Total pages in book: 161
Estimated words: 149338 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 747(@200wpm)___ 597(@250wpm)___ 498(@300wpm)
Estimated words: 149338 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 747(@200wpm)___ 597(@250wpm)___ 498(@300wpm)
“I saved your fucking life that night, so don’t you dare throw that in my face. I didn’t want to love you. I tried to stay away, knowing that one day you’d bring me to my knees. And here I am begging you like a goddamn pussy not to fucking leave like a scared little girl. You came to me, not the other way around, sweetheart. I have fucking given you everything! Everything you have wanted or needed. Did you ever really love me, Sophia? Or was this a game to you? Were you dreaming of a fairytale and reality was too much for you to handle? I guess my old man was right about you after all.”
“Fuck you!” she roared, turning to leave.
I caught her by the wrist, spinning her around to face me. “We are not done. No one walks out on me. Do you understand me? No one!”
“Let go of me!” She struggled to get away from me, pounding her fists on my chest.
“I. Love. You,” I emphasized each word, needing her to understand, needing to get through to her. “I’m still the same man, cariño. I’m the man who you’re supposed to spend the rest of your life with.”
She winced, like it physically hurt her to hear me say those words. Giving up on the fight, bowing her head in shame, and letting tears stream down her perfect face. I let her go. She clutched onto the ring I placed on her finger months ago.
Our future.
“I’m so sorry, Alejandro,” she wallowed, slipping the ring off her finger.
Stepping away from her, I shook my head. “Don’t fucking do this.”
She peered up at me through her tear-soaked lashes. “You did this.” For the first time it was as if I was staring back at a stranger.
My Sophia was gone.
She wasn’t the woman I loved with every last fiber of my being.
She reached over to take my hand in hers. Gently placing the ring in my palm and closing my fingers around it. Before releasing it, she brought my hand up to her lips and whispered, “I can’t.” Turning her back to me, she headed for the door.
I was over to her in one stride, grabbing her shoulder to turn her to face me again. Pulling the hair away from her face to look deep into her eyes.
I spoke with conviction, “Don't you see? Don't you see that I can't live without you? That I can't breathe without you?” I urged, hanging on by a thread. “That I’m nothing without you.”
I could sense her resolve breaking, and I couldn’t take it anymore. Tears slid down my face, mirroring hers. “Please,” I added in a voice I didn’t recognize.
She didn’t waver. “If I asked you to choose me. To. Choose. Us. Would you?”
“My heart would choose you. Us. But that doesn’t change the fact that I’m a Martinez. There is no getting past that, it’s me.”
She nodded her head, slipping out of my hands. “I know. Which is why I would never ask you to do that.” I reached for her one last time, but she swiftly moved back, shaking her head and walking to the door. It took everything I had in me not to go to her. She looked broken. I had broken her, and now there was no going back.
I had to let her go.
She turned, grabbing the door handle, pausing. For a second I thought she was coming back to me, for a moment I thought our love had prevailed.
That this wasn’t the end of our love story.
“Please take care of yourself. I know it’s stupid for me to say that, but I can’t help it. I’ll always love you. I just can’t die with you. Goodbye, Alejandro,” she said as she opened the door and walked out of my life just like that.
Leaving me to walk through life without her by my side, taking my whole world with her. It was then I finally understood who Alejandro Martinez was born to be. I lost everything that ever mattered to me. My mom, my sister, and now my girl. Everyone I cared for, everyone I loved, had vanished.
They were all forever etched into my soul, a part of me that I would never be able to detach myself from. The truth of my life swallowed me whole. I screamed out my frustration, unleashing the rage and wrath I no longer had any control over. It pounded into me as furiously as Sophia’s last words.
“Goodbye, Alejandro.”
I slowly turned around, looking at the dining room table. Holding the possibility of our future in my hand. I lunged forward, clearing all the contents off the table, to the floor. The sounds of the glass crashing onto the hardwood was mocking me… my heart shattering the exact same way.
It was everywhere and all around me.