Chapters: Stories on Sean & Kaycee

Fate Part 2

Two and a half years after disappearing, Kaycee Rice stood in front of her childhood home and knocked on the door like a stranger.

There was very little fanfare about her arrival (which she had expected), as it seemed no one had much to say to her. Only a question.

"What do we do about Sean?"

Kaycee was at a loss for words. Sure, she hoped in the deepest parts of soul that they would find their way back to each other. However, the rational part of her brain knew that their relationship was far beyond saving.

But despite his many public outings with a so-called girlfriend, Sean and Kaycee were still, technically, officially, on-paper, engaged.

Taking advantage of the strange opportunity that the universe presented to her, she jumped at the chance to have her best friend back, no matter how flimsy the circumstance. Kaycee knew that it was selfish and cruel to worm her way back into his life, but as the saying goes, it's easier to ask for forgiveness than permission. 

There seemed to be no protests from the Lews' end, another surprising fact. But Sean never came to see her. He knew she had returned, and she tried her hardest to reach out to him - even going so far as to wait for him outside of his office building - but he evaded her like the plague.

After two and a half years, Kaycee faced her best friend on their wedding day.

Their wedding was a simple and somber affair, a far cry from the celebration she had imagined growing up. When she was a child, she daydreamed about marrying Sean in a beautiful garden, surrounded by pretty flowers and all their friends and families. She would wear a puffy white dress, and he would smile with the force of a million suns.

But there was none of that.

They married in the town hall, witnessed by immediate family only. She wore a simple white dress from her unpacked suitcase, and he signed the marriage certificate without even looking at her. No vows, no kiss, no warmth. No trace of who they used to be, and Kaycee knew that was completely on her. It was a bitter pill she had to swallow.

While she was no longer expected to join the family business (really, no one expected anything from her anymore), their marriage allowed an impactful merger between Sean's rising corporation and Laura Rice's new subsidiary. With a unified Rice-Lew household, in the end, Fate got its way.

Kaycee vowed to herself that she would win Sean back, or his forgiveness at the very least. But that plan quickly went down the drain when the man locked himself in his room on their wedding night, shutting the door without a word nor glance her way.

The first month of their married life was a solid wall of quiet, a suffocating white noise that filled every hall that was once painted with their laughter. The second month consisted of terse nods, spiteful silences, and actively avoiding one another.

The third month - they exploded. Words were said, verbal daggers neither of them could take back. Hurtful phrases stemming from the excruciating pain that rotted inside and tainted every good thing they've ever had. The once shining golden thread of fate that bound them together was a scalding chain that chaffed and burned. Once again, Kaycee could not keep her promise.

Whoever said that "time heals all wounds" was probably never wounded as badly as they were. No, their wounded souls did not heal. They scabbed, and festered, and bled. Over and over again until even their insides felt tender and bruised, until there was nothing left to do but walk on eggshells and hope that they wouldn't ruin each other more than they already have.

Some days, it almost felt like they had taken two steps forward. Almost.

Days when they could sit down and have dinner together, the silence tense with caution and unsaid words. They would converse in clipped tone and neutral topics – "How was your day?", "Fine, how about you?" – but it was better than nothing. Days when Sean would smile, the ghost of a dimple barely there, but still enough to make Kaycee's pulse race a mile a minute. Days when Kaycee felt like it was okay to wish him goodnight, and dream of his warmth next to her.