Chapter 375: Let Go (Again)

The sudden, formal change in her voice made his blood run cold. The faint smile vanished from his face, replaced by a terrible fear.

?"What is it?"

?Rebecca squeezed her eyes shut, fresh tears gushing down her pale cheeks as she braced herself for the hardest thing she would ever have to do. "I’ve been thinking a lot about us. About three years ago... about everything that happened after I returned... and where we keep ending up."

?Kaden gripped the desk so hard it got a crack, his heart pounding like a trapped bird in his chest. "Rebecca, please..."

?"We’ve been selfish, Kaden," she cried softly, her voice breaking on his name. "We keep letting ourselves get pulled into this endless cycle of love and destruction, even though we both know how horribly we break each other. And this time... it isn’t just about the two of us anymore."

?"You’re talking about Rola," Kaden whispered, his voice trembling with a mixture of immense guilt and rising panic.

?"She’s a big part of it," Rebecca sobbed, clutching her chest as if trying to hold her shattering heart together. "She has been nothing but kind to me, Kaden. She doesn’t deserve to have her heart dragged through the dirt just because you and I can’t stop burning each other down."

?Kaden closed his eyes, a hot tear dripping off his chin onto his wooden desk. He remembered Rola standing by his window, asking if he would choose Rebecca if given the chance. He loved Rebecca with every fiber of his being, but hearing her speak with such agonizing clarity broke him completely.

?"What are you saying, Rebecca?" he choked out, his voice barely audible.

?"I think we need to put a complete, permanent stop to whatever this is between us."

?A suffocating, agonizing stillness descended over the line.

?Rebecca let out a gut-wrenching gasp, her body trembling so violently she had to curl her knees up to her chest on the bed. Spilling the words aloud felt like severing her own limbs, but she forced the final verdict out through her tears.

?"Three years ago, we walked away because we were destroying each other," she wept, the pain ripping through her tone. "When I came back, we fell right back into the same toxic flame. I love you, Kaden... I love you so much it frightens me, but I can’t keep surviving these mistakes."

?Kaden gripped the telephone receiver so tightly he thought the plastic would shatter. "Rebecca, we aren’t the same people we were three years ago!" he begged, his voice raw with pure, unadulterated anguish. "We don’t have to repeat the past! Please... don’t do this."

?"We are repeating it, Kaden!" she cried out, her heart splintering into a million pieces at the desperate plea in his voice. "Look at us! We are bleeding all over again, hurting everyone around us! Loving you hurts too much, Kaden... it hurts so much."

?Kaden buried his face in his arm, a stifled sob tearing from his throat.

?"So what are you asking of me?" he whispered, his voice completely broken.

?"I think we should stop seeing each other entirely," Rebecca said, her voice shaking violently as she laid down the boundary that was killing them both. "No personal visits. No private calls. No finding subtle excuses to be in the same space. Outside of formal pack duties... we need to stay away from each other."

?"For how long?" Kaden rasped, sounding like a dying man grasping for air.

?"I don’t know, Kaden," she whimpered. "Maybe we shouldn’t set a timeline. Maybe... maybe forever."

?Kaden slumped back against his leather chair, a silent, painful sob racking his broad chest. Every instinct inside his wolf roared at him to fight her, to hunt her down, to grab her and hold her so tightly that neither of them could ever break again. But as he listened to her crying so breathlessly on the line, he knew that pursuing her now would only destroy what was left of her spirit.

?He loved her too much to destroy her.

?"Is this really what you want, Rebecca?" he asked, his voice completely stripped of hope, dripping with pure heartbreak.

?Rebecca squeezed her eyes shut, clutching the phone glued against her ear as if it were his cheek. Her soul screamed no, her body screamed no, her overwhelming love for him screamed no. But her mind knew it was the only way they would both survive.

?"Yes, Kaden," she choked out, her heart dying inside her chest. "It is."

?A long, agonizing silence stretched between them, heavy with the weight of two souls bowing to an unavoidable tragedy.

?"Alright," Kaden finally whispered, his voice trembling violently. "If this is what you need to heal... I’ll respect it."

?Rebecca gasped, a fresh wave of tears blinding her. Hearing him surrender to her request—hearing the sheer, unselfish love in his voice as he let her go—shattered the last remaining piece of her heart.

?"Thank you," she whimpered, her voice barely a breath.

?"Don’t thank me for breaking your heart," Kaden choked out, wiping his wet face with a trembling hand. "I’m so sorry, Rebecca. I’m so sorry for everything."

?"I don’t hate you, Kaden," she sobbed softly, pressing her hand over her mouth to muffle her weeping. "I could never hate you. I hope you know that."

?"I know."

?"And I don’t regret loving you. Not for a single second."

?"Neither do I," Kaden whispered, his chest aching so severely he could barely breathe. "Loving you was the best thing I ever did."

?His quiet admission made Rebecca double over on her bed, tears streaming down her neck as she fought for air.

?Silence stretched between them once more—a lingering, agonizing pause where neither wanted to be the one to break the final connection. Kaden wanted desperately to scream that he would wait for her forever, but he forced the words to stay trapped in his throat.

?"Can I ask you one thing?" he murmured, his tone thick with sorrow.

?"Of course," she whispered.

?"Do you think... do you think you’ll ever be happy without me?"

?Rebecca turned her tear-stained face, her blurred vision falling upon the bouquet of flowers Melvin had left on her table.

?"I don’t know," she admitted honestly, a quiet tear dripping onto her lip. "I don’t know if I’ll ever stop loving you, Kaden. But I want to try to live without this constant pain. I want us both to survive."

?Kaden closed his eyes, letting his head fall back as the tears flowed freely down his face.

?"Then I hope you find peace, Rebecca. You deserve all the happiness in the world."

?"Thank you, Kaden," she sobbed quietly. "I hope you find peace too."

?Kaden stared blankly at his desk, his chest hollowed out, feeling as if his soul had just been torn out of his body. There was nothing left to say, nothing left to hold onto, except the excruciating love they were forced to bury alive.

?"Take care of yourself, Rebecca."

?"You too, Kaden."

?Neither of them moved to disconnect the call. Rebecca kept the phone glued against her ear, weeping silently as she listened to the ragged, heavy sound of his breathing. Kaden sat motionless in his dark office, listening to her soft, heartbroken sniffling.

?Finally, with an agonizing, shattered exhale, Rebecca pulled the phone away from her ear. Her thumb hovered over the screen for three agonizing seconds before she tapped the red button.

?The line went dead.

?Rebecca dropped the phone onto the mattress, buried her face in her pillows, and finally let out the guttural, heartbroken scream she had been holding inside for a week. She sobbed until her stomach burned and her eyes were swollen shut, completely consumed by the agonizing emptiness left behind. She had done what was right, but it felt like dying.

?Miles away in the Royal Packhouse, Kaden slowly set the receiver back down onto its cradle.

?He stared at the silent telephone for a long moment before slowly lowering his head into his hands. He tried to hold himself together, but the pain was too much. His shoulders began to shake as he finally broke down, crying uncontrollably.

?"I wish you well, Rebecca," he whispered, wiping the tears from his face. "I hope you find the happiness I couldn’t give you."

?He had lost her once, three years ago, and somehow, fate had given him another chance to make things right.

?But now, he knew he had lost her for good.

?And this time, he had no choice but to let her go.