The cemetery smelled of earth and rain.
The ground was soft beneath Kaelric's shoes, the chill of morning creeping through his coat.
He came every day, never missing a sunrise, never leaving until the sun dipped low.
Aurelia's grave was simple—just a marble headstone with her name, a small bouquet he brought each morning.
At first, he could barely speak, kneeling in silence, staring at the letters etched into stone.
But over time, words began to spill out, each one a confession, each one an apology carried on trembling lips.
"I'm sorry, Aurelia," he whispered one morning, fingers tracing the engraved letters.
"I should have loved you. I should have been the husband you deserved. I should have been brave enough to admit… everything."
He spoke of the nights he spent elsewhere, of the women whose laughter he had once preferred to hers, of the emptiness he had failed to understand.
He admitted every cruelty, every wrong, every moment he had lost.
"You were everything," he said, tears sliding silently down his cheeks. "And I… I let you go too soon. I let pride and fear keep me from loving you the way I should have."
Passersby sometimes looked at him with pity, but Kaelric didn't care.
He only cared about the woman he had failed, the life he had squandered, the love he had ignored until it was too late.
The seasons passed.
Snow fell, then melted.
Rain drenched the grass.
Flowers bloomed in spring, and he brought fresh ones every time, watching the petals catch the sunlight.
He ate little, slept poorly, but he returned daily.
The cemetery became his world.
Even when his body began to fail him—his steps slow, his chest tight, breath shallow—he continued to visit.
He spoke softly to her, read aloud passages from the books she had loved, and placed her favorite flowers on the grave.
Every day, he remembered her voice, her quiet strength, her gentle forgiveness.
Every day, he relived the words he had never said in life.
Kaelric;
I spent years pretending I didn't care.
I spent days avoiding the truth, even as it clawed its way through me.
And now, all I can do is honor her memory.
I failed her when she was alive… but perhaps in death, I can finally learn to be worthy of her love, even if only in spirit.
Years later, Kaelric lay on the same earth, his life quietly ebbing away. His final breath was spent whispering her name.
"Aurelia…"
And then he was gone.
The wind rustled through the flowers, carrying a sense of peace.
In death, they were finally reunited, a tragic love that had waited too long to be understood but endured in memory and devotion.
Aurelia:
Even when he hurt me, I loved him. Even when he came too late, I forgave him. And now… finally, we are together, in the only way that matters.