Six Years Trapped In A Broken Vow

Aliyah Pollard POV:

For six years, my husband, Chase, refused to divorce me, gaslighting me while he built a new family with his mistress, Faye. After 99 failed attempts, I was ready for my 100th try.

But the man I met in the park wasn't my cold, cheating husband. It was Chase from ten years ago-eighteen, idealistic, and still madly in love with me.

He didn't understand why I looked so sad, why I flinched from his touch. He didn't know about the affair, the miscarriage Faye caused, or the child they now had together.

He saw the divorce papers and his world shattered. "I would never hurt you, Aliyah," he cried, his young eyes filled with genuine anguish. "I love you."

His pain was a stark contrast to the cruelty of the man he would become. The older Chase had sneered, "You're mine, Aliyah. Who would want you?"

But this boy, this pure version of my husband, saw my suffering and didn't hesitate.

He took the pen, his hand shaking, and signed the papers his future self had refused for years. "If this is what you need," he whispered, "I'll do it."

Chapter 1

My life had become a broken record, skipping on the same devastating track for six long years. Six years of a marriage that was dead, but refused to lie down. Six years of watching the man I loved become a stranger. Six years of trying to escape him.

I had tried 99 times. Ninety-nine times, I pushed divorce papers across the table. Ninety-nine times, he smiled, crumbled them, or simply ignored them. He always said, "Aliyah, you're being dramatic. We're fine." But we weren't. We were a shipwreck, and I was the lone survivor clinging to a splintered mast.

Today was supposed to be number 100. The papers were crisp in my hand, a final, desperate plea for freedom. I walked into the park, the one we used to love, the one now tainted by memories. My head was down, rehearsing the words, the pleas, the arguments. Then I bumped into him. Hard.

He stumbled back, a broad, boyish grin instantly flashing across his face when he saw me. "Aliyah! What a surprise!" His eyes, bright and full of an unblemished joy I hadn't seen in years, crinkled at the corners. "Are you going to pretend you didn't see me?"

My breath hitched. It was Chase. My Chase. The one from a decade ago. Eighteen years old, overflowing with an idealism that hadn't yet been crushed, a love that hadn't curdled into poison. He looked exactly like the photos I still kept hidden in a dusty box. The photos of a life that never fully became reality.

He threw his arms around me, a spontaneous, warm embrace that felt alien and familiar all at once. "Gosh, I missed you today!" he mumbled into my hair. "Did you miss me?"

I stood stiff, the divorce papers a crinkling shield between us. My body remembered the feeling