CHAPTER 50Aurelia #2
The home she had poured her heart into and what once was a refuge she built for herself was as comforting as a mausoleum now. Filled with cold silence and haunted by the ghost of memories she couldn’t escape. Everywhere she turned, she found him, even though he was gone.
Physically, her body ached, every breath a painful reminder of the bruises and fractures left behind on Friday night. But worse than that was the ache in her chest. It had festered into a deep, consuming sorrow that no medication could touch.
The bedroom felt foreign, the air heavier without him in it. She wasn’t content to simply lie there alone anymore. It didn’t feel right, like a part of her had been severed and left bleeding.
She hated herself for it, but when she attempted to go in there every night, she clung to his pillow, pressing her face into the fading traces of his warm and earthy scent, desperate to hold onto what little of him remained.
Levi had flooded her phone with text after text, voicemail after voicemail all weekend, each one a reminder of the tangled mess she found herself in. She hadn’t dared open a single one—too afraid they’d be filled with more venom and anger, confirming every horrible thing she feared about herself.
Self-doubt had crept into her mind and grown like an invasive weed, causing Aurelia to question her decision. After all, she had been the one to ask for the divorce, even though she missed him more than she could ever imagine. Maybe he hated her now, and maybe he was right to.
So, she cried in the bathroom, staring at the empty counter where his toothbrush used to rest, the shower now devoid of his things.
She wept in the closet, half of it glaringly empty.
She sobbed in the kitchen, staring at a refrigerator stocked with groceries she bought specifically for him—foods she would never eat.
Everywhere she looked, she cried.
Because everywhere she looked, he was gone.
Saturday night, when she couldn’t take the crushing silence anymore, Ivy and Grace showed up unannounced. Grace brought a pot of homemade chicken soup. Ivy carried a tub of black raspberry ice cream, Aurelia’s favorite.
The moment she saw them standing there, she fell apart all over again. They didn’t try to talk her out of it or tell her to be strong. They simply came in, held her, and sat with her in the heavy quiet.
And as much as she loved them for it, their presence only reminded her more of what she had lost. Of whom she had lost. She fought it for as long as she could, but eventually the words slipped free, bleak, and vulnerable.
“How…how is he?” she whispered, her voice wobbly.
Grace and Ivy exchanged loaded glances before Grace finally answered.
“You want the truth?”
Aurelia nodded quickly. Lies had no place in her life anymore.
Grace drew in a deep breath. “He’s…not doing well.
He knows he made the biggest mistake of his life—one he’ll regret forever.
And he’s realizing he has demons of his own to deal with…
things he’s never faced or acknowledged.
Things that broke him before this even happened.
He says he needs to fix himself, so this…
so something like this never happens again. ”
The admission cut her open all over again. Charles’s words echoed through her mind like a cruel reminder.
Everyone comes with baggage, Aurelia. But sometimes…it’s the way we carry it that makes all the difference. Don’t let fear choose for you. And don’t shut the door before he’s even had the chance to fight for you.
“I don’t care what issues he’s working through,” Ivy snapped, her arms crossed tightly over her chest. “He should have listened to you first. End of story.”
Grace sighed heavily, shaking her head. “I’m not excusing what he did, Ivy.
But I understand why he reacted the way he did.
That doesn’t make it right…but at least he’s not pretending it’s okay.
He knows how badly he screwed up. And he’s trying to figure out why—so he never does it again to anyone else. ”
To anyone else.
The words hit Aurelia like a gut punch.
Anyone else.
She couldn’t explain why, but the thought of Levi simply accepting the divorce…walking away from her without a fight…It carved out another delicate piece of her soul.
Aurelia had demanded this ending, but now, staring into that dark abyss of finality, she wasn’t sure she was strong enough to handle it.
The tears came in a violent rush, wracking sobs tearing from her throat and stealing the breath from her lungs.
Each one sent fire lancing through her ribs, the bruised bone flaring with pain no medication could fully numb.
Ivy and Grace sat on either side of her, rubbing her back in comfort as she cried it all out.
When the storm of grief finally passed, and her breathing evened out into shallow, shaky breaths, she lifted her tear-swollen eyes to them.
