All Chapters of Old Love Is Like A Sinking Ship: Chapter 1 - Chapter 10

“I know you don’t want to acknowledge me.”I had not seen Justin Cornwell in seven years, but he had barely aged. In his trench coat, he was as handsome as ever.Yet, his eyes were brimming with tears. His voice was thick with emotion as he said, “But Bunny, I’ve missed you so much. Have you thought about me at all these past few years?”Bunny.I had not heard that nickname in so long. Only my parents and Justin had ever called me that.I finally looked him in the eye and smiled.“I have.”His eyes lit up.My next words wiped away that hope. “Every time I remember sharing a man with a woman who’s now fifty, it makes me sick to my stomach. Tell me, are things still as passionate between you two as they were when you were married to me?”Justin stiffened.I stepped around him with a pointed, “Excuse me.”Some things were long over, but some memories left scars.The slightest reminder was enough to tear them open again.Fifteen years ago, for instance, Justin broke a leg sa

I had someone give Justin an ultimatum.Either Sally ended the pregnancy and he cut all contact with her, or our marriage was over.He refused to choose.As the days passed in that hospital ward, I lost more weight and struggled harder to hold myself together.By the end, I was a little more than skin and bones.Justin looked increasingly haggard too, but he still refused to ask Sally to end the pregnancy.One day, Sally barged into my ward and begged me to spare her and her baby.My in-laws came to plead with me too. They had practically put aside their pride.“It’s our grandchild, after all, Bunny. Please, can’t you show a little mercy?”Everyone told me to be more forgiving, more compassionate.They wanted me to stop taking my anger out on an innocent baby.With tears streaming down my face, I turned to Justin and spoke to him for the first time in days. “Am I the one in the wrong?”So, I was the villain?Had anyone stopped, even once, to think about me?Justin looked

It was beyond absurd.Was I supposed to weep with gratitude just because he regretted what he had done?I yanked my hand free with a frown and walked away.At pickup that afternoon, I ran into Justin outside the school again.There was still no sign of Sally.I ignored him and went over to my daughter, Avery Langford.“How was your first day, honey?”“So much fun! My teacher’s really nice, and so are the other kids!”Justin stood there and watched us walk away.His shadow stretched across the ground in the light of the setting sun.Avery skipped along. Her pigtails were bouncing.“Mommy, why does that man keep looking at us?”I tightened my grip on her warm little hand.“He mistook me for someone else.”Her palm grew slightly damp in mine.She glanced back a third time. She sounded naively puzzled as she said, “Mommy, he’s still watching us.”I gave her soft little hand a squeeze and kept walking without looking back.Sycamore leaves spiraled down around our feet, like

Justin became even more relentless.He started turning up everywhere we might go.The playground, the children’s library, and Avery’s piano class.Every time, he just stood like a distant, silent statue.Then came the heavy snow on Christmas Eve.Avery was feeding pigeons in the square when he finally worked up the courage to approach. He was carrying a beautifully bound set of Hans Christian Andersen’s fairy tales.“I brought you a Christmas present.”Avery hid behind me. She peeked out cautiously and asked, “Why do you keep following us?”Snowflakes clung to his lashes. They were melting so quickly they could have been tears.“She already has these. Her dad bought them for her.”I held the heavy books out to him.He stubbornly refused to take them back.“I don’t believe you. Why have I never seen him?”“What don’t you believe? That I’ve remarried, or that I don’t love you anymore?” I asked with a smile.He turned pale but said nothing.“It doesn’t matter. We moved on a

I heard what became of Sally and her daughter by chance.After Justin went bankrupt, he could no longer support the children financially.Their younger daughter, who had Down syndrome, developed worsening health problems and needed ongoing treatment. The medical bills were the final straw.Sally went looking for Justin, only to discover that he was renting an apartment in a run-down building and drinking all day. He refused to see her.She returned to the Cornwell family estate and begged his family for help, but Justin’s mother sent someone to throw a bucket of cold water over her and chase her away.She hated Sally for ruining her son’s future.With nowhere else to turn, Sally took on several jobs to support her sick daughter and young son. She washed dishes at a restaurant during the day and ironed clothes at a laundromat at night.The strain had left her haggard and old before her time.Peyton had long since disappeared.Rumor had it she was living in a city down south, st