It was that look in Reid’s eyes, she thought numbly.
A look that told her—-
No matter how much he wished otherwise—-
He did not love her.
The tears fell faster.
In spite of what she had done, what she had gone through, Reid Chalkias was still not in love with her.
A part of Georgette had already expected this, but her foolish heart had still hoped for the impossible.
Even so, what she had said was still true.
Even as she remembered the terror that seized her heart when she realized she was being kidnapped—-
Even as she remembered the despair that strangled her throat as the men began tearing her clothing off—-
Even as she remembered the pain that consumed her when they started carving their initials on her body—-
She would still have made the same choice.
Because she loved him.
A painful sob was fast climbing out of her throat, but this time she fought to keep it down. In front of her, Reid was ashen, and for one moment Georgette wanted to be selfish. She wanted to tell him that it didn’t matter if he didn’t love her. He could lie to her, couldn’t he? She deserved that, didn’t she?
“Georgie—-”
Never had his voice sounded more beautiful and painful.
Because now she knew that voice could never say her name with the love she had always wanted from him.
The knowledge had Georgette gulping back another sob.
Reid clenched his fists. “Georgie, if there’s—-”
She cut him off desperately, saying, “I h-have something to ask you.” She couldn’t let him finish. She might not know him well, but she knew him enough to know what he had been about to say – just as she knew she couldn’t ever let herself hear his words.
Because right now she might just be weak enough to take it.
Turning her gaze away from him, she said haltingly, “I want you to promise me something.”
“Anything.”
Ah.
How unfair he was to say that.
How painfully, beautifully, heartbreakingly unfair.
Anything, he said.
And the way Reid had spoken, Georgette knew that if she asked him to stay by her side forever, he would have done it. If she asked him to lie about loving her for all eternity, until the day they would walk down the aisle, he would have.
And she was tempted to do that.
She was tempted to use her age as an excuse, her trauma, her love for him—-
But in the end, she couldn’t.
Because if there was one thing she had learned in those three days she had danced with death—-
Life was too short.
Not a single second of it should be wasted, not for anything or anyone, and certainly not for chasing someone who could never love you.
“Georgie?”
Reid’s voice had Georgette wiping her eyes with the back of her hands. “S-sorry.” But then she felt his hands cup her face, and she started crying again. “N-no.” She pulled away from him, knowing that she had to say what she had to say now—-
Before she succumbed to her greatest weakness.
“Promise me...promise me you won’t ever blame yourself for this.”
Reid whitened.
“T-that’s all I want.”
Silence.
Finally, he managed to find his voice, and Reid said hoarsely, “You’re crazy.”
A teary giggle escaped her, and somehow it gave her the strength to meet his gaze. “P-please?”
His heart clenched.
And then he heard himself say, “I promise.”
They looked at each other.
More words could have been spoken. More words might have changed the future. But none were said because neither of them had ever expected it would be the last time they would see each other.
It was almost half a year later when Reid, together with five other men, walked in grim silence as one of Georgette’s pallbearers. Upon finding out that her ordeal had left her carrying one of her attackers’ child, Georgette had insisted on an abortion. And in so doing, the world had lost both her and her unborn baby.
Even now, a part of him was numb with shock, unable to believe that she was gone.
But she was.
When they made it to her burial plot and the coffin was laid to rest, her parents came forward, followed by others, showering her resting place with white roses.
He stared at the growing pile of flowers without really seeing them.
All he could see was Georgie.
She was smiling at him in the hazy distance of his mind.
Her lips began to move, and her soft voice slowly reached him.
Words from the letter she had left for Reid before undergoing the operation drifted to his ears.
Since I last saw you, I never stopped thinking about you. It always felt like I should have said