Nathan stood a few steps away, not rushing toward me, not reaching out—just standing there as if he understood this moment wasn’t his to control.

“Did you write letters for them too?” I asked. “Your wives… before?”

He nodded. “Yes.”

“After they were gone?”

“Yes, Mattie.”

I swallowed, fear rising. “So, I’m next?”

The answer I feared wasn’t in what he said—it was in what he had already shown me.

“Come with me,” he said.

I hesitated.

“If you still want to leave after… I won’t stop you, Mattie.”

That mattered more than I expected. So I went with him.

We drove in silence, the road stretching ahead while everything between us remained unspoken.

I realized I wasn’t going with Nathan for comfort—I was going because I needed to understand what I had stepped into.

We stopped at a cemetery.

Nathan got out first, walking ahead while I followed a few steps behind. The night air brushed against my skin, making me shiver.

A few steps in, I saw two graves side by side—different names carved into stone, the years marking their endings separated, yet somehow connected.

Nathan stood there for a long moment before speaking.

“This is where I learned what silence costs, Mattie.”

I stood still.

“I laid them to rest with things I never said,” he added.

For the first time, I saw that what Nathan carried wasn’t just fear—it was regret that had never found peace.

“My first wife was sick for a long time,” he said. “I kept thinking there would be more time, so I didn’t say what mattered.” He looked down briefly. “I told myself I was protecting her.”

I shook my head slowly. “She didn’t need that kind of protection… she needed honesty.”

“My second wife…” Nathan continued. “I didn’t get the chance at all.” He looked at me. “Those letters are everything I didn’t say when I still could have.”

I exhaled softly.

“That’s not love, Nathan. That’s fear. And I don’t know if I can live inside that.”

He nodded. Then quietly said, “But it’s the only way I knew how to stop wasting time.”

For a moment, I understood where it came from, even if I couldn’t accept what it was doing to us.

“Then stop writing endings for me,” I said.

Nathan looked at me.

“If you’re so afraid of losing time, then stop living like it’s already gone,” I continued, my voice steady. “Because I won’t stay where I’m already being mourned.”

When I finished, I saw his eyes fill, and in that moment, I understood something clearly… I wasn’t the one slipping away in this relationship.

We drove back in silence, but it felt different.

The house looked the same when we arrived. But I didn’t.

The drawer was still open. The other letters still there.

I picked one up and sat across from Nathan.

He watched me for a long moment, as if choosing something he had never chosen before. Then he stepped closer—not too close, just enough.

“I don’t want to lose you, Mattie,” he said softly, “but I finally understand that I’ve been losing you already by loving you like you were about to go.”

I didn’t move.

“I don’t need more time with you,” he continued. “I need to stop wasting the time I have. I can’t promise I won’t be afraid. But I can promise I won’t turn that fear into a future you’re forced to live in. I want to be here with you… while you’re here with me. Not ahead of it. Not after it. Just here.”

That settled somewhere deep inside me.

And for the first time, I believed Nathan was truly with me—not somewhere ahead, not bracing for something that hadn’t happened yet.

I looked down at the unfolded letter in my hands and understood something clearly.

Nathan had been preparing to lose me before he ever allowed himself to fully have me. But I wasn’t going to live that way.

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