Chapter 15: Hie thoughts
---
Wil sat in silence, his fingers curled loosely around a now lukewarm cup of coffee. His mind, however, was anything but still. Thoughts raced, tangled, looped around each other with no clear beginning or end. He didn't really know what to do — not exactly. Should he go to her? Try to talk to her? Or should he simply remain where he was, allow fate to run its course, and brace himself for whatever happened next?
But deep down, he knew that staying away was not something he could keep doing. It had already been eight long years — years filled with regret, what-ifs, and the ghost of her smile haunting his better days. He still wanted her. No, not just wanted — he needed her. Needed to look into her eyes and tell her what he never got the chance to say.
He didn't know if Daisy would forgive him. He wasn't even sure if she'd speak to him. For all he knew, she might have moved on entirely, or worse, buried him in the past as nothing more than a painful memory. But that didn't change the fact that he had to try. Because even if he had to crawl his way back into her life, he was done being the man who left. He wanted to become the one who stayed — the one who chose love, not fear.
He had always loved her. From the very beginning. Before all the noise, before the chaos, before his own mistakes had shaped him into someone unrecognizable. Somewhere along the way, he had turned into the villain in her story — and he didn't blame her for seeing him that way. He *had* hurt her. Deeply. Maybe irreparably. But he wasn't that man anymore. He couldn't be.
He exhaled slowly, still staring into the dark swirl of his coffee. His heart felt heavy, like it was carrying eight years' worth of silence. Maybe he should go to her and talk. Maybe he should beg. Apologize. Say everything he never said. Do whatever it took. But confusion crept in like fog — what if it was too late? What if his chance had expired?
Hours passed as he thought, worked, thought again. But eventually, clarity found him. Not total certainty — that would be too easy — but something close enough to push him forward. He would find her. He would meet her somehow, even if it meant standing outside her door like a fool. And he would talk to her. Maybe not today, maybe not tomorrow, but he *would* try.
He wasn't expecting a miracle. He knew winning her back might take time, patience, and a pain-staking effort she never asked for. But all he hoped — prayed, even — was that she didn't hate him entirely. That somewhere, in the cracks of her heart, she still remembered the man who loved her… and still does.
He had come to this country with one purpose — her.
After years of searching, of silence, of unanswered questions and aching memories, he had finally found out where she was. That single piece of information was enough to uproot his life and bring him halfway across the world. He didn't care about the logistics or the timing. He didn't even think twice. The moment he knew where she was, he packed up and came running — because no matter how far time had pushed them apart, his heart still pointed to her like a compass.
But not everything was that simple.
Because being in this country also meant facing something else — something he'd been avoiding for even longer than he'd been avoiding her: his family.
And if there was one thing Wil despised more than guilt, it was returning to that house full of memories he never wanted to relive. The strained relationships. The expectations. The judgment. The suffocating feeling of never being good enough, of always being the disappointment. Just the thought of walking through that front door made his chest tighten.
Now, here he was — standing between two storms. The past he broke and the one that broke him.
He wanted Daisy back more than anything, but he couldn't ignore the weight of everything else pressing down on him. How was he supposed to chase love while dragging the baggage of family shame behind him? Could he really focus on making things right with her while knowing his own blood was a ticking emotional time bomb?
He didn't have the answers. Not yet.
But he did know one thing: he hadn't come all this way to turn back now.
If he had to walk through fire — emotional, personal, or otherwise — just to have one conversation with her, he would. Because after everything, she was still worth it. She had always been.