𝔸 𝕃𝕚𝕘𝕙𝕥 𝕚𝕟 𝕥𝕙𝕖 𝔻𝕒𝕣𝕜𝕟𝕖𝕤𝕤 ➁

55. A Gilded Invitation

TWO YEARS LATER

I get back from my daily jog and enter my apartment building. I roll out my shoulders as I make my way toward the series of metal mailboxes. I snatch the small key out of my pocket and open my mailbox. I take out the stack and then go over to the the elevator. I bend partially as I try to catch my breath before making it to my floor.

Once I'm out of the elevator and in my apartment I chuck the stack on my kitchen counter. I was going to go through it later but a bright gold envelope with fancy lettering sticks out to me. There's no return address it's just my name scrawled in fancy lettering. I eye the postage stamp, wedding bells.

I slowly begin opening it feeling my heart beating rapidly in my chest. Rhys had told me Liam had proposed. He told me this was something that was happening but I'm not ready to see physical proof yet. I close my eyes and let out a deep breath before pulling the invitation out of the envelope.

Once I open my eyes I feel my breath catch. There it is. There is my invitation to Raegan and Liam's wedding. I throw it away from me like it had physically burned my skin. Fuck, that hurts. It hurts so fucking bad.

All I can see is her here the last time she was here. She's in that perfect dark green lingerie. She's looking at me, at me, like she loves me more than anything in the universe. She's riding me perfectly. I'm thrusting into her in a  way that lets her know I love her. Then there's that painful conversation, that last one.

We need to fix the brokenness. We need to fix the shattered mirrors. The angry fucking sex. All of it.

But we didn't fix it. Well, we didn't fix it with each other. We managed to fix it ourselves or with other people. Raegan had Liam and I had Irina. As I sit here with this invitation in my hand I know that Irina will never be able to give me what Raegan had. That love will never quit, it just won't.

And now Raegan is getting married. She's found someone to fill that void, the one her and I'd created. That painful abyss that was still ever-present in my life. Although she's marrying Liam I wonder if she still thinks of me, of us.

I can't believe she's actually getting married though. Liam must've worked some type of serious magic to get her to agree to that. Well, maybe I just don't know her anymore. For all I know the Raegan Travers I knew is gone since she's soon to be Raegan Anderson. The thought of her new name makes my chest hurt.

I hear the gate open to the elevator and look over to see Irina coming in. She's holding a bag of groceries having a hard time with the door so I go and help her.

"Hey, babe." I say as I help her close the door.

"Hey, handsome." She arches her neck back and puckers her lips waiting for a kiss which I gladly oblige. "I got stuff to make dinner."

I give her a smile saying, "yum. What are you making me?"

"I'm making us quesadillas." She said to me as she makes her way into the kitchen. "I got enough stuff to cook for an army so I hope you're hungry.

"I'm starving." I had worked up quite an appetite on my jog. "I went for an extra few miles today."

"Nice." She starts taking things out of the bag and then stops. "What's this?" She asks as she picks up the wedding invitation. "Oh a wedding!" She says excitedly, "I love weddings! Who's getting married?" She scans over the invitation. "Isn't this Rhys's sister?"