Page 25 of Outcast’s Return

Due to work and school, I spent less and less time at the Auclair mansion. My time there soon only came to a few weeks every summer. Because of that, I barely saw Jolie in person.

But still, we emailed.

Until I couldn’t bear it anymore.

I was going to tell her I loved her.

I mean, did it even need saying out loud? My love for her was as clear as fucking day. And it was clear she felt the same, surely? Yes, we hadn’t kissed. Yes, we couldn’t be open with our feelings due to her brother. But we just knew.

We’d spoken about a future together. We spoke as if one day we didn’t have to worry about Clement. We joked about living together somewhere he couldn’t find us. Everything was pointed in one direction. We had just simply never said the exact words, in the exact order, to each other...

I love you.

I was in Europe, in the process of having interviews for the big universities on the continent, when I decided what I was going to do. I had a free weekend.

I had it all planned out. Fly home. See Jolie. Declare my love. Figure out how to handle Clement. Sort out my life and live happily ever after.

The interviews in Europe had been a disaster. I had failed to get into England’s most prestigious university. Honestly, I didn’t even try. A business degree didn’t interest me. Nor economics. Nor politics. I loved only one thing.

Art.

But art doesn’t pay. That’s what I’d been told by the powerful men around me.

That weekend, I felt like a man who could take care of his own problems. I wasn’t one to ruminate. I was the one to act. And so, in a five-star hotel in Oxford, England, I sat down at my computer to type out an email telling Jolie my plans for coming home over the next few days.

But she had beaten me to it. There was already an email waiting in my inbox. Her name appearing above university rejection emails made me smile.

I opened her email. I read it.

Twice.

Three times.

I paused, then read it for a fourth time.

It took a long time for the words to sink in.

Fabien,

I will be blunt. Whatever it is between us, it’s over. I can’t do it anymore.

You might be wondering why, so here’s the truth. You are an orphan, and I am an Auclair. You don’t belong with me. You never did. I have grown up, and so should you. We’re holding each other back.

You should go and live your life and forget all about me.

Delete this email. Forget my name. Forget our childish games.

Let’s just both move on with our lives.

Goodbye,

Jolie

P.S. Don’t tell Clement. He would never forgive us.

My hands started to shake after I read the final word. I held my breath. The hotel room spun. Dreary English rain pattered against the window.

Where did this come from? Why was she like this?