“Do you…Do you think I should talk to him?” she asked, her voice barely audible. “Hear him out?”
Another glance of an unspoken conversation passed between them.
This time, it was Ivy who answered, her tone gentler than before.
“Even though I’m mad as hell at him…I think you owe it to yourself to listen. Give yourself the closure he couldn’t give you that night. Then…you decide what you want. No one else.”
Grace nodded slowly, her expression muted and understanding.
Aurelia inhaled a long, unsteady breath, her mind and heart caught in a war she didn’t know how to end.
For the first time all weekend, she wondered if she was truly ready to let him go.
The next day, it was Owen who showed up at her door, completely unexpected, uninvited, and…exactly what she needed.
He stayed the entire day and long into the night, camped out on her couch with takeout containers piled high and a marathon of POLmArK TV romances playing back-to-back.
Of all Levi’s friends, she felt safest with Owen. She couldn’t quite explain why, especially considering how their friendship had started, but in that moment, she was secretly grateful beyond words that he refused to leave her alone.
Between the inevitable waves of tears, Owen managed to coax out reluctant smiles…and even a few real laughs. At one point, he turned to her, utterly serious, and declared, “Mark my words, Aurelia. One day, I’m going to be in a POLmArK movie.”
She blinked at him, caught off guard. “You? In these?” She gestured at the screen where a rugged small-town lumberjack was dramatically confessing his love to a woman in the middle of a banana tree farm.
“I don’t care if it’s as an extra walking through a background farmer’s market scene,” he said solemnly. “It counts. And it’s going to happen.”
Aurelia let out a weak laugh, her ribs protesting even that small movement. “Why do you love these ridiculous movies so much?”
She meant it with genuine curiosity. It wasn’t every day you met a towering, broad-shouldered man who openly admitted to binging cheesy romance films.
Owen’s expression turned thoughtful, his voice wistful.
“Because no matter how bad things get, no matter how messy it all looks halfway through…you know it’s going to end happily,” he said quietly.
“I can put one on at any point—doesn’t matter if it’s the beginning or halfway through—and I’ll still know they’ll figure it out.
There’s always some big, dramatic fight or impossible obstacle, but they don’t let it stop them. They find a way.”
Aurelia stared at him in awe. She had never thought of it that way before.
And the earnest, unguarded look in Owen’s eyes made her realize he was letting her see a side of him most people never got close enough to witness.
“It’s like…a reset button,” he added, rubbing the back of his neck. “When life completely falls apart, these movies remind me that things can work out. They give me hope, even if it’s temporary.”
Aurelia swallowed against the sudden lump in her throat, turning his words over in her mind, astutely aware of how perfectly they applied to her own life.
“Have you ever told Isaac all this?” she asked carefully.
Owen snorted, his humor snapping back into place like a reflex.
“Are you kidding me? He already makes fun of me for the unrealistic professions like the cupcake tycoon, snowplow mogul, and espresso mustache barber. If he ever found out how much I actually love these movies, I’d never hear the end of it. ”
He paused, eyes narrowing as his own words sank in. “And if you tell him, I swear on my future POLmArK career, I’ll toss your body into a lagoon myself. No one will ever find you.”
The laugh that broke free from Aurelia startled them both. A deep, genuine laugh that echoed through the house, sharp and sweet and painful all at once. She pressed a hand to her ribs, groaning through the sting but unwilling to regret it. She hadn’t laughed like that in so long.
When the moment passed, she turned to Owen, her smile fading into something reflective, her eyes damp but grateful.
“Thank you,” she whispered. “For being here. For being…you.”
The hard lines of Owen’s face relaxed, a rare warmth filling his expression. “Anytime, bestie.”
Aurelia exhaled a long, shaky breath.
“Believe it or not,” she said quietly, eyes distant as her thoughts swirled, “you’ve given me a lot to think about.”
Owen offered her a knowing smile. “Good. Just don’t take too long thinking about it. Even POLmArK movies only have a two-hour runtime before somebody makes a move.”
Aurelia’s lips twitched despite herself. For the first time since that awful night, she felt a sliver of something beyond heartbreak.