The Unkept Promise Novel Novels & Stories

Sara M. Salvatore "Just hold me to that promise, Kingsley. No matter how much your family hates me, no matter what Tom or those gunmen’s boss tries next… promise we’ll fight for each other and for what Grandma Eleanor believed in." Kingsley cupped her face, his thumbs gently wiping her tears. “I promise, Sara. We fight together. Always.” **** The next morning, sunlight filtered weakly through the heavy curtains of their mansion. Sara moved around the nursery on autopilot, her body still heavy from the previous night’s confrontation.

I couldn't stop worrying, so I refused to let her leave. Flustered, Rachel grabbed a random glass jar from the kitchen and handed it to me. "Joel, I promise I'll only go to Todd 99 times. Every time I leave, you drop a bean in this jar. When it gets to 99, you bring the jar to me, and I'll come home with you." Ever since then, that glass jar had become my most prized possession. But now, all the beans were gone. Rachel stared blankly at the empty jar, feeling just as empty on the inside.

It was made of promise. And promises were unbreakable.

Just when we thought we had reached the pinnacle of our contentment, a letter arrived at our doorstep—a letter that would unravel the peace we had fought so hard to attain. I opened the envelope, my heart pounding in my chest. The words on the page sent a chill down my spine. It was a message from someone we never expected to hear from again—Cassandra, the woman who had once sought to destroy our love. She wrote of regret and redemption, claiming to have changed her ways and seeking forgiveness for the pain she had caused. Skepticism warred with compassion within me as I considered her words. Could she truly have changed? Was this a genuine plea for reconciliation, or another elaborate ruse?

A comfort I hadn’t had in years. And wasn’t that more valuable than nostalgia? Wasn’t that safer? I stared up at the ceiling, blinking rapidly to keep the tears from falling. One promise. That’s all it was. Just one clean break. I had already made the choice—I just had to live with it now. But as the silence stretched around me, suffocating and absolute, I realized that the hardest part of a promise… was not making it. It was keeping it. ***

You cannot really judge anyone by just looking at them as they are. She highly doubts that he remembers any of this, or even the fact that he shared everything with her in the first place. Now, that made her somehow smile. That man was wasted and it was her intention to deliberately make him talk. In return, something that she knows he has also forgotten about, she promised that she would never let anyone know what he shared with her. She made that promise, and not reminding him of anything about it is keeping her promise. “You seem too preoccupied, my dear.”

I said. "Cara, it's been so long and i-" "Just promise me, please." I said interrupting him. I just needed to make sure. He nodded, "Okay." He said, my hold tightened over his hand, "I promise." I smiled, i felt a weight being removed from over my chest. I inched closer and hugged him. He directly hugged me back. He promised he won't do it again. I promised i won't leave. But like they say, Promises are made to be broken.

Was he the guardian she’s longing to have, or does he? After those thoughts with the answers that she couldn’t find, seconds start to come back on track in her life. The heart that bleeds, the heart that bears those fears and so many aches, suddenly bears the cold, and the chill that once has faded, and there only remains the frozen heart inside of ice of the stranger who cured that bleeding heart of hers. “Promises are meant to be broken? Tsk! That’s a lie, for promises are a sacred word to be broken by anyone. Promises are not meant to be broken. They are meant to be fulfilled.”

•~• The light streams through the high window, my gaze lingers there for a moment before turning back into the aisles. Calm and serene, the library wakes with the sun. Candles I re-light. I've worked night till morning. I await her. Despite everything, I must fulfill the promise she made me swear. That I would be here. Friends make promises and they keep them, she said. I like the idea of a promise. I like that it must never be broken. It is something that requires trust. I do not trust anyone. Not my cousins, not my most loyal advisor, not my subjects- none.

He was trying to tell the truth well enough that I could stand inside it safely. I stared at my own blank page. I thought of writing something simple. I promise to love you. I promise to stay. I promise to be your wife. None of it felt complete. I thought about the contract, the family meeting, the shared room, the aisle, the harder promise he’d just made to me. Then I wrote the first line that felt true. I promise I will never stay by disappearing. My hand froze above the page. Damien noticed. He didn’t ask to read it.