Disclaimer: I own nothing! The character belong to Sara Shepherd and I. Marlene King!

Present Day.

Emily Fields stared down at the envelope resting in her shaking hands. She knew exactly what it was. It arrived early in the morning, mixed in with her electric bill and Cosmopolitan magazine. She'd been expecting it (or, more accurately, dreading it) since she saw the change in herrelationship status on Facebook.

Of all the promises they had made to each other, this is the one she chose to keep.

She remembered the day they had made the promise to each other so clearly, so vividly, it felt like it had only been yesterday, when in fact it had been nearing five years. The promise came tucked between tears and apologies. They had been making promises to each other that neither of them could keep for the entirety of their relationship and they both knew it was time to stop. It was time to be honest, let go, and admit that what they had was well and truly over.

But they made one last promise.

"Promise me that you'll find someone and settle down, Paige. I don't want you living life waiting for me. Please."

She whispered the words against her cheek. Emily felt the hot tears pouring from Paige's eyes, some landing on her own cheek, mixing with her own. She felt the nod against her face. "I mean it. I really mean it. And I want proof. Send me an invitation to your wedding or something. I just….I have to know that you'll move on. Promise me."

The whispered response held more finality than any of their words exchanged that night ever did. "I do, I promise." Was the last thing she said before she straightened her back, wiped her eyes, and gave Emily one final kiss before she walked out of the door and out of Emily's life. For good.

Five years. It had been five years and the memory of that night still turned her stomach into knots and made her want to vomit. It had, in truth, been a long time coming but that didn't mean it didn't feel excruciatingly painful. Like someone had reached into her chest and grabbed her heart, squeezing every ounce of happiness and hope out of it, and kept a chokehold on it just to remind her of what she had lost.

She thought that night was her rock bottom. That the kind of pain she was experiencing would be the worst of her life, after all there was no worse feeling than letting the love of your life turn her back on you and walk out of your life.

But in this moment, with the envelope sitting heavy in her hands, she realized that once she opened that envelope and read the contents, this would be her rock bottom.

So she sat, staring at it, turning it in her hands, studying every angle of the small, white envelope, wondering if opening it was worth a broken heart. The writing on the front was so clearly Paige's and it made her heart ache. She would be able to recognize that feminine, boxy scrawl anywhere. And she couldn't deny how her heart sped up seeing her name in the familiar writing.

Deciding that she had stared at the outside of the envelope long enough, she held her breath and tore it open. Inside was the invitation she was expecting and a note she certainly wasn't. The invitation was simple, with an ornate etching on the side.

You are cordially invited to celebrate the union of

Paige Eliza McCullers

And

Anna Lillian Lowe

On the date of October 30th, 2020.

Please RSVP by October 1st.

It was official now. Paige McCullers was getting married. To Anna Lillian Lowe. She let the invitation fall from her fingers, her hands shaking too much to keep a steady grip on it. She had to read the note, she knew she did, she just had to get her hands to stop shaking and her head to stop spinning first.

She took a few deep breaths, letting the air fill her lungs and relax her. She was prepared for the invitation. She knew it was coming. She had weeks to prepare for it. She never anticipated a note to be sent along with it, though Paige was never one to let things speak for themselves.

She picked up the note, carefully unfolding it. It was short but it was enough. All it read was:

I had to keep this promise.

That's it. That's all she could say. Anger suddenly began flowing through her, resulting in her shredding the note into tiny pieces. A choice she regretted instantly. That note held the most of Paige that Emily had had in years and now it was gone.

How could she go to this wedding and watch the love of her life walk away from her again?

She made Paige promise her that she would move on; Emily never promised her that she would.

The ache in her heart was paralyzing. Emily grabbed at her chest, wondering if this would ever stop hurting.

It had been five years since she watched Paige walk away from her for the last time and not a single day went by that Emily's heart didn't ache for her. Not a single day that Emily's heart didn't skip a beat whenever she saw a girl with long dark hair and a familiar gait. Not a single day that Emily didn't hover over the Paige McCullers contact in her phone and wonder if the other woman would pick up, if her number had stayed the same.

So Emily figured that no, this wouldn't ever stop hurting. She would feel this mixture of regret, longing, guilt, and love every single day for the rest of her life. And it was all her fault. Everything – this whole mess, if traced back to the source, could be pinned on Emily. She did this to them and now she had to live with the consequences. Forever.

God, how did it end up like this? Such a convoluted fucking mess. While nothing between them had ever been simple or easy, not even in the beginning, she never would have thought that they would end up like this. Their first communication in three years was a note enclosed in a wedding invitation. An invitation that was the last loose end either of them had to tie up.

The invitation was more than just a piece of cardstock. It was the final chapter. The last page of the book of Paige and Emily. Now with their last promise fulfilled, there was nothing tying them to each other.

They were….nothing to each other anymore and that thought hurt more than anything.

Paige McCullers and Emily Fields were now, essentially, strangers.

How did it end up like this?

A/N: Hello again! I know, an update so soon after the prologue! I really wanted to get this first chapter up, mostly because the prologue was as vague and choppy as it was! This is hopefully a bit more…clarifying. I know it's still pretty vague but we'll get there! Just another housekeeping note: this story will be split between two timelines. The present day (2019, which I'm pretty sure is the correct year based on the show timeline) and a second timeline, beginning with Emily and Paige's first year together at Stanford. So total, this story will span 9 years. As long as everything goes to plan, the stories will be told in chronological order side by side. The chapters will alternate between timelines so the next chapter will take place when Emily and Paige are in college!