This Heart

Liam

The heart is fickle. One day, you love something or someone, and then the next, they destroy you with their lies, and that love disappears.

I’m over the lies and the deceit. So, I tell my wife I want a divorce, only to find out she’s fighting for her life, against a disease that doesn’t like to lose. What kind of man would I be if I went through with ending our marriage knowing she’s sick?

So, I stay. I raise our daughter, and I’m there to help her when she needs me. Her best friend, Aurora, is there too, which becomes a problem because Aurora is everything my ex isn’t, and with each passing day, I fall harder for her, and my guilt for those feelings grows.

Aurora

When Hope told me about her diagnosis, I wanted to do anything I could to help her through this. I vowed to be there for her, to help in any way I could.

I jumped in to help with Winnie and picked up the slack where Liam couldn’t. With each day, we watched her condition worsen. I spent more time with them, mostly Liam and me, and in time, we grew to be good friends. After we lost Hope to her illness, the friendship I thought I had found in Liam was destroyed when he pushed me away with words that cut to the core.

When Liam reaches out to heal the wound between us, we begin to grow close again, and I can admit to myself that my feelings for Liam go far beyond simple friendship. When Liam shares the biggest secret of his life with me, and the truth about his relationship with Hope comes to life, everything changes between us. His guilt will not let him fully move on with his life.

How can I convince him that if he’d let me, I’d love him and his daughter for eternity? I’d give him this heart with no regrets.