Unexpected || Tyler Seguin

Chapter 39

Tyler laid completely still on his bed as he stared up at the ceiling. He’d spent all day chauffeuring Cassidy around town and he was exhausted.

“Come in.” Tyler mumbled tiredly when he heard a soft knock on his door.

“Hey sweetie,” Jackie poked her head into his room. “I wasn’t sure if you were still up or not.”

“Yeah, I can’t sleep.” He said sitting up and swinging his legs over the side of his bed. “What’s up?”

Jackie gave her son a weak smile as she walked into the room with a small white envelope in her hand.

“What’s that?” Tyler eyed the envelope curiously.

“Hadley dropped by a few days ago. She wanted me to give this to you.”

“What is it?” he asked again.

“I honestly don’t know, Ty. She just wanted me to give this to you.”

“Thanks,” his voice was quiet as he took the small, white envelope from his mother’s hand. A faint smile tugged at the corner of his lips seeing his name scrawled across the center of the envelope in Hadley’s handwriting.

Jackie kissed Tyler’s temple before quietly leaving his room. When the door softly clicked shut he slowly ran his finger under the flap of the envelope, opening the envelope and pulling out a folded piece of paper.

Looking down at the pieces of paper in his hands he couldn’t help but feel a tightness in his chest. Placing the envelope on the bed next to him, he began to read.

            Tyler,

I honestly wish I was with you right now. I would be lying to myself if I said I didn’t miss you. I miss you so much. But you and I both know that right now we have issues to sort out. I know that I’m the reason you ended up in our bed with that girl. I ignored you, I let my insecurities get the best of me, and I’ve been struggling a lot with some unresolved issues. Tyler, there is just so much I wanted to open up and tell you, but I was afraid to tell you. I owe you so many explanations and that’s what I’m going to give you. And I want you to move on because you deserve someone who will give you all their heart and all the love you truly deserve.

Tyler rubbed his eyes furiously to keep the tears that stung his eyes from falling, but he failed as the tears streamed down his face and onto Hadley’s letter.

Tyler, you came into my life and gave me hope when I thought any sliver of hope was lost. When I lost my parents at eighteen, I thought that was it and I spent the next few years barely getting by. I had no immediate family that I knew about to help me and I felt so alone. That was until your family came into my life. But it wasn’t just your sisters and mom, it was you, Tyler. I never thought I could love someone so much, but you just made it so damn easy. Even before we started dating, you slowly broke down the walls that I put up after years of abuse and depression that I never thought I’d get through.

Tyler couldn’t stop the tears from falling from his eyes. Every dark detail of her life was written down in front of him in black and white. The sexual abuse from an old high school relationship. The verbal abuse she received from her mom when her parents’ marriage was hanging by a thread. The fact she wished she was in the car with her parents when they died absolutely killed him. Hadley, his Hadley, the girl who he loved more than life itself, had a darker past than he could even comprehend.

You came out of nowhere and swept me off my feet. You showed me that you really can’t control who you fall in love with. But now what I want from you is to move on. Tyler, you deserve everything you have in your life and more. I wish I could be the girl to give that to you, but you and I both know I can’t be that girl for you – not now, not ever. I love you more than anything good I’ve ever had in my life. That’s why I’m letting you know that this is the last time you’ll be hearing from me. The last thing I want you to do for me is to take that ring in the envelope and give it to a girl that truly deserves all the love I know you’re able to give. I loved you back when there was nothing but ocean between us and I still love you now. Don’t you even dare forget that.

            Yours forever,

Hadley

Tyler picked up the envelope and pulled out the ring he gave Hadley on her birthday. The stone still sparkled with luster as the light from his bedside lamp reflected from the fine cuts in its surface. Standing up from his bed, he walked out of his room and downstairs where he could hear his mom typing away on her laptop. He felt numb, absolutely numb.

“Ty –” Jackie looked up when she noticed Tyler walk into the living room. His eyes were red from crying and his cheeks were still wet with fresh tears. “Sweetie, I’m so sorry.” Jackie cooed as Tyler broke down in front of her.

“She’s really gone, mom. And I don’t know where she is.”

Tyler let his mom pull him into a tight embrace as he let more tears stream down his face. The girl he could see spending forever with was gone and he there was no telling where she was now. Everything she left in the apartment they shared in Brampton was emptied out. The guestroom was bare. The only thing that remained was the smell of her strawberry shampoo on her pillow in – what used to be – their room.