When Melanie's past rears its ugly head, she finds an unlikely haven in the virtual connection she makes with a charismatic stranger named Caleb. As plans start to develop for them to meet in person, Melanie's nerves will be stretched to their limits. Will she risk taking a chance on love outside of her comfort zone, or will old ghosts weigh her down? Fall into this life-affirming tale of self-discovery, love, and the power to take a leap of faith.
Lihat lebih banyakMelanie's hands shake as she pushes open Alex's door after entering her fiancé's passcode. She hadn’t planned on coming here today, but the stress of a prospective pregnancy has forced her to seek consolation in the one person that she feels she can trust.
She is ten days overdue for her period, and she is beginning to lose her mind about her mother's likely response. “How is mommy going to respond?” Her stomach knots at the thought. Before taking a pregnancy test, she feels like she should speak with Alex face-to-face so that he can mentally get ready to become a parent if the findings are positive. "Alex?” Melanie yells, "I need to talk to you," She says as she enters, but no one answers. Melanie starts to get nervous since she knows for sure that Alex is at home since his car is parked outside. “How could he be anywhere else?” Her pulse is pounding as she moves from the living area to Alex's bedroom. “What if he reacts badly?” she thinks and She notices them at that point. Mel recognizes the lady on the bed as Ava Morales, Alex’s married best friend. Alex has been Melanie's boyfriend for two years and is her fiancé for three years now. "Alex?" Melani’s world collapses as She musters all the bravery to utter, even though her legs feel like jelly, her head goes numb, and her vision becomes blurry. Startled, Alex stops, his eyes bulging with shame as Ava scrambles to cover herself. "Melanie, I...we...this isn't what it looks like," Alex stutters, but it is precisely what it appears to be. Melanie's heart shatters into a gazillion fragments, She takes off running and doesn't stop until she gets back in her car and drives quickly away from the treachery. “How could he subject me to this?” Melanie wimphers, She is in anguish because of Alex, and she has mistaken him for the solace that she needs at the moment. She has no one to turn to as she now faces the potential of becoming a parent alone. Her future, her happiness, and everything wonderful in her life are on the line, so worrying about her mother's response becomes the least of her concerns. Melanie leaves Alex's residence quickly, feeling betrayed within, she is aware that she cannot return to her house or her beauty studio at this time, as Alex will attempt to locate her and persuade her to stay. As she makes her way home, her mind is constantly buzzing with all the things she needs to accomplish but Instead of thinking long and hard, she gets to her house and swiftly packs a tiny bag with essentials: clothes, a phone charger, a wallet, and a few toiletries. "I'll be gone for a while, keeping quiet until I figure it out." She thinks, Melanie disappears for a week. She doesn't have pals, so she crashes at the home of her assistant, Shirley. She makes an effort to hide as she works through her feelings. She is upset, hurt, and perplexed, but above all, she is happy to be rid of Alex's toxic hold. After a week of doubt, Melanie ultimately decides to take charge of her life. She decides that instead of depending on homemade tests or conjecture, she will visit the hospital for an accurate blood test and ultrasound to determine whether or not she is pregnant. “And if it is true, How am I going to proceed?” Melanie is getting more nervous as she waits for the outcome. The doctor enters the room, smiling warmly and Melanie realizes that she has been granted another chance, "The test came back negative, Mrs Carson,” the doctor informs. "You are not pregnant," The doctor confirms as she hands her an envelope. Melanie feels like a weight has been lifted off her shoulders, and tears of relief flood down her face. “It's time to finally approach Alex and end this once and for all.” she determines. Melanie drives to Alex's house with her heart still heavy but her spirit unwavering, having discovered bravery. It's time for her to move on from this destructive phase of her life. She inhales deeply as she stands outside Alex's house and rings the doorbell rather than entering the passcode because She is not here as Alex's fiancee but as a guest. "Melanie, I...we need to talk." with a look of both surprise and shame on his face, Alex opens the door and says. "Alex, I know what I saw," she begins in a firm voice. “You and Ava were on your bed doing God knows what.” Melanie enters, her gaze fixed on his. "It was not what it looked like, my love," Alex tries to confuse her, his tone takes on a hint of desperation. "Try not to deny it.” She interrupts, annoyance seeping like poison from her voice. “Melanie, it wasn't what you thought…It was an incident, an error and It just so happened that Ava was going through a difficult moment in her marriage." Alex groans and massages his temples. “Alex, you are full of s***,” Melanie screams, adrenaline rising in her chest. "It was a "mistake" but this is not the first time you have gone behind my back,” Melanie scoffs. “Do you recall Astrid? And now, Ava?” In a much more aggressive tone, she scolds him, “I was just… forget it.” Alex starts but stops mid-way. “It will never happen again…I swear…I cherish you.” Alex says as he crawls closer. “ You cherish me?” Melanie scoffs and she shakes her head. “You have a strange way of expressing that,” she remarks. “You cheated on me, you deceitful scum of a man.” she expresses, hurt and angry “You're trash and you won't hear from me again.” In the next sequence, her eyes burning with anger, Melanie takes off her engagement ring, tosses it in Alex's way, and she walks out on him and his flattery. She knows she will never step foot in there again that she's finally broken free from the cycle, and toxic circle of their relationship.