Under unexpected circumstances, two lonely hearts unite and heal each other's brokenness.
This isn't the story of Jake saving Hannah. This is about how Jake risks everything for the woman he loves.
Except for Alina (MC), character rights belong to E...
Distance unites missing beats of two hearts in love.
-Munia Khan
Jake was near Romania. He had to go slowly and methodically, ensuring his pursuers were following his trail but not too close. Once he got to Bucharest, he could lay the biggest tracks, and then hide and watch them take the bait. Or hopefully, they would fall for it. He had some people he'd collected debts from over the years, and they were ready to pay up when he said go. With the system he had built, they should be searching for him across Europe and Asia for years.
Oops! This image does not follow our content guidelines. To continue publishing, please remove it or upload a different image.
He'd been neglecting Alina. He didn't even dare to open the chat app, because he missed her so much that he was sure he would go running back if he read even one sweet message from her. Besides, right now the people after him were too close. He would have to go dark again. Maybe in a few more days or a week, he could check. He shut everything down to the bare minimum again as guilt dragged on his body.
Jake needed sleep, badly. He'd barely caught a few hours here and there, only long enough for his devices to charge. He waited days until he was nearly unconscious on his feet and caffeine was no longer effective before he rested. The longer he was awake, the faster he could achieve his objectives.
But the truth was that each time he closed his eyes, a million terrifying scenarios ran through his head like the worst movie in existence. The FBI scooped up Alina and took her away to torture her in unspeakable ways so that they could find him. Alina's condition got worse and she was alone in a hospital, wondering why he wasn't there. Alina decided that he wasn't coming back and had moved on with someone else. Jake told himself that he would know if any of those things happened. But maybe not. The protections on Alina's device would only get him so far, and he was now thousands of miles away. The ache in his chest only grew as the mileage increased.
—---------------------------------------
To forgive is to set a prisoner free and discover that prisoner was you.
-Lewis B. Smedes
It took several months, but it finally felt like Alina and Richy were friends again.
It hasn't been easy. At first, she wasn't sure why she even agreed to visit him. She felt like it would help her somehow to confront all of her feelings about what had happened between them. He kept apologizing, which didn't make her feel better. She didn't want apologies, because it wasn't even about what he did anymore. It was how she felt about it.
She finally realized what she needed after agreeing to a "friends and family meeting" with his counselor. She had to tell Richy all the things she felt, from the moment he said goodbye to her in his bedroom and every time afterward that she took all of her negative feelings and turned them inward. She wasn't trying to make him feel guilty, only to be free of her guilt.
They had their conversation in front of the psychiatrist. Richy listened silently, all of the pain and regret were written on his face. But he didn't say he was sorry. He had promised not to, and he kept his word.
