Love, Ally by Hannah Gray

prologue

Ally

Staring at the tear-soaked letter in my hands, I shake my head at the words he will never read and the explanation he will never get. The only person who’s ever understood me, ever loved me, is now hundreds of miles away and getting farther with every second I spend on this smelly, old bus. A bus filled with passengers whose shoulders are slumped and whose eyes are filled with sorrow. All of us likely headed somewhere we don’t want to go.

I hope he knows I didn’t abandon him. He’s been abandoned his entire life; I would never leave him the way others did.

I had no choice,I tell myself those words over and over again.

I just hope, someday he can understand and forgive me. He’s all I have. Or had.

I’ll find my way back to him one day even if it means going through hell first. He’s worth it. My storm, my love, my person. My one and only person. He has dreams, and I can’t risk being the reason they don’t come true. Even if it kills me because that’s what losing him feels like—it feels like death. Which is unreasonable. After all, my own mother died, and yet somehow, this hurts worse. So much worse.

Our story isn’t a pretty one. There’s been too much tragedy for that. But I’ve found that the most beautiful things fought their way to be that way. And underneath the grit, there can also be a gem. Just because it isn’t pretty, it doesn’t mean it’s any less real. Because trust me, I’ve lived through this fucking shitshow. It’s real. So fucking real.