Ghosted

by J.M. Darhower

This book is dedicated to everyone who has ever loved a story so much they could quote it.

❤️

“I’m sorry for the way I hurt you,” he says. “Sorry for everything I did that led us to this point. And I get it, you know, if you hate me. Wouldn’t blame you at all. But I just need to tell you… I need you to know… that even when I was completely fucked up, I never once stopped loving you.”

I know I was never enough for you, Jonathan, but I hope you find something that is.”

You’re the queen, baby… I’m just a commoner.”

“I wasn’t accusing you of cheating. I just wanted to know how long it took you to move on.” “Oh, well, that’s an easy one,” he says. “It hasn’t happened.”

The moment he touches me, it’s like I’m drunk.

I sometimes wonder about his words, I question his feelings, his wishes, his wants, but from this moment on, I’ll never doubt that he loves her, because I know he means it. I believe it.

I mourn the years they lost, the time that was wasted, the love that maybe just wasn’t quite enough to overcome his demons sooner. Every smile they share today is the product of years of tears, of years of fighting and struggling and hoping and mourning but never, ever, ever quitting or giving up, because we’re here. And maybe it won’t last, I don’t know. Maybe tomorrow something will happen and the tears will come back, but I’m grateful for the moment, knowing he loves her more than anything.

You don’t know this, but that woman? Even as she smiles, she’s utterly terrified. Your love is more than enough for her, but she feels pieces of it slipping away. Something inside of her is disintegrating. Her dream.

To me, she was the center of the universe, the sunlight that burned so bright, but she writes herself in the shadows, secondary in her own life. Instead, she made me the hero, the center of this alternate universe she invented around her.

In one stroke, I’m inside of her, and goddamn if I’m not home again, so I show her, over and over, as she writhes, that I didn’t mean it when I said that bullshit.

Where has he gone? He took my heart with him when he left, but I’m going to need it back.

Your dream has become my nightmare, and I’m begging you to let me wake up.

But if there’s one thing I’ve learned from it all, it’s that we have to be our own heroes. No guy in a costume is coming to save us. We have to save ourselves.

You can’t get caught up and forget she’s sitting at home waiting for you. Because you live in a big, big world now, but hers is very small. A day without you is going to be like a day without the sun. Don’t let her days go dark.”

“Never make someone else the main character in your own story.”

“Worse is loving someone who disappears and never knowing if they’ll come back. Because how do you move on if you’re not even sure they’re gone? The answer is—you don’t. When you spend most of your life chasing ghosts, eventually, you become one.”

Ten years ago, you ran away with me so I could follow my dream. It’s time you follow yours. Wherever it takes you, I’ll be there. Happy Dreamiversary. Jonathan

“I love you, Jonathan.” “I love you, too.” He wraps his arms around me before whispering, “You’re the queen, baby.”

And before she could even open her mouth again, before she could say the words, he already knew, but it still didn’t fail to shock him to the core when she whispered, “I’m pregnant.”