Melissa > Recent Status Updates

I have no idea how to rate or review this book, so I’m going to sit on it for a bit.
I am feeling an emotional hangover that I need to recover from.
This book has tied me up in knots.

I’m stunned by the force of how much I want from her, how much more than this, more than whatever we could feel and share in one night.
I want more than tonight.
I want forever.
With a silent plea and a promise, I take her down to the bed.
Give me the rest of your life, Kayla. I won’t let you down.
I promise I’ll take care of you until the end of time.

Aidan had it so bad for Kayla

“Aidan?”
“Yes, Kayla?”
“I’m really sorry about this. I promise I’m not a giant basket case. I’m just a little one.”

She said goodbye. I said good night, because goodbye was much too final. With everything inside me, I wanted that to be a word we never spoke.

Aidan never said goodbye to Kayla
He always used other words

Author’s Note
I’ve never cried writing a book as much as I did with Pen Pal, a sentiment I know a lot of people shared while reading it. So many readers have reached out to me to express their emotions about these characters and request more…

MICHAEL REECE: It’s her! It’s her and him both! Oh God! Let me out of here! Let me out of this fucking room!
Physician’s note: Patient appears to be experiencing a visual disturbance.

Kayla & Aidan visit Michael in prison

All around us, the golden light grows brighter. I feel a pleasant urgency, an upward pull that increases with each incremental lift of light.

Heaven?

Aidan- I never lost you. Who do you think has been ringing the doorbell this whole time?
Kayla- I’m sorry. I didn’t know. I couldn’t see. I was so confused.
Aidan- It’s okay. I told you I’d wait forever if I had to.

Now I’m crying.

Past. Present. Fact. Memory. Everything interconnected and part of a whole, like individual pages in a book before it’s bound.
But now my binding is set. My story is told. The book of my life has been written to its final chapter.
All that’s left is to close the cover and put it away.
Kayla

It took months of me sifting through memories & reliving my past to understand what happened. I lived 2 parallel lives, 1 past & 1 present, removed from reality but believing myself in it, utterly blind to the truth
Everything that happened with Aidan was real. So was everything that happened after New Year’s. But it got all jumbled together & mixed up because being dead & not realizing it is very fucking confusing

What we call memory is the intersection between imagination and fact. Memories are the stories we tell ourselves about the important events in our lives. In the telling, some details get lost, others embellished, until truth is closer to fiction.
Kayla

Part 3
Paradiso
Death is not extinguishing the light; it is only putting out the lamp because the dawn has come.
Rabindranath Tagore

My body is heavy. The churning water above me stills. I drift, my hair floating around my head, my eyes turned toward the surface, my hand outstretched for help that doesn’t come.
A brilliant bloom of color suffuses the sea above me in shades of red, green, and gold, then the fireworks fade, and everything goes black.
My heart throbs one final time before stopping for good.
Kayla

More fireworks explode overhead. I see them above us, star-bursts of color painting the midnight sky like the domed roof of a cathedral.

Imagery
Word pictures
I can see and feel this description.

My scream is a living thing. A creature of horror, disbelief, and heartbreak, clawing its way up my throat. I fly across the space between us with that scream surrounding me everywhere, vibrating in my ears and in my head, inside all the hidden sacred places in my soul that only he has ever touched.

Am I crying?

Aidan looks at me. His heart shines in his eyes. He says softly, “I love you, bunny. I’ll love you until the end of time.”
Then he looks back at Michael and says words I’ll never be able to unhear. They’ll echo in my head for all eternity.
“Shoot me, then.”

Aidan made their choice.
😢💔

Michael screams, “One of you has to die you have to choose right now who dies who dies who dies if you don’t choose I have to kill you both!”

My voice high with stress, I say, “Michael, what are you doing?”
Eyes feverish, he replies in a hard voice, “Taking back what’s mine. Did you really think you could leave me, Kayla? Me? You belong to me. And if I don’t get to have you, nobody does.”

We head across the lawn and down to the rocky beach toward the Eurydice tied at the end of the dock. The air is fresh and cold. It smells strongly of pine sap, wet bark, and moss. Above us, the sky is a bowl of deep sapphire sprinkled with stars. It’s still and quiet except for the crickets serenading us with their evening song. Aidan grasps my hand and squeezes it, glancing down to smile at me

Taking boat out
NYE

From that night on, we’re inseparable. We spend every waking and sleeping moment together. The next few months are what dreams are made of, a fairy tale come true.

Kayla and Aidan

Smiling back at him, I say, “So that’s what heaven is, huh? Turning wheels and spinning stars?”
“It was to Dante, anyway.”
“What do you think heaven is?”
His smile fades. His energy slowly changes from light to dark, as does his gaze. Looking deep into my eyes, he says softly, “You.”

Kayla & Aidan discuss Dante & heaven
She’s his heaven. ❤️

“What really blows my mind about Dante—other than his work—is that his name is an anagram for mine.”

Aidan to Kayla

Aidan was reading The Divine Comedy when Kayla came over

Aidan Leighrite
Dante Alighieri
Anagrams

Kayla- Thank you.
Aidan- For what?
Kayla- Giving me the space I needed, even though I didn’t want it. But if you try giving me any more of it, I’ll kick your ass.

My voice cracks when I say, “You told me to call you when I got clarity. I thought I’d knock instead.”
He glances down at my bare ring finger. “Thank fuck,” he says faintly, exhaling. “I haven’t been able to breathe without you, bunny.”
He grabs me in a bear hug and squeezes me so tight, I can’t breathe either.

Kayla and Aidan

Aidan looks at me as he always does, like I’m the first sunrise he’s ever seen in his entire life.

How your love should see you

Kayla- If my past is dead and buried, my future still awaits.

She took off her wedding ring and buried it in a box in her backyard.
It was a funeral for her marriage.

There was no way I was going to live without her.
So dying for her was the only choice.
My mistake was that I thought my blood alone would satisfy the monster inside her husband’s head.
Unfortunately, he was more bloodthirsty than I imagined.

Aidan about Kayla and Michael

But Michael was more than a mere narcissist.
He was an arrogant monster who thought he was God.
Kayla paid the price for that arrogance. We both did.

Aidan about Michael

The spot where Kayla stood mere moments ago is now empty.
Sandy runs back the way she came, hurrying down the hall with Bennett in her arms. They’ll go back to David upstairs and wait for Claire and me to let them know if the spirit of Kayla Reece has finally left their house.
They might have to wait a while, however.
There’s still more of the story left to tell.

What is Kayla’s story?
Looking for Michael?