First

Epilogue Part 2

Present Day...

I choked back tears as I clutched the pages to my chest. I couldn't relive that conversation, watching my kids sob hysterically when I told them. Even Colton, who was too young to understand, cried watching his older siblings lose the man that meant the world to them.

The day you took your last breath is the day my world went dark. My fingers brushed over my last tattoo. It had been a hard time after Jace died. Eventually after I came out of my haze I found out he had been killed when his jeep hit a roadside bomb. The truly heartbreaking part? He had just found out he was to be sent home in two weeks.

"You left so many people behind, so many people that loved you..." I turned back to look at his headstone. Death leaves a heartache no one can heal. Love leaves a memory no one can steal. The words brought me comfort when nothing else could. He may have been gone but he would live on forever in our hearts. And for Colton, he had grown up hearing stories of his father, and to him, Jace was a hero. His older siblings made sure of that.

Wiping away my tears, I stood up. "God, I miss you so much. And I love you. That hasn't changed. Nothing has. You're still my one and only." I kissed my fingers once more and pressed them to the cold stone. I left the papers on the ground and watched as the breeze rustled the pages. I started to walk away, leaving our story behind. I would never forget him but it was time I let him go. Our story needed to die with him.

I stopped and looked back at his grave once more. I watched as the wind picked up our story and carried it away, the pages fluttering to every corner of the earth. It seemed fitting; he would live on in some form.

I knew that I would never love like I loved Jace. Your first love is supposed to be all consuming, crazy, passionate... I was lucky enough to have that love throughout my life. Our love burned brighter than the sun and we had been through so much. We had learned so much.

"Goodbye," I whispered, tears in my eyes. "You willalways be my first."

THE END