Jamiya POV:
"He's been here for days," Sarah whispered, her eyes darting nervously towards the front of the shelter. "Just... watching. And today, he' s actually trying to fix the broken fence."
My heart, which had just moments ago felt so warm and settled, plummeted to my stomach. No. It couldn't be. The words were a bitter echo of a past I had meticulously buried.
I walked to the window, my breath catching in my throat. He was there. Lean, tall, even in the casual work clothes he wore. His dark hair was a little longer, a little less coiffed, but the sharp planes of his face, the intense focus in his eyes as he hammered a loose plank back into place – it was unmistakable. Hudson. My ex-husband. The man I had literally died to escape.
He looked up then, as if sensing my gaze. Our eyes met across the dusty yard, and a jolt, cold and unwelcome, shot through me. Five years. And he was here.
"What do we do?" Sarah asked, her voice hushed. "Should I call the police?"
"No," I said, my voice flat, almost devoid of emotion. "He's not causing any trouble. Yet." But my mind raced. Why was he here? How had he found me?
"Maybe he's... changed," Sarah ventured hesitantly. "He's doing good work, Jamiya. That fence has been needing repair for weeks."
I turned from the window, my eyes narrowed. "Changed? Sarah, men like him don't change. They just find new ways to manipulate. He' s a Holland. It's in his blood." The words were sharp, cutting through the thin veil of calm I usually maintained. "He spent ten years making my life hell, publicly humiliating me, and then he let me die because he was too busy chasing his childhood sweetheart. There's nothing he can do to 'change' that."
My jaw clenched. I wouldn't let him disrupt my peace. Not again. I strode towards the front door, my steps purposeful.
He saw me coming, and a flicker of something-hope?-crossed his face, making his cold features almost human. He dropped the hammer, his hands falling to his sides.
"Leave, Hudson," I commanded, my voice devoid of warmth. It was a cold, direct order, a stark contrast to the pleading whispers of my past self.
His shoulders slumped slightly. "Jamiya," he started, his voice rough. "Please. Just... hear me out. Give me a chance."
"A chance?" I scoffed, a bitter laugh escaping my lips. "You had ten years, Hudson. Ten years to see me, to hear me, to acknowledge me. Ten years to choose me. And what did you do? You called me a burden. You called our marriage a farce. You humiliated me in front of everyone we knew." My voice rose, the old wounds tearing open. "You spent every waking moment pining for Adaline, while I stood by, silently accepting the broken pieces of a life I never asked for!"
He dropped his gaze, his face contorting in pain. "I know," he choked out, his voice thick with uncharacteristic emotion. "I know I was wrong. I was a fool. A cruel, arrogant fool."
"Knowing doesn't undo the damage, Hudson," I shot back, my words like venom. "It doesn't rewind time. It doesn't heal the scars."
He looked up, his eyes desperate. "Then tell me, Jamiya. What can I do? How can I fix this?"
I laughed again, a harsh, mirthless sound. "Fix this? Can you go back to that gala, Hudson? Can you erase the look of disgust on your face every time you looked at me? Can you un-say 'I will never love you, Jamiya'? Can you bring back the part of me that died a decade ago, believing in a love that was never real?"
I watched his face crumple. He was pale, his lips pressed into a thin line.
"Can you mend my broken heart?" I pressed, stepping closer, my voice vibrating with a raw intensity. "Can you take back every dismissive glance, every cruel word, every night I cried myself to sleep wondering what was so wrong with me? Can you erase the scar on my side, the one I got saving the woman you loved, while you stood by, oblivious? Can you make me forget the feeling of being utterly invisible to the man I married?" I pointed to the faded, almost invisible line where the kidney had been extracted. "Can you erase that?"
His body trembled visibly. His shoulders sagged, as if under an unbearable weight. "No," he whispered, his voice barely audible. "I can't. I can't do any of that."
"Then there's nothing to fix," I concluded, my voice cold and final.
"I'll spend the rest of my life trying," he vowed, his eyes pleading. "Just let me try."
"Trying?!" I screamed, the control finally snapping. My voice echoed across the quiet shelter grounds, startling a flock of birds from a nearby tree. "You can't try to undo what you did! You broke me, Hudson! You shattered me into a million pieces, and then you watched me burn! My life here, this haven, it's built on the ashes of what you destroyed! There is no place for you in it!"
His face was ghostly white. His eyes were wide, filled with an abyss of regret and despair. He looked utterly broken.
Slowly, hesitantly, he lifted a hand, reaching towards me, his fingers trembling.
I hissed, recoiling as if he were a molten iron. "Don't you dare touch me," I spat, my voice laced with pure revulsion. "Don't you ever, ever touch me again."
My words hung heavy in the air between us, cold and sharp. He froze, his hand suspended for a moment, then slowly, agonizingly, dropped to his side. The silence that followed was deafening, broken only by the distant lapping of waves and the mournful cry of a seagull. His hope, whatever sliver had ignited, extinguished in that moment.
I met his gaze, my eyes hard, daring him to challenge me, daring him to stay.
