Page 136 of I Never Stopped Loving You

There it is.

She and I were standing in front of that giant window in their front room. I have my arm around her shoulders, and we’re both smiling like two kids who don’t have a care in the world. She’s holding onto her little rabbit, and I’m holding onto mine.

That image is engraved into my fucking soul.

I can practically hear her heartbeat filling the silence between us, or maybe that’s just mine. Her hands shake as a tear falls onto the photo, and her thumb wipes away the layer of dust revealing the little boy who was just as madly in love with her back then as I am now.

“Noah?” her voice cracks, and it’s like a knife is piercing through my heart.

I can’t speak. I can’t even fucking move.

Seconds feel like hours as I fail to even get a single sound to form.

“Noah…” she says again, and it’s like my brain finally remembers how to breathe.

“Yes, Little Rabbit.”

She turns slowly as she stands up. She looks at me, and even in the dim moonlight shining through the window, I can see the tears streaking down her face. Her eyes are red, and there’s a look of pain practically bleeding from them.

“Why?”

One word.

That’s all she says as she holds the photo in front of her. She glances down at it then back up at me waiting for me to respond.

“I didn’t know how to tell you,” I finally confess.

“Noah…All this time. Did you know?”

Her voice sounds so broken and defeated, each syllable is breaking my fucking heart. I did this. I caused her this pain. If I had just been honest from the beginning, maybe it would have been different.

“I knew it was you from the moment I saw you in that elevator.”

Her breath catches as she chokes back a sob.

“Why didn’t you tell me? You…lied to me. You let me believe this was…” Her voice cuts off.

“I didn’t lie to you, Willow. I never lied to you.”

She falls to the ground on her knees, and I can feel her pain filling this room. This room used to be her sanctuary. The place where she used to hide from her father when he came home drunk. The place I’d sneak into some nights just to sneak her chocolates or to hold her while she cried.

“Willow, you were my best friend, but you were always something more. I’ve loved you since we were kids, Willow. You’ve always been my little rabbit.”

“Then why didn’t you tell me?” she screams as she drops the photos and buries her face in her hands.

I rush to her and pull her into my arms. She pushes against me trying to fight to get away, yet her fingers still grip onto my shirt like she doesn’t want to let me go.

“I was afraid.”

I press her head against my chest so she can hear just how fast my heart is racing.

“I’ve been searching for you for fifteen years. Since that night you disappeared. Even when I was a kid, I would sneak into my dad’s office and search the internet for you. I never gave up hope that someday I’d find you. But then, when you showed up wanting a job at my family's law firm, I didn’t know what to think.”

I swallow the nerves that are choking me. My mouth is dry and this damn stale air isn’t helping.

“I knew you were my Willow, my Little Rabbit, but you didn’t remember me. I tried to subtly drop hints, but it seemed to only make things worse.”

“The flowers,” she says as she lifts her head to look at me finally.