After the Last Tear: Rising from the Ashes of a Broken Marriage By Cassila K

Chapter 14

Elaine walked away.

Alistair watched her walk away, suitcase in hand, without a hint of hesitation or a single glance back. It was the first time she had ever turned her back on him. Stunned, he staggered to his car, his mind stuck on her final question-one he still couldn't answer.

As he drove through morning traffic toward Chase Enterprises, he passed Westbrook Academy, on impulse, he pulled over.

Westbrook was where he and Elaine went to high school. They had tied for the top spot, but while teachers loved Elaine, the perfect straight-A student, Alistair was the school's resident bad boy.

He used to run into her all the time—when she was cornered by bullies, caught in the rain without an umbrella, or that one time he teased that she was such a goody-two-shoes she'd help old ladies cross the street... only to actually catch her doing it the next day.

The coincidences didn't stop there. She'd forget her lunch card in the cafeteria, get locked in the equipment room, or end up manning the camera at basketball games-where, he later realized, most of her photos were of him.

her for being such a rule follower, so

the day he cut class, only to sneak back and find her hunched over her desk, hiding behind a book, scribbling away in a

nerd had managed

his own name at the bottom of the page. That was the first time he realized Elaine had feelings for

we'd known you were coming, we would have prepared a

voice dragged him back to the present. The man was

off. "Just passing through. Thought I'd take

might never have

So young, so full of life, laughing, teasing each other. Some red-faced and awkward whenever their crush got too

it was

Security refused her, so she's

bridge of his nose. He turned and headed