of your life shows up.
Raindrops gather on her skin, catch in her eyelashes. You’ll be soaked to the bone but it won’t matter because…
Avery.
Is.
Here.