Page 93 of Find You in the Dark
I will love you forever.
Always,
Clay
Wow. I dropped the letter at my feet and made no effort to wipe away the tears that streamed down my face. Whatever I had been expecting, that wasn’t it.
Damn Clay Reed and his stupid back-and-forth crap! How perfectly typical of him. Telling me how much he loved me and in the next breath pushing me away. He had effectively shut me out of his life. Again. He wanted me to move on. To live my life. He told me not to wait for him, that he wouldn’t be coming back to me.
I found it hard to breathe as I faced the finality of his words. We were over. There was no moreus. I couldn’t help but feel anger and betrayal at how he had given up. How he had just let go of all that we had.
I picked the letter up from the floor and balled it in my fist, planning to throw it away. But I stopped myself. I placed the paper on my desk and smoothed it out. I couldn’t get rid of it. It was my last link to him, and I needed that.
So I put it in the very bottom of my desk drawer. I didn’t want to see it again, but I couldn’t let go of it, either. I couldn’t read his good-bye again, but I had to know that it was still there. That his love was a real thing. That I hadn’t imagined it.
I felt older, and maybe just a little bit wiser. I had my own baggage and strings and it would take time for me to lighten my load. But I would.
Because I was Maggie Young. And from now on I vowed to stay out of the dark.
