#52: Deep in Thought

He cannot shake the images that come at him out of nowhere, their frequency increasing at an alarming rate, their intensity shaking him to his core.

She left without explanation, disappearing from his life so abruptly he still feels as though he is missing a limb. The pain of separation is still raw, so close to the sensation of mourning it both stuns and shames him. His wife is now here—alive and breathing—mother to their son as is the natural order, as is right, as it should be.

Then why does his life seem so off-kilter?

He knows why.

It burrows into every nerve, this longing to gather her up to his chest yet again, to breathe words of love he feels and reassurances he can no longer offer, to lose himself in eyes that have seen too much, to bury the past inside of her as they create something beautiful and new together. She became a part of him that night, flesh of his flesh, blood of his blood, a love pure yet now forbidden that leaves him torn and unsure.

They can no longer be as one; he is married, he is promised, he is again a husband as well as father. That is his life. That is his responsibility. They are his family.

But Regina…