Chapter 26
“When we get married, you’ll definitely get an invitation,” Jayden said to Harper, managing what he hoped looked like a genuine smile despite the knot of anxiety in his stomach.
His eyes kept drifting to the space beside him, and he watched Harper’s expression grow more puzzled with each glance.
“That’s really sweet,” she said, though her smile seemed a bit forced now. “I’d love to be there to celebrate with you both.”
After a few more minutes of increasingly awkward small talk, they finally managed to escape.
Jayden took Arianna’s hand and started walking toward the restaurant district, but he could feel her getting more tense with every step. The encounter with Harper had clearly shaken her more than she was letting on.
When she suddenly stopped dead in the middle of the sidewalk, his heart clenched with worry.
“Hey,” he said softly, turning to face her fully. “Talk to me. What’s going on?”
Arianna stared down at the pavement, her voice barely audible. “I can’t… I can’t do this, Jayden. I can’t go
to that restaurant.”
When she looked up at him, her eyes were bright with unshed tears. “Can we please just go home? To our
home?”
The raw vulnerability in her voice made sométhing inside his chest crack wide open. Without a second’s hesitation, he turned them both around and headed back toward the car.
“Of course,” he said, his voice rough with protective fury–not at her, but at himself for putting her in this situation. “We don’t have to go anywhere you don’t want to go. Ever.”
Back at their house, Arianna curled up on the couch with Orange, who seemed to sense her distress and settled into her lap with unusual stillness. She stared at nothing, lost in whatever painful memories
Harper’s presence had dredged up.
Jayden sat beside her, self–loathing eating him alive from the inside out. “This is my fault. I’m so fucking sorry, Arianna. I should never have suggested going back there.”
If he’d just taken her straight home, they never would have run into Harper. She wouldn’t have had to face all those ghosts from the worst period of her life.
“Stop,” Arianna said quietly, reaching over to run her fingers through his hair in a gesture that was
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Chapter 26
purely meant to comfort him. “You were trying to do something nice for us. I know that.”
She managed a small, broken smile that made his heart ache. “Besides, I like being home with you. I don’t need anywhere else.”
Jayden caught her hand and pressed it to his lips, overwhelmed by how much he loved this woman who was trying to console him even when she was hurting.
The tender moment was shattered by his phone buzzing with a calendar notification.
When Jayden glanced at the screen, every drop of blood drained from his face.
April 10th – Dad’s Memorial Service
Arianna noticed his reaction immediately. “What is it?”
He tried to turn the phone away, but she’d already seen the reminder. Her face went ashen as the significance hit her like a sledgehammer.
Tomorrow was the anniversary of his father’s death. The anniversary of the night that had destroyed
everything.
“Jayden, I-” she started, but he cut her off.
“You don’t have to say anything,” he said quickly, panic rising in his throat. “You don’t owe me anything, especially not-”
“I want to come with you.”
The words hit him like a physical blow. After everything she’d been through, everything she was still struggling with, she wanted to face this with him.
“Arianna; no. You don’t understand what you’re asking-”
“I understand perfectly,” she said firmly, taking both his hands in hers. “Your father died trying to save
- me. The least I can do is be there when you visit him.”
Jayden felt tears burning behind his eyes. “Are you sure? Because once we’re there, there’s no taking it
back. It’s going to hurt like hell.”
“I’m sure,” she said, her voice steady despite the pain he could see in her eyes. “We’re supposed to face things together now, right?”
The next morning dawned gray and drizzly, the kind of weather that seemed designed for grief. The cemetery was nearly deserted when they arrived, just a few scattered visitors moving quietly among headstones.
the
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Jayden’s father’s grave was in the older section, marked by a simple granite stone with his name, dates, and a photograph of him in his police uniform–forever thirty–nine, forever smiling like he had the whole world figured out.
Jayden knelt in the wet grass, his chest so tight he could barely breathe.
“Hey, Dad,” he said, his voice already breaking. “I brought someone special to meet you.”
Arianna stood quietly behind him, holding a black umbrella over both of them as the drizzle intensified.
“Mom’s doing really well now,” Jayden continued, tears mixing with raindrops on his cheeks. “The therapy worked. She’s living independently again, and she’s happy. You’d be so proud of how far she’s come.”
He wiped his nose with the back of his hand, not caring that he probably looked like a mess.
“I know you always wanted me to let go of the anger, to forgive everyone and move on with my life. I think… I think I’m finally there, Dad. Arianna said yes when I proposed. We’re going to get married.”
His voice broke completely. “You always said she was perfect for me, even when we were just kids. Remember how you used to tease her parents about us ending up together someday?”
He placed fresh flowers at the base of the headstone, along with a small bottle of his father’s favorite bourbon.
“I wish you could walk her down the aisle,” he whispered. “I wish you could see how happy we are together.”
After sitting in silence for a few more minutes,/Jayden finally stood and took Arianna’s hand. Her fingers were ice–cold, but she squeezed his gently.
“Thank you,” he said quietly. “For coming with me. For everything.”
They were walking back toward the parking area when Jayden’s gaze happened to fall on a headstone a few rows over.
What he saw there made his entire world collapse.
Arianna Rose Carter Beloved Daughter February 14, 1998 – June 8, 2015 Forever in Our Hearts
The universe tilted sideways. A splitting headache exploded behind his eyes like a bomb going off, and suddenly he couldn’t see, couldn’t breathe, couldn’t process what was happening to him.
The umbrella clattered to the ground as he doubled over, clutching his head and making sounds he didn’t recognize as his own voice.
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Chapter 26
“Jayden!” Arianna’s voice seemed to come from very far away, high–pitched with panic. “Jayden, what’s
wrong?!”
