he hurts me again, I don’t know if I could ever recover. It’s so soon, it’s so fast. What precedent does it set if I just let him back into my life?
One thing I can’t deny is my heart beats for this man, and only this man. It’s like we’re alone, and everything around me fades away as he takes a commanding step and stands right in front of me.
I stare straight ahead because it’s so hard to look up at him. I want to so bad, but I don’t know if I can handle it.
“Mary.”
All he says is my name, and the word shakes me like an earthquake. My hands tremble. My eyes close, and I tilt my head up to him. I want to open them so bad, but I’m afraid. I shouldn’t be, but I am.
Open your eyes, Mary.
My senses are at an all-time high. I can hear the drops of water landing on the carpet and seeping in, the sound of him breathing, his smell—I can even hear his heart beat, and it pounds as hard as mine does right now.
I open my eyes, and a tear rolls down my cheek.
He’s beautiful, made new in front of God. He’s always beautiful, but this is different, not a physical beauty but on the inside of him, his spirit washed clean—purified. The light from the stained-glass windows halo his silhouette, and he truly looks born again.
For the first time, he’s not Rick.
He’s Dominic.
I see the innocent little boy in him that his father stripped away at a young age. I see him completely washed away, all the bad, all the regret, all the pain in his life.
He takes another step toward me, his eyes never leaving mine. “Therefore, what God has joined together, let no man separate.” He drops to his knees, right in front of me.
Paisley lets go of my hand, and I expect the emptiness to return, but it doesn’t. I want to reach out. I want to touch him, feel him touch me, but I don’t. I don’t know what to do, and I don’t know what to say. All I know is tears roll down my cheeks and plop in my lap, and they’re a combination of hurt and happiness.
Dominic inhales a deep breath, and he smiles through his own tears. He chokes up and the words catch in his throat when he tries to say them. He blinks away more tears, forcing himself to get the words out. “My name is Dominic Romano.” His chest heaves when he says it, like it took everything inside him to say the words. I think he might collapse as a giant weight lifts off his shoulders.
Instinctively, I reach out and his hand latches onto my forearm, and electricity buzzes through me just at his touch.
“I am so—” He croaks out the words and has to pause and catch himself. “Sorry. I’m so sorry, for what I put you through, for not being honest with you.”
My heart simultaneously breaks for him, knowing what his life has been, and at the same time begins to stitch itself back together at his words. I know how hard it must be, to come from all that, and try to right everything. I know how difficult it is to bare yourself in front of an entire church, in front of God, and plead to be washed clean.
I search for the right words to say. I want to help him heal so bad, and at the same time, I want him to know how much he hurt me. My body wars between doing what’s right, offering forgiveness, and driving the point home that he didn’t trust me, that he shoved me away.
“Dominic.” I close my eyes when I say his real name. “Y-you hurt me… so… bad.” My body convulses as I speak.
He nods vigorously, nothing but pain in his eyes as he watches me, feeling everything I’m feeling. “I know. I-I know, I made huge mistakes. I thought I was doing the right thing. I just wanted to do the right thing, and I messed it all up.” He wipes at his eyes with his free hand. “But there was one thing I always had right, no matter what I did wrong.” He holds up a finger. “One thing, and it never changed. I always knew it from the beginning.”
I look him straight in the eye. “What was it?”
“I always loved you, with everything I had in me, from beginning to