Chapter 56\u00a0<\/p>\n
3.11%8\u00a0<\/p>\n
\u201cWe\u2019ll be visiting our parents first,\u201d he said, his voice carrying that same gentle authority I remembered from when he\u2019d coax me down from trees was too scared to climb down from alone. \u201cI told them I was bringing you to see them tonight.\u201d\u00a0<\/p>\n
He grinned, and suddenly he looked like a mischievous teenager again. \u201cI may have mentioned to your mom that I knew she\u2019d missed you terribly, so I was being the good son and bringing you home to her.\u201d\u00a0<\/p>\n
I hit his chest playfully, the solid warmth of him beneath my palm sending an unwelcome flutter through my stomach. \u201cYou\u2019re terrible. She probably thinks you\u2019re showing off.\u201d\u00a0<\/p>\n
\u201cMaybe I am,\u201d he said, but his smile was soft now, touched with something that looked like fondness.\u00a0<\/p>\n
We walked deeper into the cemetery, our footsteps muffled by dew\u2013dam\u00a0<\/p>\n
grass. The headstones rose around us like sleeping sentinels, some worn smooth by decades of weather, others still sharp\u2013edged and new. Everything smelled of earth and night\u2013blooming jasmine, of memory and permanence.\u00a0<\/p>\n
When we reached the familiar plot, my breath caught in my throat. Four headstones stood in a neat row, side by side like they were still protecting each other even in death. Mom, Dad, Tristan\u2019s mother Laura, and his father Adam. Together, just as they\u2019d chosen to be in life.\u00a0<\/p>\n
I sank down in the grass between my parents\u2018 graves, the cool earth soaking through my jeans as I\u00a0<\/p>\n
pressed my palms flat against the ground above them.\u00a0<\/p>\n
\u201cHi, Mom. Hi, Dad,\u201d I whispered, my voice barely audible in the stillness. \u201cI\u2019m sorry it took me so long\u00a0<\/p>\n
to come see you. I\u2019m sorry I wasn\u2019t here when Orion needed me most, when everything\u00a0<\/p>\n
fell apart and you\u00a0<\/p>\n
weren\u2019t here to hold us together anymore.\u201d\u00a0<\/p>\n
The words poured out of me like water through a broken dam, five years of guilt and regret and desperate longing finally finding their voice.\u00a0<\/p>\n
I told them about London, about the mistakes I\u2019d made, about the woman I\u2019d become and the woman I was trying to find my way back to being.\u00a0<\/p>\n
When I was finished with my parents, I shifted over to kneel beside Tristan\u2019s mother\u2019s grave. Laura Hayes had been like a second mother to me, the woman who bandaged my scraped knees when Mom was busy, who taught me how to braid my hair and how to throw a proper punch when the boys at school got too pushy.\u00a0<\/p>\n
1\/2\u00a0<\/p>\n
Chapter 56\u00a0<\/p>\n
\u201cAunt Laura,\u201d I said, my voice thick with tears, \u201cI\u2019m sorry I failed you. You told me I was the glue that would keep Tristan and Orion strong, that even though they were already strong, I would make them even stronger together. I ran away instead. I let you down.\u201d\u00a0<\/p>\n
I moved to Adam\u2019s grave next, remembering his booming laugh and the way he used to swing me around until I was dizzy and breathless with giggles.\u00a0<\/p>\n
\u201cUncle Adam, I\u2019m sorry for being so childish, for running when things got hard instead of staying to\u00a0<\/p>\n
fight. I promise I\u2019ll never fail you again. I promise I\u2019ll try to be the person you all believed I could become.\u201d\u00a0<\/p>\n
The tears came freely now, and I didn\u2019t try to stop them. This was what I\u2019d needed, this conversation with the people who\u2019d shaped me, this admission of guilt and plea for forgiveness. This was how healing\u00a0<\/p>\n
began.\u00a0<\/p>\n
Tristan stood quietly a few feet away, giving me space but staying close enough that I could feel his presence like a warm anchor in the darkness.\u00a0<\/p>\n
When I was finally empty of words, I stood and moved to the center of the four graves, placing myself\u00a0<\/p>\n
at the heart of my family.\u00a0<\/p>\n
\u201cDad, Mom, Aunt Laura, Uncle Adam,\u201d I said, my voice stronger now, steadier. \u201cI promise to get myself back. I promise you that I won\u2019t let any man break me again, won\u2019t waste tears on someone who doesn\u2019t\u00a0<\/p>\n
deserve them.\u00a0<\/p>\n
Tristan and Orion have been more than you could have imagined, they\u2019ve been everything you raised them to be. I know you\u2019re proud of them wherever you are. And I\u2019m going to make you proud of me too.\u201d\u00a0<\/p>\n
