After the Last Tear: Rising from the Ashes of a Broken Marriage novel Chapter 97

The truth was, Elijah had fallen for Gloria long before tonight.

When she'd told him that last time she was over him. When he'd discovered she'd vanished without a word. When he'd searched her room and found no trace of the love letters and drawings she'd once created for him. When he'd come to London and seen her with another man.

He had fallen for the girl who'd chased after him for years, without even realizing it himself.

He'd mistaken his feelings for something else entirely, burying them whenever they surfaced.

Until now, when they finally hit him with devastating clarity.

His chest tightened like he was having a heart attack, making it hard to breathe.

For one crazy moment, he considered barging inside, racing upstairs to grab Gloria, to tell her he loved her. To say he'd been an idiot and beg for another chance.

But reality kept him frozen in place, unable to move as snow piled on his shoulders.

The cold seeping through his clothes was nothing compared to the ice forming in his chest.

He watched helplessly as the woman who had once adored him stood beside another man, exchanging whispers that made her smile.

Gloria's face glowed with a happiness he hadn't seen in years.

A memory flashed—a rainy night that felt like a lifetime ago.

The rain had poured just as heavily then as the snow fell now.

That night, behind a window just like this one, he and Jenna had tangled together beside a fireplace.

And Gloria had knelt outside in the downpour all night, watching them, her world collapsing with each passing minute.

He had seen the light fade from her eyes until she finally passed out on the wet ground.

Now he understood exactly what she'd felt. Now he knew the gut-wrenching pain of watching someone you love choose someone else.

"If Jenna hadn't been caught, I'd probably have waited my entire life for him to realize how wrong he was," she said, her voice carrying a sharp edge.

That was human nature—only seeing the truth when it slapped you in the face, only valuing what you had after you'd thrown it away.

But Gloria didn't need his eleventh-hour regrets. She had no interest in reopening old wounds for a man who only wanted her when he couldn't have her.

That would only drag her backward when she was finally moving forward.

Never seeing each other again was the cleanest ending for both of them.

Lucas said nothing, simply slipping an arm around his fiancée's waist, understanding without words.

One by one, the castle lights dimmed. Cars pulled away from the snowy driveway.

Until finally, the massive doors closed with a definitive thud, and Elijah—still standing in the deepening snow—realized Gloria wasn't coming out.