“No,” I said as I walked over to the door and opened it. To my surprise, Hailey was standing on the other side.

“Hey, do you have a minute to talk?”

“Actually, I don’t. I’m in the middle of—”

“It’s okay, sweetheart. You two talk. I’ll go over and see Julia. Hi, Hailey,” Amelia said as she walked across the hall.

I shut the door and sighed. “What do you want, Hailey?”

“I want to apologize for what I said at the hospital. It was rude and I was out of line.”

I stood there, nodding my head. “Okay. Apology accepted. Now if you’ll excuse me,” I said as I walked towards the kitchen.

“I still love you, Collin, and I want you to give us another chance!” she shouted.

I stopped dead in my tracks. “What? I have a girlfriend.”

“So what. Break up with her. I know you still love me.”

I couldn’t believe I was standing there, listening to what she was saying. She didn’t have a clue what she did to me. I turned around and glared at her.

“I hate to break the news to you, Hailey, but I don’t love you. To be honest, I never really did.”

“How the fuck can you say that after six years of being in a relationship?”

“I was young. Neither one of us knew what love really was, and I’m pretty sure you still don’t.”

“Oh, and you do?” she asked.

“Yeah, I do know because the girl I’m madly in love with is across the hall right now. Hailey, if you truly loved me, you wouldn’t have done what you did. You couldn’t have so easily walked away. But you did and you broke my heart. You told me numerous times that we weren’t meant to be and that I needed to move on. So I did. Now you come back to New York and you think we can pick up where we left off? Did you honestly think that I would be waiting for you after what you did?”

“I’m sorry. I made a mistake. Please forgive me,” she cried.

By this time, the tears were flowing from her uncontrollably and I felt bad. But there was nothing I could do for her.

“The only mistake you made was thinking that you could have me back. You’ll find someone, Hailey.”

“I already have found someone, Collin. You. I want you back in my life. I want to hold you and kiss you and make love to you,” she cried.

“I’m sorry.”

She walked up to me and smashed her mouth against mine. I pushed her away and looked at her tear-filled eyes.

“Now tell me that you didn’t feel something,” she said.

I stood there as I was about to break her heart one last time. “No, Hailey. I felt nothing. It’s been over between us for a long time. Now, please leave so I can finish cooking dinner.”

She ran to the door of my apartment and flung it open before running down the hallway, crying her eyes out. I stood there with my head down, feeling bad for hurting her, even though I shouldn’t have felt that way. Amelia walked into the apartment and wrapped her arms around me.

“She’ll be okay, Collin.”

“I know she will be,” I said as I kissed her head. “Come on; let’s eat.”

****

A couple of days later, we got word from the nurse my dad had hired that Denny had passed away from a massive heart attack. I’ve never seen my dad take anything so hard in his life. When he received the call, I was there in his office, and watched as a tear fell from his eye. My mom wasn’t handling it very well either and, as much as Julia and I loved Denny, we felt like we needed to be strong for our parents. We all suffered a huge loss, but it was my parents that were hit the hardest. We were all meeting at the penthouse because Denny’s lawyer, which was also my father’s, was coming over to read a few things that Denny had left. He was instructed to read the letters one day after his death.

Before heading up to the penthouse, I showered. As I stepped out, I wrapped a towel around my waist and sat at the end of the bed. Amelia was in the room, changing her clothes.

“Are you okay, sweetheart?” she asked.

I finally broke down and let go. I kept my head lowered as I shook it back and forth and the tears started to pour from my eyes.

“Collin,” she said as she sat down next to me and hugged me. “I’m so sorry you have to go through this.”

I wrapped my arm around hers and gripped it tightly as I buried my head into her shoulder and cried. She gently rubbed my back and told me that everything was going to be all right. I was thankful that she was there because I needed her more now than ever. Once I composed myself, I got dressed and we headed up to the penthouse. Julia and Jake were walking out of their apartment when we were and Julia’s eyes were red and swollen. I kissed her and put my arm around her.

When we stepped off the elevator, we gathered in the dining room and sat down at the table.

“Thank you all for being here tonight and I’m so sorry for your loss. The letter that I have in my hand is from Denny, which he wrote approximately a month ago. Are you ready for me to read it?

“Go ahead,” my dad said as he looked down.

The lawyer cleared his throat and unfolded the white piece of paper. His glasses sat far down on the bridge of his nose as he looked at the paper and began to read from it.

“Hello family. If you’re sitting around the dining room table listening to this, then that means one thing: I’ve finally kicked the bucket. Connor, make sure your scotch is a double as you’re listening to me because you always needed a double during my lectures. Now, I want you all to listen very carefully to what I’m about to say. This is my funeral and I’m the host. I want you all to dry the tears because there will be no crying at my funeral. So, I’m going to give you all a moment to compose yourselves so we can get on with this.”

We all just sat there and looked at each other. The lawyer told us to take five minutes to talk and to get anything we needed before moving on. My dad got up, walked into the living room, and straight over to the bar. I followed behind him.

“Your mom wants a glass of red wine. Could you please get her a glass and I’ll pour you a scotch.”

“Sure, Dad. Make it a double,” I said with a small smile.

I walked to the kitchen and poured a glass of wine for my mom and Amelia. I grabbed a bottle of water from the fridge for Julia and walked back to the dining room.

“Here you go, Mom,” I said as I set down the glass in front of her.

“Thank you, sweetheart,” she replied.