Love Fades With Bygone Days Chapter 07
The bedroom door opened, and Tomas walked in.
One look at her told him everything.
“Esme’s not answering?”
Alessia nodded and grabbed his arm, clinging to him like a lifeline.
“After what I did to her… will she be devastated?”
“Will she… hurt herself again?”
“We never should have been together…”
The rest of her words dissolved into choked sobs.
A cold dread began to creep into Tomas’s own chest.
He remembered the sight of my trashed apartment.
He remembered the shattered glass and the box cutter in my hand.
“I’ll go find her.”
He didn’t wait for another word. He grabbed his keys and raced downstairs.
This time, he was truly terrified.
Terrified that if he was even a minute too late, it would be too late forever.
He drove recklessly, blowing through three red lights.
When he reached my apartment, he stood at the door for a long time.
He was afraid to push it open.
He was afraid of what he would find inside.
But when the door finally swung open, the apartment was silent.
The room was just as he’d left it.
The matching mugs were still on the counter.
The sweaters were still in the closet.
But I was gone.
There was no sign of life anywhere.
Tomas walked slowly toward the bedroom.
He had slept in that room for five years.
It looked almost the same as it had when he’d left.
Except everything that belonged to me was gone.
“Esme?”
He knew no one would answer, but he called my name anyway.
The only reply was the hollow echo in the empty room.
His legs gave out. He gripped the doorframe to steady himself, standing there for a long, long time.
