Library
Search
Home / Romance / My Final Flight: Too Late for Him to Come / Chapter 4

Share

Chapter 4

Author: Violet Tome
The sky turned heavy and gray that afternoon, rain threatening to break at any moment. Rhys couldn't shake a quiet sense of unease.

Then Daphne texted. "Rhys, I got a bonus on my project! I want to take you out to dinner tonight to celebrate. Are you free?"

He hesitated. Tonight was supposed to be our anniversary. But he figured he could have dinner with Daphne first and still make it back by 7:00 pm.

He wrote back, "Sure, send me the address."

I watched him make that choice in silence. It'd been five years, and it was always the same. The second Daphne asked, even on the most important day we had, she came first.

After work, he went to dinner with Daphne. He sat there patiently, listening to her talk about funny things that happened at the office, raising his glass to toast her success. It wasn't until nearly 7:00 pm that he glanced at his watch, grabbed his jacket, and stood up.

"I've got something tonight, so I need to head out. The tab's already covered."

On his way to the car, he passed a high-end jewelry store and ducked inside. He picked out a diamond necklace as an anniversary gift.

I sat in the passenger seat, staring at the box. He'd forgotten again. I had a severe nickel allergy. He'd given me a similar necklace once before, and I wore it all day without saying a word because I didn't want to ruin the moment.

That night, the allergic reaction got bad enough to land me in the ER. He'd held my hand, guilt written all over his face, and swore it would never happen again.

Now he didn't even remember that promise.

By the time he walked into the bistro with the necklace, he was a full 30 minutes late. He expected to find me sitting there the way I always was on this day, every year for the past four, already waiting in my seat.

The empty chair stopped him cold. He dropped the gift box onto the table with a hard thud and sent another voice message.

"Wren, I booked the restaurant, and I bought you an apology gift. What more do you want? Isn't that enough of an olive branch?"

A server approached cautiously. "Sir, would you like your steak served now?"

"Give me ten more minutes."

He yanked at his tie in frustration. He'd even left Daphne's celebration early for this anniversary. He wondered just what more I could possibly want from him.

He had no idea I was sitting right across from him. But his eyes stayed fixed on the door.

He was certain I'd walk in. Just like every time in our five years of marriage, all he had to do was toss me the smallest scrap of effort, and I'd swallow every last thing that hurt.

The minutes crawled by. The rain outside grew heavier, and the crease between his brows deepened.

Last night's silence and the crash on the morning news kept circling in his head, and the restlessness in his chest built up into something closer to real dread.

Then his phone erupted with a violent buzz. The name flashing on the screen was mine.

Every ounce of tension drained out of him. He let out a long breath and picked up.

"So you're finally done playing hard to get? I knew you couldn't hold out much longer."

But the voice on the other end wasn't mine. It was a man's, clipped and official.

"Is this the family of a Ms. Wren Bennett? The flight she was on has crashed. We need you to come identify the body immediately."

Continue to read this book for free
Scan code to download App
Previous Chapter Next Chapter

Latest chapter

  • My Final Flight: Too Late for Him to Come   Chapter 10

    It was three years later.Autumn wind swept the fallen leaves from the base of the headstone. Rhys stood in front of it in an old suit, brushing the dust off the stone with a small broom. He'd lost a lot of weight, and streaks of gray ran through his hair."Wren, little one, I'm here."He laid a bouquet of bellflowers and a small stuffed tiger toy against the stone."That breakfast place near the airport closed down today. The owner said he was getting too old to keep it going." He leaned against the headstone and talked like someone was listening."I bought the recipe off him. I'll make it for you at home from now on, okay?"No one answered.In the three years since my death, he'd resigned from the company and sold every share he owned. He used the money to start an aviation safety foundation. His life had shrunk down to cooking at home, going to the airport to wait for me, and coming here to talk to me.Daphne was getting married. The groom was someone wealthy her family had

