99 Pictures of My Sister and My Fiancé Chapter 15

Logan could only nod.

He couldn’t say “that’s not true”-because it was.

“We shouldn’t see each other again.”

She said it, then pulled her suitcase and walked past him.

Logan watched her go.

“Nora-” He called out. His legs moved before his brain did. He caught up to her at the bend in the road and blocked her path.

“I didn’t come here to ask for forgiveness.” His voice shook. “Eight years. And I still don’t know

where I lost you.”

Nora looked at him for a long time.

The wind blew her hair across her face. She didn’t push it away.

“Logan.” She said his name. “It’s because I realized-no matter how hard I tried, how much I gave

how much I thought about you-you never saw me.’

up,

“I was right next to you. But you were always looking at someone else. And that made me feel like I

didn’t even exist.”

She took a breath. “I don’t want to feel like that anymore.”

Logan nodded. Wiped his eyes with the back of his hand.

“I know. I messed up. And I see you now. You’ve changed. You look better than before. More alive.

You don’t need me to be happy. But Nora-I need you.”

“You’re the only person I’ve ever wanted to marry.”

He lifted his head. “I’ll wait. Doesn’t matter where you go. Doesn’t matter when you come back. Doesn’t matter if you never look at me again. I’ll wait. I’ll focus on my company. Take care of myself. Actually live my life.”

“And one day when you’re tired, when you want to come back-you turn around, and I’ll be right here.”

Nora didn’t answer.

She just quietly pulled her suitcase and walked past him.

Logan stood there for a long time.

He didn’t chase her again.

He knew she wasn’t coming back.

Because she’d finally learned how to love herself.

But she hadn’t said no.

That thought held his nearly shattered heart together with a thread so thin it could break any

second.

Silence isn’t always no. Sometimes it’s just “I haven’t decided yet.”

And for him, that was enough.

Walking back to the car, his steps felt lighter.

He sat in the driver’s seat with his hands on the wheel for a long time. Then he remembered the bottle of sleeping pills in the glove compartment.

He’d started having trouble sleeping three years after she left.

Took the pills on and off. Thought on and off about swallowing the whole bottle if it ever got too bad.

That thought was like an old friend. Knocked on his door every now and then. He’d gotten used to it.

That old friend had knocked this morning too.

But things were different now.

Nora didn’t say no. He believed it.

He would wait. But not like before-like some dead man waiting to rot. This time, he’d actually live

while he waited.

Get himself together. So the next time she came back, she’d see someone different.

Not the guy who could only say “I’m sorry.” But someone who could actually mean it when he said,

“I’ll always be here.”

He pulled out of the village and turned on the stereo.

Her song. That old one. He hummed along for two lines, went flat, and laughed at himself.

Tomorrow, he thought, I’ll go to the office and finish that project that’s been dragging.

This weekend, I’ll go back to Millbrook and help Uncle fix his roof.

Move forward. Not just survive. Live.

He was still smiling-hadn’t even had time to stop-when headlights from the oncoming lane

blinded him.

So bright.

Bright like the afternoon he first saw her.

Back then, he didn’t even know her name.

He just knew-that girl. I want to know her.

Brakes. Glass. The world flipped over.

Someone was calling his name from very far away. He couldn’t make it out.

He tasted metal. Tried to reach for his phone. Couldn’t find it.

The light in front of him dimmed, slow, like someone pulling a curtain shut.

How could he be this terrible-he just promised he’d wait for her, and now he was going to break it

again…