“Is it just me? Or does it really feel like Aiden is struggling to decide if he wants to like me or not?” Melanie points out after Aiden walks away from the table and Caleb shoots her a strange look. “What is there to decide? You either like someone or you don’t like them, there shouldn’t be any in between,” Caleb points out but Melanie shakes her head because she doesn’t agree with him. “So what is there to plan now? Are we keeping him or a we letting him go back to his mom where he truly belongs? Melanie asks and Caleb pauses to think. “You really want him here, don’t you?” She paints out and he shakes his head. “I honestly don't know,” Caleb answers her. “If you don’t know if you want him in your life or not, why can’t you just settle without a fight?” Melanie asks him. “Settling without a fight is way too easy for her, and I am guessing that she must be expecting that, but when my lawyers are done gathering the evidence of how poorly she raised him,” Caleb informs “ You thi
Melanie and Caleb retire to bed fulfilled that night and in Melanie’s point of view, she can feel closer to her daughter more than she felt before, and In Caleb’s point of view, his perspective about Melanie not being able to stand him starts to change because he saw her genuinely laugh and smile, the type of smile that reaches her eyes and he felt really content because who could have thought that Dawn's death will make Melanie to stop running away from him as a person but laying herself down as a living sacrifice. Melanie and Caleb’s grief journey continued throughout that week, with at least one highlight of the day. On the first day, they started by creating a memory garden, where they planted trees and flowers that held special meaning to them. The next day, they decided to take a cooking class together, they learned how to make different baby foods that Caleb learned after he found out about her, but she didn’t even stick around to try. On the third day, wrote letters to the
Melanie, Tony, Olivia, and Alistair return to Caleb's mansion to join Caleb because the day is far spent, but Melanie hasn’t been able to do so much out of the list of activities that she has set out for the memorial. As they pull into the drive way, the day has been emotionally draining, but she tried her best not to let it weigh her down, while she did everything with a smile on her face, so that nobody will be worried about her mental health, and with Alistair, Olivia and Tony, she had a lot of fun while trying to face her grief like a big girl.As they step out of the car, Melanie's eyes land on Caleb, who is standing by the entrance of the house, and she rushes to hug him because she didn’t realize how much she missed him and wanted him back. A warm smile appears on his face as he sees her full fit, and Melanie can’t help but feel a flutter in her chest as she takes in the sight of him.“Hey,” Caleb says as she approaches him before Olivia and Tony step out of the car to also gre
After Melanie ends the call with Kalinin and Ryan, she makes her way out of Caleb’s inhouse office and she heads straight to his room where she realizes that the room looks and feels different to what she is used to, but she isn’t able to pace it till she sees the note on the bed.“Good morning sunshine, you mentioned that you wanted your thinks moved out of your room, so I supervised them moving your things from your room to mine… once again, I am sorry for speaking to you the way I did yesterday,” Caleb apologizes again and she walks into his walk-in closet to see that a space has been created for her in the room.She exits the walk-in closet for the bathroom and she realizes that all the toiletries on her own side of the bathroom are composed of the toiletries that she was into when she was staying with him, just that everything is brand new.“I have no idea the products that you used now, but these were the ones that were in your bathroom, so I just asked him to have new ones sent
The next morning, Melanie slowly opens her eyes, groggily taking in her surroundings. She is still in Caleb’s office, sitting in his chair, but as she looks down, she notices her body is covered with a soft, plush blanket.“Could it have been one of the stewards that needed to clean up?” she mutters, feeling a sense of surprise and wonder, trying to recall how the blanket got there because she didn’t remember covering herself before she went to sleep, and she is certain that she didn’t bring a blanket with her to the office the previous night.As she lifts the blanket, she sees that it is one of Caleb’s because it has his distinct monogram, embodied on the corner. A faint smile crosses her lips as she realizes that Caleb must have covered her with the blanket while she was asleep, and her eyes scan the room, searching for any signs of Caleb, but he is nowhere to be found. She wonders if he went back to his room to sleep or left for the important meeting that he mentioned the previous
“Can I be brutally honest with you?” Melanie speaks up after a while, and Caleb raises sb eyebrow at her, curious about what she has to say. “I have no idea about what the hell I am doing and I don't think I have ever lost anyone close to me to be able to grieve properly…in short the closest thing that I have lost was my puppy” Melanie informs him. “Do you want to go upstairs to get the full gist?” Melanie asks him and he considers for a moment.“Not exactly,” He answers her“I have an important meeting at work tomorrow and I really need to get some sleep,” Caleb excuses.“Can't Alistair stand in for you at the meeting, as usual? Or doesn’t he know that you lost your daughter?” Melanie asks him multiple questions.“I haven’t told anybody on my side, not even my mom … so no, he doesn’t know and even if he does, there is no way he can stand in for me because the only thing he has been used to doing over the years is running the night club with me, so I left him to take care of the nig
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