Episode 4

The days blended into a blur after Caleb left, and the once-full life turned inward like a hollow cage, empty and hollow. The void felt like an achingly quiet hurt gnawing inside Emma, pulling her in with no way to escape it.

Now, silent approval with her father, once silently conceded without a word, had emerged as the giant that hovered over each decision made. That engagement that started before Caleb's return had now become something inevitable-one that she could not help but rip the life apart that she knew.

However, Emma was not the woman she had been before Caleb. His love had awoken within her something fierce, unyielding; it fought against the chains of expectation. Every time she thought of stepping back, she envisioned the consequences: the disappointment in her family's eyes, the shame of walking away from the life they had planned for her.

It was the soft voice of her mother calling her in for dinner that snapped her out of the world. At least, an hour had passed staring out the window as sunset surrendered to the horizon as if trying to see whether Caleb would walk into the corner of the garden again. But there was nothing. Just silence.

She looked at the envelope on the table as she came into the dining room. It was Caleb's handwriting on the envelope. The world stopped for her.

She did not say anything. But she took that piece of paper with those shaking fingers, and tore it open. Her breath had been caught inside her throat as she read with rapt attention.

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Emma,

I've tried to forget, I have tried to walk away from what we had. Impossible. My heart belongs to you always.

I have no idea what tomorrow holds, but I do know that I cannot live with the regret of never trying.

Meet me at the pier old, where we first kissed. No barriers. No pretenses. Just us.

I love you.

Caleb

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Her breath caught in her throat. The pier. The place where everything had started, and everything had ended. He was asking her to meet him, to make a choice.

Emma's head was a blur. She had been promising herself for awhile now that she was never going to do this again. She promised herself that she would get over him; that she would move on. Every fiber in her screamed in protest, though. Could she just turn her back on the only love that ever made her feel alive?

At the dinner table, surrounded by her family chattering, her aunt muffled and far away. She could barely hear them say anything over the beating in her chest. A soft voice with concern, her mother pulled her out of that trance; "Emma, is everything okay?"

She managed a smile. "I'm okay, Mom. I just am extremely tired."

Her father's eyes narrowed at her. "You've been very distant lately. Is there something you want to talk about?

But Emma didn't say anything. For Caleb was the only one inside her head, and all along she knew that as soon as whatever was going to happen happened, she would never again be the same inside. The truth lay out before her like the moonlight on the garden—she'd never ever feel the way she had about it again.

With dinner over, she beat a retreat - urgency coalescing inside of her. She knew exactly what she had to do.

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The pier was quiet except for the gentle lapping of waves against the shore as Emma's footfalls grew louder and more insistent with every step toward the worn dock where Caleb once drew her close, a touch so light it seared.

And there he was, standing in the same spot where they had first kissed with his back to her, shoulders slightly hunched like he's been waiting hours for someone to come. When his head turned around to her, their eyes met, and the world dissolves into nothingness.

"Emma," he whispers with emotions thickening his voice. "You came.".

"I had to," she said, her voice quivering. "I couldn't let you go without knowing if. if there was still something between us."

Caleb's eyes softened. "There's always been something between us, Emma. Always will be. I couldn't live with myself if I didn't ask you. to choose. You don't have to choose me. But I had to know you had a choice."

She crept closer, as if she wanted to leap into the heat of his being, her breath catching deep in her throat. His fingers brushed hers. Everything in her wanted to give in, step into his arms and hold on forever.

But she knew it wasn't that simple. Their love wasn't a choice between them-it was a choice about everything she'd built. Her family. Her future. Everything.

Caleb's face twisted, and he knew something was wrong.

"You want me to tear everything down," Emma said quietly. "I don't know if I can do that, Caleb. I've spent my whole life trying to fit into a world that never leaves room for us."

"I know," he whispered, his hand gently cupping her face and drawing closer still. "But maybe we were never meant to fit into that world. Maybe we were meant to create our own."

She closed her eyes, letting the words thud deep into the puddle of her soul. She opened them back again, gazed at him- yes, she had made a decision.

"I choose you," she declared, her voice even. "I choose us."

And as the stars above them flickered in to the night, Emma and Caleb knew in that instant that their love had finally found its place in the world. No matter what the world had in store for them, they had each other, and for now, that was enough.

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