All Chapters of With All My Love: Chapter 71 - Chapter 80

Past: Three Weeks Before Her 19th BirthdaySnap, snap, snap. The camera in Susan’s hands clicked. Patrick stepped off the stage, adjusting his graduation cap as he went. He walked calmly, his movements full of quiet confidence. Sam and Jesse followed to collect their certificates. Annabelle clapped loudly. Her heart was swelling with pride. She couldn't stop smiling, not when he turned to glance at her, not when Sam came over for his pictures, and definitely not when Patrick wrapped his arm around her for theirs. Her guys were finally done.Sam's parents couldn't make it, and his little sister was in boarding school, so Annabelle was standing in for them. She handed him a bouquet of flowers, and he grinned, kissing her cheek as the cameras flashed. More snaps filled the air.Everyone was in a good mood as they made their way to Jesse's parents' house for dinner. The table was crowded with hot food, and laughter filled the room. Patrick sat next to Annabelle, his knee touching hers und

Past-HimPatrick was nervous. More than nervous: he could feel his heartbeat pounding in his chest, his breath coming in short, uneven puffs. Three days. That was all he had left before he left for university. Three days before he had to leave her, leave his heart behind.As dinner went on, he stole glances at Annabelle, watching the way she laughed at something Sam said, the way she tucked a strand of hair behind her ear. And when Cassidy asked her where she was going to school, he felt the words burning in his throat. He wanted her to come with him. He wanted to say she was going to be with him, that he would do everything in his power to make that happen. He wanted to show her the world, to give her a reason to see life as something worth living.That's why, a couple of days ago, after kissing her and dropping her off at work, he found himself in a small jewelry store in the next town over. It wasn't a marriage proposal, not yet, but it was a promise. A promise that no matter what

Present-Him Pages of a book coming to life, that’s what love had always felt like with her. But this wasn’t a story. This was a small town, a really small town, and in a place like this, secrets never stayed buried for long. It didn’t take me more than ten minutes to drive across town and park in front of Jesse’s parents’ house. I sat there, staring at the door, doing nothing.I had climbed out of the darkness with her, only to fall so far down that I didn’t know if I could get back up. She hadn’t trusted me. And now... I didn’t know what to do. This wasn’t a fairytale. I wasn’t some Prince Charming. I was just a man, a man who needed to grow up, a man who had loved one woman his entire goddamn life. A man with a child he never even knew was his. The weight of it settled in my chest like a stone. With a sharp sigh, I flicked the engine back on and pulled away from the house.I needed to think. I needed to breathe. And in this town, all I ever did was suffocate.Her He had left. He ha

PastHigh tides and brilliant stories, carefully crafted and cast across the world, always carried selfish desires. It took two months before the body of local man Adam Andrews made the news. He was pulled from the jagged rocks below the cliffs of Pittown, his body bloated and bruised, unrecognizable to everyone but the coroner. Three days later, his DNA was confirmed, but no one knew he was missing, only that his parents performed tears on television. The rich always moved fast.The town of Pittown was small, the kind of place where secrets were currency, where everyone knew everyone, and a death, especially one as mysterious as Adam’s, should have been a scandal. But the Andrews family was powerful. Their name was whispered in town halls, their money greased the wheels of local government, and their influence was a quiet, suffocating presence. They spoke of a tragic accident, a late-night stroll gone wrong, and the town, for all its gossip, fell silent.One of the two women, Cassidy

She stared at him. Memorized him. And then she packed her things.Cassidy picked her up at dawn. Neither spoke as Annabelle climbed into the car. Cassidy flicked her cigarette out the window, exhaling smoke, and pulled away from the cliffs. Silence stretched while the road ahead looked endless. Annabelle's hands shook. Her heart raced. Her skin still burned from Patrick’s touch, from fighting back, from where Cassidy had stepped in and finished what Annabelle couldn’t.She swallowed hard and turned to Cassidy. “Since when do you smoke?”Cassidy let out a sharp breath, flicking the ashes out the window. “Well, killing somebody should warrant that.”For a second, neither of them spoke. Then, at the same time, they laughed, sharp and breathless, like two people who had crossed a line they could never come back from.The bus station was empty when they arrived.“You don’t have to do this,” Cassidy said, her voice low, uncertain.Annabelle just smiled. “I do.”Cassidy sighed, gripping the