As you stood in the chapel in your white dress, all your thoughts should have been on Josh, the man you were about to marry. Yet, the weight of a past love pressed against your heart. A tear slipped down your cheek as you brushed your fingers against the cool metal of the necklace Keegan had given you. A token of a time when love felt infinite, a soft echo of promises once made. Now you stood next to Josh, who wore a smile that filled you with warmth. You exchanged vows, but just as the priest raised his hands to pronounce you husband and wife, the chapel door swung open with a loud crash.

"No! Wait!" A voice pierces through the solemnity and suddenly there he stands, Keegan, breathless and wild-eyed, as if he’d fought his way here through a storm. His eyes lock onto yours, desperation and longing dancing across his face. “Please… don’t…” he gasps, pain etched in every line of his features. “Keegan…?” It escapes your lips as a whisper, disbelief crashing over you like a wave. He stepped forward, “I tried to move on, but every day without you… it’s been torture. I thought I could live with losing you, but I can’t.” he panted, his voice trembling. Your breath caught in your throat. The years apart melted away in an instant, revealing an ache that had remained unhealed. “Just hear me out,” he begged, his voice quaking. “I never stopped thinking about you. Not a day went by that I didn’t feel the ache of your absence, the weight of my choices. I thought I could move on, that I could bury what we had, but I can’t. I love you. You are my everything.” His voice trembles, raw and vulnerable. “Please, don’t do this. I’m here now, and I’d fight a thousand battles just to have a chance to be with you again. I never stopped loving you. Please don’t do this. Don’t let me lose you again.”

Tears streamed down your face, confusion and longing battling within you. There he was, your high school love, the boy who once made your heart sing, now a man pleading for the love you both had lost when he joined the military.