Eclipsed Hearts

Chapter 2

Mark’s Regret

Seeing her again felt like a punch to the gut.

I hadn’t expected it—hadn’t even imagined it after all these years—but there she was. Mattie. Just as beautiful as I remembered, but something about her had changed. She carried herself with a confidence that hadn’t been there before. Her face was still soft, still round in a way that made my chest tighten, but her eyes… her eyes were colder now. And the smile that used to light up the room was gone, replaced by an indifference that struck me deeper than I thought it would.

I wasn’t supposed to feel this way anymore. I was supposed to have moved on to have buried those old emotions along with the memories of the day I ruined everything. But seeing her, I felt everything I thought I’d buried, clawing its way back to the surface, and I was powerless to stop it.

She looked right through me when our eyes met, as though I didn’t matter anymore. Maybe I didn’t. Maybe I never did. But then that little boy—Frankie, she’d called him—came running up to her, his face beaming with joy, and something in me shifted.

He looked so much like her. The same big brown eyes, the same wild curls, the same smile that had once been mine. I’d never seen a kid who could so perfectly resemble their parent, and in that moment, something hit me like a freight train.

Could he be mine?

My mind raced with the possibilities, the timeline. It was almost impossible to wrap my head around the idea. Mattie had left Lilygrove a few days after senior year—right after Homecoming. The last time we had been together. I couldn’t breathe as I looked at him again, trying to piece it all together.

The memories of that night flooded back. The way she looked at me, so full of trust, of love. That night, she had been perfect, more beautiful than I had ever seen her, and for the first time in my life, I had been terrified. Terrified because I knew I was about to destroy something pure, something that I had come to cherish without even realizing it.

I never wanted to hurt her. God, I never wanted that. I was just a stupid kid, and my whole life had revolved around being the popular guy, the ice hockey star, the jock that everyone wanted to be friends with. And Mattie… "Mattie was supposed to be just another game, another bet.

But she became so much more.

I hadn’t cared about the bumps on her face, even when everyone else called her “pizza face” behind her back. The cruel nickname always made my stomach churn. Sure, the bumps came out of nowhere in our senior year, but before that, she was one of the prettiest girls in school, and no one could touch her. Even after the genetic disease caused her skin to change, I still saw the same girl. Mattie’s beauty wasn’t just about her looks; it was about who she was. She was smart, she was funny, and she saw right through the bullshit that everyone else fed me. She made me feel like more than just some dumb jock. With her, I wasn’t just Mark, the ice hockey star. I was… different. Better.

She was the only person who ever made me feel that way.

The night of Homecoming was supposed to be my way of giving her something good, something memorable. I wanted to give her one last perfect moment before I broke her heart before I did what my so-called friends expected of me. I wanted her to remember me as someone who cared about her, even if I had to walk away.

But that night… that night changed everything for me.

I’d planned to end things the next day. It was supposed to be quick, painless. A clean break. But when I saw her standing there, still glowing from the night before, still smiling at me like I was the centre of her world, I hesitated. I almost pulled out of it. I almost threw away my reputation and ran away with her. I would’ve gone to her college, done whatever it took to stay by her side, but I knew I couldn’t.

I wasn’t good enough for her. Her dad was practically the town’s king, and I was just some broke kid with no future. I couldn’t give her what she deserved, so I made the decision that haunted me for years. I hurt her because I knew she wouldn’t have left me otherwise. She loved me too much.

When I said those words to her in front of everyone, it felt like I was stabbing myself in the chest. I saw the way her face crumpled, the way the light left her eyes, and something inside me broke that day. I’ll never forget the look on her face, like I had shattered her entire world. I hated myself in that moment, more than I’ve ever hated anyone.

After she ran out of the room, I followed her to the door, my heart pounding in my chest, but I didn’t go after her. I couldn’t. I knew I had just done the one thing I could never take back.

And when I got home that night, I cried for the first time in my life. Not just tears of guilt or shame, but real, painful sobs that felt like they would tear me apart from the inside out. Because I realized, too late, that I loved her. I had loved her for months, and I had destroyed the one good thing in my life because I was too afraid to admit it.

I tried to push her out of my mind after that. Tried to pretend that I didn’t care, that it was for the best. But deep down, I knew I had made the biggest mistake of my life.

And now, seeing her again, that mistake felt even more real, even more painful.

Mattie didn’t say much when I approached her earlier today. She didn’t have to. The coldness in her eyes said it all. She had moved on. She had built a life without me, and from the looks of it, she was doing just fine. But I couldn’t help but wonder if she still thought about me the way I thought about her.

Frankie. God, that kid looked so much like her. I couldn’t shake the thought that maybe, just maybe, he could be mine. It had been six years, and the timeline… it matched up. But she hadn’t said a word to me about him, hadn’t given any hint that he was mine. And maybe he wasn’t. Maybe I was just being an i***t, trying to find some connection to the past that no longer existed.

But I had to know.

I couldn’t just walk away from this. Not again.

I thought about that night again about the way she had looked at me after we… after we made love. That was what it was for me—making love. It wasn’t just s*x. Not with her. And I knew, even in that moment, that I had never felt that way about anyone else before, and I haven’t felt it since.

She had trusted me that night. She had given me everything. And I had thrown it all away because I was too scared to be the man she needed. I was too scared to admit that I was in love with her.

I drove around town for hours after seeing her at the mall, trying to clear my head, trying to make sense of everything I was feeling. But no matter how far I drove, no matter how hard I tried to forget, the memory of her kept pulling me back.

I wasn’t sure what I was going to do. I wasn’t even sure if I had a right to do anything. But I couldn’t just let this go. I had to know if that little boy was mine. And even if he wasn’t… I needed to talk to Mattie. I needed to apologize to tell her the truth about why I had done what I did.

Maybe it was too late. Maybe I had already lost her for good. But I couldn’t live with myself if I didn’t try.

Because the truth was, I had never stopped loving her. Not for a single day.

And seeing her again… it was like a second chance. A chance I wasn’t sure I deserved, but one I was willing to fight for.

So I made up my mind. Tomorrow, I was going to find Mattie. I was going to tell her everything, and maybe—just maybe—I could fix what I had broken all those years ago.

Because if that little boy was mine… if he was our son…

I wasn’t going to let them slip away again. Not this time.