When I Was Gone The Regret Began Novels & Stories

He said and his grip on my hands loosened a bit. “I agree that it took me a long time to stop being an asshole, a godless crook. It took me a long time to realize that you’re the best thing that has ever happened to me. But now that I’ve finally realized it…” He let go of my hands and slowly went down on his knees. I watched him in confusion, wondering what he was doing and then I noticed his eyes were misty. He was about to cry. “… I want you to know that I regret ever rejecting you.” He said. “I regret ever neglecting your love. I regret ever yelling at you and tormenting you.” He was already shedding tears now and seeing him this way touched me in a deep way.

Rachel looked back up at him. “I’m sorry you went through that.” Bryce held her gaze for a long moment. “Thank you.” The ballroom orchestra slowly began resetting their instruments in the distance, creating a low background murmur. Bryce spoke again, his voice quieter now. “You know… when everything started falling apart tonight, I realized something.” Rachel tilted her head slightly. “What?” Bryce’s eyes softened in a way she hadn’t seen in a very long time. “I regret letting you go.”

Her apartment, once a haven of intimacy, now felt like a confined space suffused with unspoken regrets. As I closed the door behind me, leaving her cocooned in dreams, I wrestled with the ramifications of my departure. The click of the latch echoed my own internal struggles, and the cold wind outside failed to alleviate the warmth of remorse that spread through my chest. The crunch of fallen leaves beneath my boots echoed through the forest as I made my way to the deserted cabin. The air was thick with the scent of pine, a familiar fragrance that usually brought solace. Today, however, it offered little comfort, as my steps carried the weight of tangled thoughts and regrets.

“You think you know what you want, Bryan, but you’ll regret ever saying this to me.” I stood, my chest rising and falling like I had been holding my breath for years and only now dared to exhale. I turned my back on her, my voice steady but ragged at the edges. “The only thing I regret is not seeing you for what you are sooner.” I couldn’t look at her anymore. Not when grief was still clawing through me, not when the memory of my mother’s broken body was still carved into the back of my eyes. My chest was raw, my soul scraped bare, but through it all, cutting through the chaos I had a clarity.

OV No one knows how but everyone has things that they regret. Some regret not treasuring what they had, but they realize too late that what they had was precious. Some regret unsaid thoughts and words when they had the opportunity to say them. Others regret not being courageous enough to take risks. Hamdan was no exception. He had a lot of regrets. He regretted being selfish, he regretted not trusting his beloved wife, he regretted driving her away yet his biggest regret was not being there for his wife. The last call she made to him was like a wakeup call to his selfish self.

He watched her from across the room, the space between them feeling vast and unbridgeable, the regret a heavy stone sinking in his gut, pulling him down into a dark,su#ocating despair. gut. Every careless word, every unanswered call, every time he'd chosen his own stubborn pride over her soft, forgiving eyes replayed in his mind like a broken record.He remembered the curve of her smile the !rst time he'd told her she was beautiful, the way her hand !t perfectly in his, the trust that used to shine in her eyes likesunlight on a clear lake. He'd shattered it, piece by piece, and now stood amidst the ruins, desperate to rebuild but paralyzed by his own failures. He yearned to rewind, torewrite

Sadness seeped into my bones, like a winter chill that hesitated to leave even in the warm weather of spring. My heart was heavy with regret as memories came crashing through. The memory of her begging me to reconsider and just postpone the party but I had stubbornly refused, disregarding her begs as flimsy complaints. That was how I killed that beautiful soul and miraculously turned out alive. I shut my eyes painfully to cloud the regret in my mind. "Look at me," I lamented aloud "My life isn't even the least bit perfect. Why did I have to survive?" an ache of regret tightened around my neck making me wish I could alter the course of my life.

I stood on the steps of the emergency wing with the phone still against my ear. The pain hit first. Then the rage. Then everything at once, and the tears were already coming with no way to stop them. I pressed my lips together and tried to swallow the sound. Couldn't. I thought about him kneeling in the hospital corridor, putting slippers on my feet. I thought about him on his knees in front of me, crying, begging me to wait two more years. Every one of those moments meant nothing now. When I finally ran out of tears, all that was left was a kind of cold clarity, like ice water poured over everything I'd ever believed.

Regret flashed in his eyes, and his voice turned urgent. "I'm sorry! I'm so sorry! It's my fault, Mari! I know all of this happened because I was reckless! I won't do it again, so please, forgive me this one time." A wave of helplessness washed over Maria. She was afraid he would lose sight, too. However, she knew Richard would never change. He would always charge ahead on his own. She shook his hand off and looked straight at him. "Do you know how I felt when I sent Eleanor away and watched her pay for what she did? I was not just happy, but I was lost too. If she has paid for what she did, what about you?

He had left. It was over. The weight of regret crashed into her all at once, swift and merciless. Why had she fallen asleep? Why had she surrendered to exhaustion when she should have stayed awake? If she hadn’t closed her eyes, if she had fought it just a little longer, he would still be here. Now he was gone. Lost to her. Forever. She went numb for a moment, then the dam broke. Tears streamed down her cheeks as she cried inconsolably, her body shaking as though seized by a fit. She had lost everything. The one person that mattered the most to her now probably was.........