The Final Goodbye of a Reborn Heart
. There was no flicker of shock, no hint of
h. "Asher, I think that fall did more damage
orporation. I have access to the best private investigators in the world. When we got married, I had a full background check done on yo
shed the spark of hope in my chest. For a second, I had thought we were connected, that this w
e said, turning her back on me. "T
econd glance, leaving me alone with th
ispers following me whenever a nurse came in. They saw me as the pathetic, cast-aside husband of the great Elara Vance. I was a nuisance, a
s a
the paperwork a declaration of my surrender. I hobbled out of that hospital on crutches, m
p was my law
p," I told him, my voice flat.
m pull up the standard forms, a wave of immense pain washed over me. This was it. The fi
post was a picture of him and Elara, taken just an hour ago. They were on the hospital's private terrace. He was in a wheelchair, a blanket over his lap
knew all
for a week, and Elara had fussed over me endlessly. She' d brought me food, read to me, and sat with me on the porch. Someon
torturing me with a mirror image o
a nightmare where I couldn't tell what was
. I didn't care anymore if she was reborn
vations. The sleek, glass tower loomed over the city, a monument to her pow
in a meeting,
ttling into a chair in
was with Julian. I saw her stand up, walk over to his chair, and tenderly place a cushion behind his back. It
love for another man; it was a performance, a deliber
in. Julian was there, looking smug. Elara wa
ce papers in front
her name on the signature line without reading a single w
rgument could have been. It was a final, bru
ged to say, m
to me. "Remember, Asher, there's a mandatory 90-day cooling-off p
more months of being te
an' s voice, smooth as silk
y hand on t
re going to a charity auction in Jackson Hole this weekend. To celebrate my r
. He wanted me to watch them parad
else," I said, my voic
mask of hurt. He looked at Elar
l go, Asher. You will be there, and you will be civ
the unspoken threat of what she could do to my f
lian' s triumphant smirk. I was exhaus
ord tasting like ash