Page 227 of Wrong Marriage. Right Groom
My voice softened, though I didn’t let go of my resolve. “But you have to move on, Rafael. You need to accept that she is gone.”
His grip loosened slightly, but he didn’t release me.
“Since you reunited with Tess,” I continued, more firmly now, “you’ve barely been present for her emotionally. You come home, say a quick hello, play with her for five or six minutes, then you disappear again—either into work or into that grave.”
His jaw tightened at that, but I pressed on anyway.
“That little girl is going to grow up feeling like she’s chasing a ghost for your attention. And one day, she will resent you for it. And you?” I swallowed. “You will resent yourself even more.”
A bitter breath escaped me.
“You deserve to be happy, Rafael. You told me that once. You told me to step out of my shell, out of my darkness. I think I deserve the same from you.”
My eyes held his now, unwavering. “Learn to love again. Not as a replacement for her—but as someone still alive.”
For a moment, he didn’t move.
Not a word. Not even a breath I could detect.
Then I twisted my hand free from his grip.
This time, he let me.
I stepped past him and out of the ‘forbidden room,’ the doorframe suddenly feeling like a boundary between two versions of the same broken history.
I didn’t look back. I refused to.
I exhaled shakily only once I reached my room and closed the door behind me.
My back pressed against it as I slid down slightly, my fingers tightening around the edge of my sleeve.
I didn’t know if I had reached him.
I didn’t know if I had made things worse.
But I hoped—quietly, stubbornly—that something had shifted.
Even the smallest crack could let light in.
And maybe, just maybe, he would find a way back to himself—for Tess, for the memory he clung to... and perhaps, for his own exhausted soul.
Chapter 16
LORETTA
