A SECOND CHANCE AT FOREVER Chapter 73: CHAPTER SEVENTY-THREE

KYLE

I blinked at her, rain dripping into my eyes, soaking through my clothes. But it wasn’t the cold making my skin prickle.

It was her words.

Lie to her?

“What are you talking about?” My voice was hoarse, barely above the sound of the storm raging around us. “Ashley, I don’t—”

“Don’t.” Her voice cracked like a whip, sharp and raw. “Don’t fucking do that, Kyle.”

My breath stalled.

Ashley never snapped like this. She got angry, sure. She rolled her eyes, she bit back with sarcasm, she threw sharp words like daggers when she wanted to cut deep—but this?

This wasn’t anger.

This was something else.

Something shattered.

Something broken.

She shoved to her feet so fast I barely had time to react, her entire body trembling as she stood there, fists clenched at her sides. Her soaked clothes clung to her frame, her red hair plastered to her cheeks, and I could see the rise and fall of her chest, the way she was barely holding herself together.

And then she laughed.

A short, sharp, humorless sound that made my stomach drop.

“I was so fucking stupid,” she whispered, shaking her head. “I should’ve never let my guard down. I should’ve never believed—” Her voice hitched, and she pressed her fingers to her temple like she was trying to force herself to keep talking. “I told myself I wouldn’t let this happen again. I promised myself. And then you—” She let out a breath, shaking her head violently. “You made me believe things could be different.”

My heart pounded. “Ashley, I don’t—”

“SHUT UP.”

I flinched.

Her voice cracked in the middle, but there was nothing weak about it. It was a scream, a desperate, choked-out explosion of everything she had been holding in, and it hit me like a freight train.

“You don’t get to talk,” she spat. “You don’t get to stand there and act confused. You don’t get to look at me like you don’t know exactly what the fuck you did.”

I took a slow step closer. “Ashley—”

“No.” She took a step back, her whole body vibrating with fury, with grief, with something so sharp it cut through the air between us. “You don’t get to say my name like that. Like you actually care.”

I stared at her, my pulse hammering.

“What the fuck are you talking about?” My voice was rising now, panic twisting inside me. “Ashley, tell me what’s wrong!”

She let out a shaky breath, and then—slowly—her eyes lifted to mine.

I’ll never forget that look for as long as I live.

Like she was looking at a stranger.

Like she was looking at something she wanted to destroy.

And then she said it.

“The video, Kyle.”

The words barely made it past her lips, but they were enough to knock the air from my lungs.

My stomach twisted.

The video?

“What—”

“You and Atlas,” she whispered, voice thick with something that made my entire body go rigid. “Three weeks ago.” Her laugh was a broken, jagged thing. “How long were you going to lie to me?”

My pulse roared in my ears.

No.

No, no, no.

I felt my breath catch in my throat, my fingers curling into fists at my sides as my mind raced to catch up, to make sense of what she was saying.

I had no idea what video it was but I knew it was no good given that Atlas was involved

It suddenly dawned..

Last week..Atlas,she mentioned a gift she left for Ashley.

Fuck!

“I let you back in,” She choked out. “I let you fucking touch me. I let you make me believe that maybe, just maybe, you meant it this time. That maybe I wasn’t a fucking joke to you.”

My throat tightened. “Ashley, it’s not—whatever you saw,it wasn't it. I swear”

“Don’t you dare.” Her voice wavered, but the fire in her eyes didn’t. “Don’t you fucking dare stand there and try to deny it. I saw it, Kyle. I saw everything.”

I felt like the ground had been ripped out from under me.

I took another step forward, desperate now. “Ashley, listen to me—”

“No.” She took another step back, her breath coming too fast. “You don’t get to explain. You don’t get to try and fix this. Not this time.”

I swallowed, my jaw clenching so hard it ached. “That’s not fair.”

She laughed again, but there was nothing warm about it.

“You know what’s not fair, Kyle?” Her voice shook, but she kept going. “That I gave you a second chance. That I ignored every single warning sign, every reason I had to stay the fuck away from you, and let you back in.” She shook her head. “That’s not fair.”

Her breathing hitched, her hands trembling as she dragged them through her hair, pushing the wet strands back.

