She deserved more, and more is all you ever gave me. So I’m giving you her.
Because even after everything, you were still the only man I trusted to love without demanding I be someone I couldn’t. You were the only one who ever stayed.
And I need you to stay again.
You gave me everything once. Your heart. Your faith. Your money.
And I gave you lies.
But I never meant to hurt you. I just didn’t know how to be loved the way you loved me. I didn’t know how to receive something I was never taught to give.
If I had more time... maybe I could’ve figured it out. But I don’t. So I’m giving you the only thing I have left that matters.
Our daughter.
And yes, I’ll call her that, even if I didn’t carry her with you. Because I will never claim that man as her father. She was never his. She was always meant to be yours.
We were soulmates, remember?
I was your one and only. The girl you swore forever to under that old tree behind your parents’ house... the one you carved our initials into like it made us indestructible.
You made big promises, Kade.
You used to look at me like I was your whole damn future. Said you’d never stop loving me. Even if I ran. Even if I broke things. Even if I hurt you. You said I’d always be it for you.
And maybe... maybe I always believed that. Even when I walked away. Even when I married someone else. Becausedeep down, I thought that if things ever really fell apart... you’d come.
You always came for me before.
Why didn’t you come for me this time?
When I found out I was pregnant, I was angry. I didn’t want her. Didn’t want to be trapped again. I felt caged and used and tired. But then I thought of you. Your loyalty. Your steadiness. The way you love with your whole chest, your whole heart, no questions asked.
And I knew... there was no one else I could hand her to.
You were supposed to be the constant. You always were for me. So I figured... maybe you still meant every word you said. That no matter how messy it got, you’d still see me.
Still choose us.
Because no matter how it ended... no matter how many lies or bruises or years came between us... I was yours. And you were mine. Four years in. Together forever.
You owed me forever, Kade Archer. And all I got was a happily never after.
So take her. Love her like you loved me. Give her the life I never could. And maybe one day, when she’s old enough, you’ll tell her that her mother wasn’t always broken.
That people made her this way.
That once upon a time, she loved a boy so much she gave him everything she had…
Love always,
Your Marlee May
Chapter Forty Nine
The Silence Between I Love You
Aurora babbles against my chest, her cheek sticky with sweat and sunshine, and I hum the next verse of her favorite song while adjusting her carrier like it’s all second nature.
