Chapter 9
Riley sat on the hospital bed, his face as pale as a ghost, listening to my words.
His mind drifted back to years ago–to the day he caught his mother cheating. The memory hit him like a blow to the soul. In disbelief, he’d confronted her, “Why did you do it? Isn’t Dad good enough for you?”
His father was a schoolteacher–strict, unromantic, but honest and dependable.
His mother looked at him, her eyes cold as ice.
“What do you know? Your father is too dull. Life needs passion to be worth living! I can’t stand a life that’s so boring.”
Later, his mother was caught in the act. His father, furious, tried to attack. the other man. His grandmother’s family disowned his mother. She ran off with her lover and died in a car crash.
I found Riley sitting at the crash site, stunned, staring at the blood on the pavement. Through his tears, he asked me, “Alora.
“Am I ever going to be okay again?”
All I could do was hold him tight and promise, “You’re not alone. You still have me.
I’ll always be here.”
Later, he told me, “Alora, I’ll never betray you. Cheating isn’t a mistake you make just once–it’s either never or it’s endless. I won’t let you be the unlucky one.”
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And I believed him.
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The years we spent together were hard, but we fought for every inch and kept going. He thought we’d spend our whole lives that way. But then he met Jasmine. She was older, so much like his mother.
In bed, she was nothing like me.
Our sex life had grown dull and routine, but Jasmine was bold, passionate, and seemed to know exactly what he liked.
He started to feel that life with me was too bland, too stagnant–like water that never moved. It was only when he was with Jasmine that he felt truly alive again. Suddenly, he understood what his mother had meant.
Life can’t be too boring.
You need passion.
So, he chased that thrill, obsessed with Jasmine’s body, and with the feeling she gave him that reminded him of his mother.
Now-
“Riley,” Brody said, “let Alora go.
“She’s been through enough.”
When Brody first found out Riley was cheating, he punched him right in the face.
“How could you do this to Alora?”
Afterward, Brody warned him.
“Don’t let Alora find out. If you lose her, you’ll regret it for the rest of your life.”
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Riley thought he wouldn’t care.
He thought he’d never regret it.
After the divorce, Jasmine promised to help him start over. He wanted to prove to me—and maybe to himself—that he could do just fine without me, maybe even better. So he threw himself into the business world, eager to impress.
But there was no one to shield him from the drinking anymore.
Jasmine watched his face break out in hives from his alcohol allergy, her voice cool and detached.
“Mr. Cardell is still waiting for your toast.
“Riley.
“Don’t make us look bad.”
xx
In that moment, he thought of me–of our early days. Whenever someone tried to make him drink, I’d snatch the glass away with a smile.
“Riley’s allergic to alcohol. Let him toast with tea. I’ll handle the drinking for us.”
I’d down three shots in a row, win everyone over, and land the contract.
Now, lying unconscious in the hospital, Riley realized Jasmine couldn’t wait to grab his money and run.
He didn’t want to admit it, but he truly regretted everything.
“It was all my fault.”
Even after facing the truth, he still refused to accept it.
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“I don’t believe Alora can really let me go,” he insisted stubbornly. “We were together for 12 years. She’s just mad at me. There’s no way she’ll actually move on.”
Brody told me that Riley would come looking for me.
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