Chapter 34 Elena
Matt's truck sat in the driveway with the engine running, headlights cutting through the rain in two pale columns. I could see him through the windshield, hands on the wheel, head bowed. Just sitting there.
The rain was coming down so hard it blurred everything. The truck, the trees beyond, the shape of him inside. But I could still see enough. The way his shoulders curved forward, the way he wasn't moving.
I stood under the umbrella with Caleb's arm around me, and I couldn't look away.
This was it. Matt was leaving. Going home to his father, to his mother who didn't know his name half the time, to that house where he'd lie awake listening to her call for people who weren't there. Where he'd wake up alone and keep carrying all of it by himself.
And I'd go inside with Caleb. We'd dry off, finish dinner, and maybe he’d drive me home and stay the night. I'd wake up next to him tomorrow and the day after that and keep building this life I wanted.
But Matt would still be out there. And we'd still be doing this. Running into each other at the hardware store, the grocery store, Joan Patterson's farm. Always careful and polite. Always pretending we were fine.
My chest felt too tight.
"I need to—" My voice came out rough. "I need to talk to him."
Caleb looked down at me. Rain drummed against the umbrella, loud enough that I almost didn't hear him ask, "You sure?"
"Yeah." I pulled back to see his face. "I'm sure."
He studied me for a moment. Then he nodded and said, "Go."
I stepped out from under the umbrella and the rain hit me immediately. Cold and hard, soaking through my shirt in seconds. I walked toward the truck, toward those headlights, and stopped right in front of them.
The engine cut off.
The door opened and Matt climbed out, confusion written all over his face. "Elena?"
"We need to talk."
He stood there in the rain, water already running down his face, his shirt plastered to his chest. "About what?"
"About this." I gestured between us, at the space that had been there for three years. "About us. We can't keep doing this."
"Doing what?"
"Pretending we're fine. Running into each other and acting like strangers." My voice broke. "Watching you suffer and not saying anything."
He looked at me for a long moment. Water dripped from his hair, his jaw. "What do you want me to say?"
"The truth." I took a step closer. "Whatever you're carrying around. Whatever you've been holding back. I need to hear it."
His hands curled into fists at his sides. "Elena—"
"Please."
The word came out raw, and something in his face cracked.
"I was coming to find you," he said quietly. "Tonight. Before Mom went missing. I was going to…" He stopped, shook his head. "I was going to tell you that I still love you. Because I do. I love you."
The rain filled the silence between us.
"I know you're with Caleb," he continued, the words coming faster now. "I know I have no right to say any of this. I know what I did and I know what I destroyed and I know you've moved on. But I needed you to know. That I never stopped. That I…" His voice broke. "That I'm sorry. For all of it."
Wind caught my hair and drove it against my face, strands sticking to my skin.
"But then Dad called and Mom was gone and I realized…" He looked up at the sky, rain streaming down his face. "I realized it doesn't matter. What I want doesn't matter. You're happy. You deserve to be happy. And I'm not going to be the person who takes that away from you again."
"Matt—"
"So I decided not to tell you." He looked at me directly. "I was going to let you go. Really let you go. But then you stopped my truck and—" He gestured helplessly. "Here we are."
I was crying now, tears mixing with rain. "I loved you so much, Matt."
"I know."
"Sophie and James. Do you remember? We were going to have kids, we picked out names."
His jaw worked, like he was trying to hold something back. "I… I know."
"Your mom would've known them. Before she forgot everything else, she would've known her grandchildren."
"Elena—"
"We were going to paint the nursery yellow.
You wanted blue but I said yellow because it worked for either.
" The words were pouring out now, three years of grief I'd never let myself speak.
"You wanted to wait another year but I said I was ready.
And we were trying. You'd come home from work and find me looking at nursery furniture online. "
Matt made a sound like something had broken inside him.
"And then you slept with Angela and all of it died." I looked at him through the rain. "That future, those kids, everything we'd built. It all just died."
"I know." His voice was barely audible. "I know what I took from us."
"Do you?" I stepped closer. "Do you know what it's been like? Seeing you around town, knowing what we lost? Watching your mother get worse and knowing that if we'd stayed together, I'd be there with you? That I'd be holding your hand through this?"
