Epilogue 2

EPILOGUE 2

Black

I looked around at the sea of mourners. All dressed in various degrees of black for a man who didn’t deserve it. There was a time in my life when I would’ve considered him a good friend but that changed when the man stole my best friend from me.

I glanced to the side to where Kassandra stood with her two sons. My best friend since middle school. In high school it was the four of us. Kassandra, Michael, Madalyn, and me. We did everything together. Then I went to the Marines and everything changed. Madalyn disappeared, taking a daughter that I didn’t know existed with her, and Michael made sure Kassandra slowly stopped communicating with me.

The letters I once received weekly became few and far between until they ceased to come at all. My visits home, that I looked forward to because I could see Kassandra, fell to the wayside. Suddenly she was too busy for me.

It wasn’t until one specific visit that I managed to corner her at the local grocery store and begged to know what happened to our friendship. I learned that day she was forced to choose between me and Michael. Of course she chose her husband and I couldn’t even blame her. Like the gentleman I tried so hard to be, I stepped away. I no longer attempted to contact her.

I wouldn’t know until nearly two decades later the mistake I made.

I left her vulnerable.

I let Michael isolate her.

Just like so many others in her life, I missed the signs. Until it was too late.

Or maybe not. Because today we weren’t just burying Michael. We were burying her piece-of-shit husband. She managed to save herself and her two sons, but now it was my turn.

After twenty years, she called me. She needed my help and I wasn’t about to let her down again.

Kassandra and her boys were now mine to protect from the catastrophe her husband left behind. I would make sure his horrible decisions never touched them again.

Don’t miss Black and Kassandra’s story in Mine to Protect .