Page 133 of Modern Romance January 2025 5-8

“Because it is not that simple.”

“No. This is you riding to the edge of the property and stopping, because you feel that there is a fence there even though there isn’t.”

Her words were like a shotgun blast.

Fences that were never really there.

Was he destined always to live that way.

“Maybe you’re right,” he said. “But I will always see them.”

“You can’t see anything. You had a chance. To have it all wiped away. That was what we were just living. Your clean slate. Even your vision was taken away, and you still choose to see the fences. I can’t fix that for you.”

He heard her get out of bed. Heard her dressing.

“I will send someone for you in the morning, but it isn’t going to be me. I need to take care of myself. I need... I need to breathe.”

He didn’t argue. But he wanted to. He wanted her to stay with him. Desperately. Because he had never felt alone in this darkness until she walked out of the room. Until he heard her walk out of the house. And then he felt hopeless. Then he truly felt the loss of control. Then it really felt like he would die of this.

Without her. Without his vision. Without everything.

He had known on some level that he would have to stay wounded to stay with her.

Or maybe you have to heal. Maybe you have to push through this. Push past it.

But what was on the other side? Those fences might be made up, but he still couldn’t see beyond them.

Make a statement that’s real. Make one that’s from your heart.

She had told him to do that. To make a statement about his sister that was the honest truth.

But right now... He had never been more aware that he could not see. And it was not a lack of sight that made that true.

CHAPTER FIFTEEN

AUGGIEWASINmisery and regretting every decision that she had made. From telling him that she was in love with him to leaving him.

And when she dragged herself into the Your Girl Friday headquarters she didn’t bother to hide any of her regret.

“Auggie,” Lynna said, looking shocked. “You’re back.”

“I am.”

“No one else is here. They all have jobs.”

“Right. Well. I’m here. And everything is terrible.”

The story of what happened with Matias poured out of her, and she wasn’t quite sure what to expect of Lynna as far as reactions went.

But there was no judgment.

“So what are you going to do?”

“What can I do? He made his position on all of this really clear.”

“It’s true. But you don’t have to listen to him.”

“It makes you kind of pathetic to keep going after a guy who said he didn’t want you.”