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He shot her a wink. “History, baby.”

Lexington had become an unexpected friend to me. It was hard for me not to be in awe of him. The first time I met him, he was standing in the middle of the road, staring at Goldie with what I later understood was complete devotion. It was the same look I saw when he found us in those same woods so many months later. He had loved Goldie far before she ever knew. I wondered if she knew just how much now.

I was beginning to realize Goldie was oblivious to only one thing: Lexington. She had a particular laugh that was reserved only for him, lighter than her usual one. Almost carefree. Her face glowed when she looked at him, and even in that darkness, she had only remembered his eyes. She hadn’t told me, but I knew all she remembered were green eyes. It was easy to put the pieces together.

The two were so obviously in love. It was the first love I had ever really known, and I hoped it would be a love that lasted for the rest of their lives. If it were up to Lexington, it would be. I knew he had a ring hidden in this very car. They were going to spend a month with me in Montana to make sure I acclimated. He wanted to propose to her now, here. Oregon would be their home, but it was burdened with their past. He wanted to propose somewhere free of the scars. Goldie had no idea, but I also knew she would say yes.

Goldie and Lexington had a love of a lifetime—a love that had kept her alive in the darkness, and kept him searching for her in the light.

Goldie looked over her shoulder at me. Her black hair had grown so much since I met her, now brushing her shoulders. “Ready for your new life?”

I looked out the window to see the Welcome to Willow Creek sign—my new hometown. I nodded. “As ready as I can be.”

Chapter One

Fai

Whoever said love at first sight was a myth hadn't laid eyes on Sarah Martin. My wife.

Ex-wife.

When you meet the love of your life, you think that's it. You think you'll grow old together, buy a house, build a family… build a life together. You believe with your whole heart that you've made it, that you're set.

At least, when I met Sarah, I thought my life was made. Even before a word was exchanged, I had already seen our future play out in my mind—images of a life filled with love and laughter flashing through my head.

From that first moment, when she accidentally knocked into me on her way out of the psychology building on our university campus, I knew she was the one. Her arms were piled high with textbooks, headphones in her ears, probably blasting yet another folk artist she had recently discovered. Her hair was styled in intricate cornrows, her chocolate-brown skin glowing in the evening light, and those goddamned chocolate eyes captivated me for life with just one look.

Sarah was everything I had ever dreamed of and everything I thought I would never have. Not in this cruel world.

She had apologized after knocking into me, her voice smooth as silk. I helped her pick up her books and couldn't stop myself from inviting her to a local bar, but she promptly turned me down. To my surprise, it wasn't because she had no interest in me, it was because she was only eighteen, which was unexpected given that she was already in graduate school, working toward her PhD. I knew at that moment she was lightyears out of my league.

We ended up at a pizza joint that was open twenty-four hours. The checkered linoleum floors were cracked, one of the lights had a perpetual flicker, and the pizza was more grease than food, but it was perfect. Sarah made it perfect.

She was everything good. I was everything bad.

I was the reason we were here. Sixteen years after that first date, ten years of marriage later, and it was all coming to an end. That life of growing old in each other's arms, surrounded by whatever family we had made, was over because of a lifetime of bad choices I couldn't stop making.

Sixteen years had passed, but Sarah was somehow even more beautiful today. Her hair in braids, her skin still glowing, and now her chocolate eyes wet with unshed tears she refused to let fall. This divorce wasn't happening because she had stopped loving me. I was drowning and pulling her down with me. This divorce was the only way to free her, to let her surface from the sea of chaos I had unknowingly set us adrift in.

"Mr. Acharya?" My lawyer tried to get my attention in a whispered tone, but my attention was glued to Sarah as her slender fingers held the pen that sealed my fate as she scrawled her name.

Sarah Martin.

"Faizal," my lawyer whispered again. She was a young woman, at least younger than my thirty-eight years, with sweeping blonde hair. She had come recommended by one of my employees, not that I needed her. I had given everything to Sarah in the divorce. I didn't want any of it. Not without her.

How could I walk through the house we had made a home without her nearby?

How could I live the life we had built together without her in it? The very same life I had destroyed.

All I was taking with me were my clothes, my books, and the wedding ring that would forever sit heavy in my pocket. No longer needed, but never forgotten.

"Fai," Sarah said softly, her voice finally pulling my attention. My eyes snapped to hers, and her smile that had always been present, even on my darkest days, was as soft as ever. "It's your turn to sign."

She slid the papers across the mahogany conference table. I took them from her, resisting the urge to wrap her hand in mine one last time. But that wouldn't be fair to her. I would only be holding on to remember the warmth she had given me, the love she had so willingly shared. I would just be taking from her, and I refused to take anything more.

She deserved better from me. She deserved better than me.

I stared at the papers for a moment before scrawling my name on each line my lawyer directed. I had read through them a number of times and knew what each line said, but none adequately explained the destruction they were causing. These papers, this conglomeration of legalese, was the end of the only life I had ever wanted.