"Yes." He was crying now too. "I think about it every day.
What you'd say, how you'd help, what it would feel like to not do this alone.
" He wiped his face with his hand but the rain kept coming.
"I think about Sophie and James. What they'd look like.
Whether Sophie would have your eyes, whether James would've been quiet like me or stubborn like you. "
Something in my chest released.
"I'm so angry at you," I said. "For what you did. For what we lost."
"You should be."
"But I'm tired of carrying it." I took a breath, felt the rain on my face, the cold seeping into my bones. "I forgive you, Matt."
He went completely still.
"I forgive you," I said again. "Not because what you did was okay, and not because it doesn't matter. But because I can't keep holding onto it. Because it's killing both of us."
Matt's shoulders shook. He covered his face with his hands and just stood there, breaking apart in the rain.
I closed the distance between us and pulled him into my arms.
He folded into me, his whole body shaking with sobs he'd probably been holding back for years. I held him while he cried, while the storm poured down around us, while everything we'd been carrying finally came loose.
"I'm sorry," he said against my shoulder. "I'm so sorry."
"I know."
"I would take it back. All of it. I'd do anything—"
"I know you would." I pulled back enough to see his face. "But we can't go back. We can't."
He nodded slowly, understanding settling into his features.
"Sophie and James," he said quietly. "They would've been beautiful."
"Yeah. They would've."
"I'm sorry they'll never exist."
"Me too."
We stood there for a moment, mourning those ghost children together. The future that had died. The life we'd planned and lost.
"You're going to be okay," I said finally. "You and your mom and your dad. You're going to get through this."
"Yeah." He took a shaky breath. "And you're going to be happy. With Caleb. You deserve that."
"I am happy."
"Good." He meant it. I could see it in his eyes. "That's good."
The rain had softened to a steady patter. The storm was passing, leaving everything clean and new in its wake.
"We're going to be okay," I said. "Both of us."
Matt nodded, then he pulled me into one last hug. Brief and tight and final.
"Thank you," he said. "For stopping me. For saying all of it."
"Thank you for the truth."
We stepped back from each other. He looked at me for a long moment, like he was memorizing my face. Then he got back in his truck.
I stood there while he started the engine, while the headlights came back on. He lifted one hand in a wave that felt like goodbye. Not see you later, just goodbye.
I waved back.
Then he pulled out of the driveway and drove away into the rain. I watched until his taillights disappeared, until there was nothing left but wet gravel and the sound of water running through the gutters.
When I turned back toward the house, Caleb was standing on the porch. Still holding the umbrella, waiting. I walked to him through the rain.
"You okay?" he asked.
"Yeah." I stepped under the umbrella and into his arms. "I am now."
He held me close, solid and warm. His hand came up to cup the back of my head and I pressed my face against his chest, feeling his heartbeat steady beneath my cheek.
"Thank you," I said. "Thank you for this."
"Always." He kissed the top of my head. "You needed that."
"I did."
We stood there for a moment, rain falling around us, his arms keeping me safe.
"Come on," he said finally. "Let's get you dry."
He guided me inside. Dad had already disappeared upstairs, giving us space. The living room was warm from the fire, both dogs curled up together on the rug.
Caleb handed me a towel and I dried my face, my hair, trying to wring some of the water from my clothes. When I looked up, he was watching me with something soft in his eyes.
"What?" I asked.
"Nothing." He came closer, tucked a wet strand of hair behind my ear. "Just glad you're here."
"Me too."
He kissed me then. Slow and gentle and certain. And I kissed him back, tasting rain and promise and something like hope. When we broke apart, I let my nose brush his, breath mingling in the inches between us.
"I love you," I said.
His breath caught. "Yeah?"
"Yeah." I smiled. "I'm in love with you, Caleb Wright."
He pulled me closer, his arms wrapping around me like he'd never let go. "I love you too."
Outside, the rain kept falling. But inside, by the fire, with his arms around me and the dogs sleeping at our feet, everything felt exactly right.
The past was behind us now. All of it. The grief, the guilt, the ghost of what could've been.
This was what mattered. This moment. This man. This life I was choosing.
I closed my eyes and breathed him in, feeling something settle deep in my chest. Something that felt like peace.
Like home.