Tristan moved closer then, his arms coming around me from behind, solid and warm and infinitely\u00a0<\/p>\n
comforting.\u00a0<\/p>\n
\u201cSweetheart,\u201d he murmured against my hair, \u201cthey are proud of you. We all are.\u201d\u00a0<\/p>\n
I turned in his embrace and held him tight, letting the last of my self\u2013pity tears fall against his chest.\u00a0<\/p>\n
\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
Memories Drifted Into Soft Silence by Kyx Frost 56 Chapter 56\u00a0 3.11%8\u00a0 \u201cWe\u2019ll be visiting our parents first,\u201d he said, […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"site-sidebar-layout":"default","site-content-layout":"","ast-site-content-layout":"default","site-content-style":"default","site-sidebar-style":"default","ast-global-header-display":"","ast-banner-title-visibility":"","ast-main-header-display":"","ast-hfb-above-header-display":"","ast-hfb-below-header-display":"","ast-hfb-mobile-header-display":"","site-post-title":"","ast-breadcrumbs-content":"","ast-featured-img":"","footer-sml-layout":"","ast-disable-related-posts":"","theme-transparent-header-meta":"","adv-header-id-meta":"","stick-header-meta":"","header-above-stick-meta":"","header-main-stick-meta":"","header-below-stick-meta":"","astra-migrate-meta-layouts":"default","ast-page-background-enabled":"default","ast-page-background-meta":{"desktop":{"background-color":"var(--ast-global-color-5)","background-image":"","background-repeat":"repeat","background-position":"center center","background-size":"auto","background-attachment":"scroll","background-type":"","background-media":"","overlay-type":"","overlay-color":"","overlay-opacity":"","overlay-gradient":""},"tablet":{"background-color":"","background-image":"","background-repeat":"repeat","background-position":"center center","background-size":"auto","background-attachment":"scroll","background-type":"","background-media":"","overlay-type":"","overlay-color":"","overlay-opacity":"","overlay-gradient":""},"mobile":{"background-color":"","background-image":"","background-repeat":"repeat","background-position":"center center","background-size":"auto","background-attachment":"scroll","background-type":"","background-media":"","overlay-type":"","overlay-color":"","overlay-opacity":"","overlay-gradient":""}},"ast-content-background-meta":{"desktop":{"background-color":"var(--ast-global-color-4)","background-image":"","background-repeat":"repeat","background-position":"center center","background-size":"auto","background-attachment":"scroll","background-type":"","background-media":"","overlay-type":"","overlay-color":"","overlay-opacity":"","overlay-gradient":""},"tablet":{"background-color":"var(--ast-global-color-4)","background-image":"","background-repeat":"repeat","background-position":"center center","background-size":"auto","background-attachment":"scroll","background-type":"","background-media":"","overlay-type":"","overlay-color":"","overlay-opacity":"","overlay-gradient":""},"mobile":{"background-color":"var(--ast-global-color-4)","background-image":"","background-repeat":"repeat","background-position":"center center","background-size":"auto","background-attachment":"scroll","background-type":"","background-media":"","overlay-type":"","overlay-color":"","overlay-opacity":"","overlay-gradient":""}},"footnotes":""},"categories":[77],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-26213","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-the-second-gear-of-love-novel"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/kezpres.xyz\/novelreading\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/26213","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/kezpres.xyz\/novelreading\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/kezpres.xyz\/novelreading\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/kezpres.xyz\/novelreading\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/kezpres.xyz\/novelreading\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=26213"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/kezpres.xyz\/novelreading\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/26213\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/kezpres.xyz\/novelreading\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=26213"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/kezpres.xyz\/novelreading\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=26213"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/kezpres.xyz\/novelreading\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=26213"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}