  • My Final Flight: Too Late for Him to Come   Chapter 9

    The next day, Rhys took the urn to the cemetery.He bought the best plot in the entire grounds, the one that caught the most sun. On the day of the burial, a thin rain was falling.Rhys didn't use an umbrella. He knelt in the mud and lowered the urn into the grave himself, placing the tiny pair of baby shoes in beside it.The dirt went in one handful at a time, slowly swallowing the only thing he had left of us.I floated above and watched him sit in front of the headstone all night. The rain soaked him through, and by the time he finally lifted his hand from the photo on the stone, he had nothing left.After he came home from Southridge Cemetery, it was like he'd left his soul behind at the grave. He stopped falling apart, stopped breaking down, and eventually stopped crying altogether. Instead, he settled into a routine so rigid that it bordered on ritual.Every day at 7:30 am, he'd get up and go to the kitchen. He'd fry two eggs and set one plate down at the empty seat across

  • My Final Flight: Too Late for Him to Come   Chapter 8

    The doorbell rang the next morning. Rhys was still on the floor, in the exact same position he'd been in all night. His eyes were raw and bloodshot, and the pregnancy report was crumpled in his fist.The doorbell kept ringing. He pressed his palm flat against the floor and pushed himself up, his legs tingling with numbness.He opened the door. Daphne stood on the other side, holding a thermos."Rhys, your phone's been going straight to voicemail. I got worried, so I came to check on you. I brought you some chicken soup."She walked in like it was the most natural thing in the world, then stopped short when she saw the chaos inside. Every drawer had been pulled out and the contents thrown across the floor."What happened in here?"Rhys stared at her, his expression ice-cold. "What are you doing here?"His voice was so hoarse that it barely sounded human. The coldness caught Daphne off guard, and she bit her lip, looking stung."Why do you look like this? Where's Wren? Is she sti

  • My Final Flight: Too Late for Him to Come   Chapter 7

    Rhys picked up the medical report with shaking hands. It was a pregnancy test, dated two weeks ago.He remembered the day. It was Daphne's birthday, and he'd taken her to an amusement park to watch the fireworks show. While he was doing that, I'd been at the hospital alone.He lifted the tiny pair of baby shoes, and it finally hit him what I'd meant by the big surprise. I was carrying his child. I'd switched to that late-night flight just so I could tell him on our anniversary.I'd crossed the sky full of hope, desperate to get back to him. And he hadn't just ignored that hope over and over again.Every single time I needed him the most, he'd chosen someone else without a shred of hesitation. He'd even accused me of throwing a tantrum. When I'd sent him what was practically a cry for help, the only thing he could be bothered to type back was that he had to go pick up Daphne.It all came flooding back to him, my 86 flights in our five years of marriage.Every time I was about to l

  • My Final Flight: Too Late for Him to Come   Chapter 6

    Rhys's hand reached out, trembling, hovering over the body bag as if he wanted to hold whoever was inside. But it froze in midair, and he couldn't bring himself to let it fall."Mr. Callahan, I'm very sorry. We need you to sign the release form. Given the extent of the damage, regulations require that cremation be arranged as soon as possible."The officer let out a heavy breath and placed the paperwork in front of him."Cremation." Rhys repeated the word like he didn't understand it.I used to flinch at thunder and curl up shaking against his chest. I'd burned alive at 30 thousand feet, completely alone, and now they were going to push me into a furnace and do it all over again.He clenched his jaw so hard that it looked like it might crack. His tears fell onto the release form, bleeding through the ink. The same hand that signed multimillion-dollar contracts without a second thought couldn't even hold the pen steady now.He scratched out his name in jagged, trembling letters th

  • My Final Flight: Too Late for Him to Come   Chapter 5

    Rhys went still for a moment, then let out a sharp, disbelieving laugh. "No. You're joking. She wouldn't have been on that flight.""Mr. Callahan, I need you to watch your tone. We've cross-referenced the airline's passenger manifest. There is no mistake." The officer's voice cut through the noise of the restaurant."The search and rescue team recovered a female body from the core wreckage zone. The remains are severely damaged, and facial identification is not possible. We need you to come to the city forensic center as soon as possible for verification and to claim her personal effects."The voice on the other end kept going, but Rhys had stopped hearing it. He sat frozen with the phone still pressed to his ear, staring blankly at the empty seat across from him, the one no one would ever sit in again.He had no idea how he made it to the forensic center. The rain had finally broken, hammering down in sheets. His wipers slashed back and forth across the windshield but couldn't cle

More Chapters

You may also like

Explore and read good novels for free
Free access to a vast number of good novels on GoodNovel app. Download the books you like and read anywhere & anytime.
Read books for free on the app
SCAN CODE TO READ ON APP
DMCA.com Protection Status