Page 83 of Modern Romance September 2025 5-8

He was not detached. And he loved, she knew, deeply. Intensely. Desperately .

She knew he loved her. Knew it as true as she knew his baby grew inside her.

‘The painting in New York… A boy in rags, his skin covered in grime… But his eyes shone. So bright. Vivid. They hid nothing. They let all who looked at him understand what he wanted. What he needed. If only they could look beneath their initial reaction to his condition. If they could look past the bruises beneath his tired eyes. Beneath the filth. It was there for anyone to see. For anyone to give to him. They didn’t see it. But I did. I recognised it.’

‘There was nothing to see in that painting. There was nothing to decode,’ he said roughly. ‘Nothing other than what it offered. A painting! ’

‘You’re scared, aren’t you?’ she asked, a path clearing between all those conflicting emotions inside her that had been fogging her thoughts. ‘You know I know, don’t you?’

‘You know nothing.’

‘I do. I understand everything now. You need it still, the same thing that poor boy did, but you’re scared to admit it.

That the boy you were still lives inside you.

And he still aches for it. Yearns for it more than anything else.

He is searching for it. Begging for it. Something divine…

I saw it in his eyes. And I see it in yours. ’

‘What are you talking about, Aurora?’ he hissed. ‘You are talking in riddles I do not want to understand. I do not need you to understand what the painting meant to me. It means nothing! ’

‘It’s standing right in front of you,’ she said, ignoring him. She knew it. Understood him more in this moment than she ever had. His search had been the same as hers. The want beneath the facade of her smiles. Her silenced voice. They both wanted it. And they could have it. They could have it all.

‘I’m standing right in front of you. All you have to do is reach out and claim it. And it is yours. I am yours.’

‘I have had you already, and taken all you had to give me.’

‘Not this.’

‘Not what?’ he growled.

‘Acceptance,’ she husked.

‘I do not need your acceptance.’

‘You have it.’

‘I do not want it.’

‘Reach out, Sebastian. I am giving it to you. Acceptance. Love. Unconditional love.’

‘Love is never enough.’

‘It will be enough for us. We will have love. We will have everything we have never had before.’

‘I do not…’ He swallowed, and she watched the heavy drag of his Adam’s apple in his throat. ‘I do not love you. I do not want your love. What do I have to do to make you understand?’

‘I won’t let you do this, Sebastian.’ She trembled. ‘I won’t let you stand there and pretend you don’t care. I won’t let you pretend—’

‘It was all a pretence,’ he said. ‘I do not care. I do not love you.’

‘You do,’ she countered breathlessly. ‘You care. You love . You love me . ’

‘No.’ He swept past her. ‘It is done,’ he concluded. ‘We are over. It’s finished.’

And her hands, her body, her heart yearned to reach out, grab him, hold him to her, until he understood she was right here with him.

She knew him.

She loved him.

But he was already walking away. Down the corridor. He was leaving her behind.

‘ Sebastian !’ she called, but he didn’t turn, didn’t stop.

And she couldn’t help it. She kicked off her pumps and gave chase.

She watched him walk through the pillared entrance to the castle and down the stone steps. And still she chased after him.

He kept going. Across the field of green. Through the artillery walls.

The pilot greeted him. Sebastian’s mouth moved. She couldn’t hear him. But she felt the words leave his mouth. A harsh husk of demands.

He swung open the helicopter door.

The same helicopter she’d arrived in with him.

And then he turned. Waited for her. His body was stone. His eyes dark. His jaw set.

She slowed. Breathless and panting, she tried to ground herself, to feel the short grass beneath her bare feet. But she felt nothing but a hole in her chest. And it was spreading. Hollowing her from the inside out.

She arrived in front of him, her breathing ragged and fast.

‘The pilot will take you back to Arundel Manor.’

‘Sebastian, please.’

‘Get inside, Aurora.’

‘I won’t.’

‘There is nothing here for you anymore,’ he said. ‘It was a mistake to bring you here. And now you will go back. Back to where you belong.’ He didn’t touch her, didn’t kiss her. He simply walked away. Turned his back on her. On everything they could have.

‘I belong with you,’ she said to his back. ‘And you belong with me.’

He halted. ‘All that belongs to you,’ he said, ‘will be returned to you. But I will not be among your possessions. I am not something to have. I am not yours to belong to. I belong to nothing and no one.’

‘And the baby?’

‘Will be safer with you,’ he rasped, and she heard it. The break in his voice. ‘It will be happier with you.’

‘There is no danger here. You are not a danger to the baby,’ she said. Something broke inside her. Snapped. He was still punishing himself for a mistake he’d made when he’d been nothing but a child. ‘You can’t keep punishing yourself.’

He stiffened. ‘My punishment is not for you to decide,’ he said, and he kept walking.

‘I’m not afraid of you.’

‘You should be.’

‘I’m not afraid to get in this helicopter,’ she shouted. ‘I’m not afraid to walk away.’

‘Then get in,’ he called back.

‘You’ll miss me,’ she told his retreating back.

He didn’t falter. ‘I won’t,’ he said, his voice quieter now, drifting to her ears only by the grace of the wind.

‘You’ll come for me,’ she said, but he was too far away to hear. Her voice was too weak. Unsure…

She couldn’t reach him anymore.

He didn’t want to be reached.

He didn’t want to hear.

He didn’t want to be loved.

The pilot guided her inside the helicopter, and she let him, let him buckle her in and close the door.

The helicopter’s blades came to life. And up and up they went. Above the tree line. Above the castle.

She saw him. Walking up the stone steps.

She waited for him to look up. To see her.

But he didn’t.

He closed the doors. Shut himself inside without her.

Her chest seized. Her lungs locked.

He’d rather be inside, locked in with them , than with her.

The helicopter turned. Flew away from the castle. Away from him.

A tear slipped free. She didn’t brush it away. She let it slide down her cheek. Let it drip to her dress. And she acknowledged her sadness. Acknowledged his last arrow had sliced through her ribs and entered her heart.

And it was bleeding.

Her heart was shredded.

Broken.

Their time was up.

And whatever they’d had together was over.