“Stay.” I held her hand, hoping against hope that she wouldn’t leave.
She shrugged me off, and without turning around, she said, “Your apologies are a little too late.”
Then, she was gone.
I didn’t try to stop her. How could I? When I knew in my heart that what she had said was right. I knew I was a few months too late. I didn’t deserve her forgiveness, let alone having her stay, not after the absolutely horrid way I’d treated her.
Guilt gnawed at my insides as I thought of all the times I’d blamed her for my failures, for my inability to accept my mistakes, for all the vile words I’d thrown her way. All because I’d been too much of a coward to face my own demons. Oblivious. Weak. Pathetic.
She’d been my ray of sunshine through all my woes, and I’d put her light out with my carelessly spoken words, chipping away at her until there was nothing left but a shell of the person she once was.
Words, I realised, were more powerful than I ever gave them credit for.
If only I’d realised it sooner.
Maybe she would still be here. Maybe she wouldn’t have gotten away.
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