“I should’ve stuck to my promise. I should’ve never let you in again. I should’ve stayed as far away from you as possible, just like I said I would when I left Germany.” Her voice cracked on the last word. “But I didn’t. I let you in, Kyle. And you made me think I mattered.”

I sucked in a breath, my chest aching. “You do.”

Her eyes flashed. “No, I don’t.”

I took another step closer. “Ashley—”

The rain fell between us in thick, punishing sheets, soaking through my clothes, clinging to my skin. But I barely felt it. 

“I let you touch me,” she whispered. Her voice cracked, raw and shaking. “I let you kiss me. I let you—” She sucked in a sharp breath, her throat bobbing, her lashes fluttering against the downpour. “I let you have me.” Her chest heaved, a single, wet laugh slipping past her lips, but there was no humor in it—only devastation. “And I was stupid enough to think it meant something. That I meant something.”

The ache in my chest deepened, spreading like a slow, merciless fire.

I shook my head, stepping closer. “It did mean something—”

“No, Kyle.” She finally looked at me, really looked at me, and I felt it—an ice-cold blade slipping between my ribs. “It never did.”

She exhaled, a slow, shaking breath, and it was like I was watching something inside her unravel, like I was watching her finally let go of something she had been carrying for too long.

I didn’t know what to say. Didn’t know how to fix this.

Didn’t know if I even could.

The rain ran down her face, slipping into the curve of her lips, mixing with the tears I knew she wouldn’t admit were there. Her fingers clenched at the fabric of her soaked sleeves, her knuckles white, her body trembling.

Then, just when I thought she had said everything she needed to say—just when I thought there was nothing left—she spoke again.

And her next words shattered me.

“You know,” she murmured, her voice distant now, like she wasn’t even talking to me anymore, “I came to see you that night.” A humorless laugh scraped past her lips. “Two years ago. The night I found you with Atlas.”

A slow, deep ache curled inside my ribs.

I knew what night she was talking about.

I could never forget it.

I had spent every second of my life since then trying to take it back.

“I came to see you,” she continued, her eyes unfocused, like she was seeing something I couldn’t. “Because I had something to tell you.”

The air shifted.

A strange, suffocating kind of stillness settled between us, thick and unmoving despite the rain, despite the thunder rumbling low in the distance.

I opened my mouth, but no sound came out.

Ashley swallowed, her lips parting—like the words tasted like poison, like they had been buried so deep inside her that dragging them out physically hurt.

“I was pregnant.”

The world tilted.

I stopped breathing.

Pregnant.

Ashley.

Pregnant.

Everything inside me went still. The sounds around us faded. The rain, the distant city noise, the storm rolling overhead—it all became nothing but static in the background.

I just stared at her, my brain struggling, failing to put the pieces together.

.

She had been-

My child.

Ours.

I couldn’t move. I couldn’t think.

But Ashley just kept talking.

“I came to tell you.” Her voice cracked, and she let out a short, uneven breath, like she was choking on her own words. “I came to tell you, Kyle. And you know what I found instead?” Her lips twisted, her eyes burning. “You. With her.”

A sharp pain ripped through my chest, so violent, so consuming, that I thought I might actually fucking collapse.

I tried to speak, tried to force something—anything—past my lips. But she wasn’t done.

“I lost it, Kyle.” Her voice cracked. “I lost our baby that same night. A fucking accident—” She let out a bitter, broken laugh. “They told me it just—just happened. But I know why. I know what caused it. And you…” Her voice wavered, and when she looked at me again, she was shaking. “You never even knew.”

Something inside me broke.

I staggered back a step, my breath shallow, my hands shaking so hard I had to clench them into fists just to keep them from completely falling apart.

Ashley had been carrying my child.

She had lost my child.

And I hadn’t even known.

“I—” My voice came out strangled, barely there, because what the fuck was I supposed to say to that? What the fuck could I say?

But Ashley just looked at me for a long moment, her expression unreadable now, her features carved in stone.

Then, quietly, she shook her head.

“I can’t do this again.”

And before I could move, before I could speak, before I could fucking breathe—

She walked away.

And I just stood there, drowning in the rain, in the past, in everything I had just lost all over again.