Going The Distance Book Novels & Stories

I also used that money to study overseas, fulfilling the dream I never got to realize in my last life. That journey even led me to someone who saw my potential and became the most important person in my new life. However, I wasn’t about to share those sweet memories with anyone here. Suppressing my frustration, I stayed polite, keeping my tone cool and distant. “Thanks for the offer, but I’m happy with what I do.” Cara’s face darkened, clearly annoyed that I wasn’t falling in line. “Don’t mistake my kindness for weakness. When you’re broke and starving, don’t come crawling to me.”

He couldn't even be bothered to argue with me. And our pups, whom I'd painstakingly raised, adored someone else as well—they barely had any affection for me. This feeling of being abandoned was excruciating. Staring at the empty house, I realized it was time for me to move. Since no one cared about me, what was the point of staying? I left the house and went to the courthouse alone to draft a Bond Breaking Agreement. After putting the papers in an envelope and leaving them on the nightstand, I heard noises downstairs.

I stayed for two hours, talking to everyone who wanted to talk. On the drive home, Benjamin said, "You were incredible up there." "I was just honest." "Honesty is powerful." The book took six months to write. It was painful, reliving everything with Richard. But it was also healing. "Chapter by chapter, word by word, I am letting go," I told my therapist. "That is the point of telling your story. It loses power over you." The book was titled "Phoenix Rising: Reclaiming Identity After Betrayal."

She finishes the fourth book in March. Not March of the sixty-sixth year — March of the sixty-seventh. Two years and one month from the first entry. One hundred and four entries, shaped into four movements, the final movement written in the last six weeks, with the quality of something that has been building for a very long time and is now simply arriving. The book is called The First Life: What the Practice Earned and What the Practice Cost.

The way it feels like something shifted without a clear moment to mark it. I don’t like that. I don’t work with things I can’t define. — So I define it. Distance. That’s all this is. A correction. A reset. — I pull into my driveway, cut the engine, and sit there for a second before getting out. No hesitation. No second-guessing. Just a decision. Clean. Final. — If she wants distance, she’ll have it.

The doubt was already smaller now but it was not entirely gone. "I keep waiting for the moment I stop being afraid of him," I said. Elena looked at me steadily. "That moment does not arrive before the work is done," she said. "It arrives after. I know because I waited for it for years and it only came when there was enough distance between me and your father that his reach could not find me anymore." She reached across the table and put one hand over mine. "You are building the distance. That is the work. The fear shrinks as the distance grows."

Fowl a call, planning to leave for the Arcetic ahead of schedule. The research team was originally set to depart tonight, but I had asked for a three-day delay, wanting to spend more time with my family. It seemed like there was no need to delay anymore. We could depart on time. Just as I stepped out, I bumped into Mom and Dad, chatting as they returned home. "William is so thoughtful toward Annie. It's like he's a brother to her. Sometimes I felt like they'd make a perfect couple, if only they could—" Mom saw me at the door before she could finish her sentence, and awkwardly stopped speaking.