Playing for Keeps (The Game #2)(59)
Author: Emma Hart

I sink down to my knees in front of the stone, letting the tears fall as they need to, and set the rose down. The white of the rose is a stark contrast to the black of the marble, like my childhood innocence was a contrast to my mom’s mature promiscuity.

Even now, it follows her. In life and in death.

“We’re at peace now, Mom,” I say softly into the wind. “Whatever it was that made you the way you were, I’m glad you’re away from it. I’m sorry I wasn’t enough for you. Maybe I was too much. I’ll never know. I just hope you’re at peace now. And I … I love you.”

There are so many more words. I could yell at her grave, scream at it if I really wanted, but it won’t have any effect on it. She’ll still be gone and it won’t change anything. Hating her can’t change the past, and I finally know that. Hating her won’t make it all go away. It won’t erase it.

I stand and look into Megan’s clear blue eyes. She clasps my hand, holding on tightly, and I follow her from the cemetery. I said I’d never come back to San Francisco. I always knew I’d have to come back, and now I have. Now I don’t ever have to come back. I don’t have to look back. I can travel back across the water to college, and stay on that side of the water.

I can look into the blue eyes of the girl I love every day, and make the life I always wanted.