Regretful Man, Redeemed Woman

ing coffee. He was dressed in an expensive suit, looking every bit the powerful businessman he had become. He

mmented, not looking at her

keeping her voice neutral. She went to

p. "A flight? Whe

k. For a

, maybe-in his eyes. "You' re taking a job

d have apologized, would have explained herself, would have sou

g shopping bags. She was radiant, her smile bright and her eyes s

Her smile faltered for a fraction of a second before becoming even

anor stated, her voi

d in mock surprise. "O

bella' s arm. "Eleanor is just leaving for a trip." He turned to Eleanor,

wn kitchen. He was hiding her,

while Ethan was the center of attention, and they' d say, "Ethan, you keep your lovely wife

delining her. She was the placeholder, the convenient wife he kep

ed and walked away, not looking back. She heard Isabella' s soft l

rom Ethan' s grandmother, given to her on their wedding day. The old woman had held

she remembered all the years she had stood by him. She remembered a time

chen. She was trapped in her room, terrified, smoke filling her lungs. Ethan, only twelve himself, had climbed a tree

ng her about her asthma. Ethan had appeared out of nowhere. He fought them

n her when he heard her coughing at night. He had meticulously cared for h

r entire youth. On her eighteenth birthday, trembling with hope, she had conf

had said, his face full of a pity she hated, "You' re

first week of college. Their romance became a campus legend

lked about for years. Eleanor had watched from the sidelines, her heart breaking over and over aga