have seen you in so many different ways, and I have loved you in each one of them. For better or for worse, Bay … for better or for worse, I will love you.”
She sucked in a breath, and our mouths parted in sync with one another.
“You’re my answered prayer, Bailey. I will love you until I stop breathing, until the last seconds of my heart beating, because you are my beginning and my end.”
“Aiden,” she rasped an eerie tone, causing shivers to course down my spine as I knelt before her.
I ignored the looming essence that wrapped around my neck like a noose. Simply sucking the life out of me. Shutting my eyes, I softly kissed the corner of her mouth.
Recalling every memory.
Every sentiment she ever lured out of me.
Every instance I fought for what was mine.
What do you do when you meet your soulmate at seven-years-old?
You give…
You live…
And you love…
Until you hear the words, “I just don’t love you anymore.”
Putting an end to us.
To you.
To me.
For now and forever.
CHAPTER ONE
<>Aiden<>
Then: Almost eight-years-old
“Baby,” Momma whispered like it hurt her to speak.
I sat on the edge of her hospital bed and grabbed her hand, holding it as tight as I could. My warmth comforting her cold, clammy skin just like I knew it would. She loved when I did that, giving her a little squeeze so she’d know I was there. So she’d know she wasn’t alone.
Momma didn’t like being alone.
“I love you so much, Aiden. Do you have any idea how much Momma loves you?”
I smiled, laying my head on her tummy. Cuddling closer, listening to the soft thumps of her heartbeat. “I know, Momma. I know,” I calmed her, knowing she loved hearing that too.
She looked so tired. She always looked so tired now. Spending more time sleeping than awake every day. Sometimes she had good days where she’d laugh and ask how my day was, but I couldn’t remember the last time she was awake enough to say anything to me. Making me super sad and lonely.
I really missed those days and couldn’t wait for them to come back again. To have my momma back like she used to be before she got sick. I hated seeing her sick, I hated it so much. Every night and sometimes during the day, when the sun was shining bright, I would pray to God to help her feel better, so I could have my momma back. Playing with me, talking to me, paying attention to me like she always had.
“Momma! Momma! Momma! You have to chase me!” I shouted, trying to get her to run after me faster.
“I am chasing you, Aiden! And as soon as I get you, you’re done for, Little Man!”
I laughed, throwing my head back. Almost tripping over my own two feet.
“Gotcha!” She giggled, tackling me to the ground.
I threw my body around as soon as her fingers started tickling under my chin. I hated getting tickled there the most.
“Momma, stop!”
“Who’s your favorite girl?”
“You, Momma, you!”
“Good, remember that when girls start coming around.”
“I hate girls!”
She stopped tickling me, smiling and laughing. Finally letting me catch my breath.
“Well, baby, girls are going to love you, and I’m not ready for any of that. You can never leave me, okay? You stay Momma’s Little Man for life, alright?”
I nodded, sitting up. “I won’t leave you, ever. I swear with my whole heart. But you won’t leave me either, right, Momma?”
“Mommas don’t leave, Aiden. Mommas never leave,” she replied, brushing the hair away from my eyes with a sad smile on her face.
“So then only dads leave?”
“Oh, Little Man … dads aren’t supposed to leave either.”
“But you said my daddy left.”
We never really talked about him. I never met him, she said he left before I was born.
The troubled look on her face made my chest hurt. It was one of the reasons we didn’t talk about the man that much.
“I’m sorry, Momma, I don’t want to make you sad.” I gave her a hug, wanting to make her feel better. She always said my hugs were the best and the cure to anything in this world.
“I don’t need a daddy, Momma. I have you. You’re all I need, I promise.”
“I’m sorry you don’t have a daddy, Aiden. I never wanted you not to have a daddy. But don’t you worry, Little Man, moms don’t leave. They never leave. I promise you, I’ll be with you forever, Aiden. It’s you and me against the world,” she repeated for