Bailey Zimmerman - Where It Ends Link

For the last two years, he had been a soldier in a war he was never going to win. He fought for her on her absolute worst days. When she was drowning in her own doubts, he was the anchor. When the rest of the world walked away, he stood his ground, taking the hits and absorbing the collateral damage of her chaos. He went to battle for her always, bleeding himself dry just to keep her safe.

The rain was coming down hard in Louisville, Illinois, but inside the cab of his beat-up Ford, the air was suffocatingly still. He sat with his forehead resting against the steering wheel, watching the headlights cut through the downpour like a searchlight exposing a crime scene.

Slowly, he put the truck in gear and pulled out onto the slick, dark highway. His chest ached, and his hands shook slightly on the wheel, but a strange, heavy sense of resolve was beginning to settle over him. He had too much pride left in his bones to let himself be destroyed by someone who didn't care if he survived.

They had tried to fix it so many times. The mended fences, the quiet promises whispered in the dark, the tears that swore things would be different. He had ignored the warning signs. Everyone else could see them—those glaring red flags waving violently in the wind. His friends told him to walk out that door, but he was blinded by hope and crippled by a memory of who they used to be.

He had given her a second chance, letting her back behind the walls he had barely managed to build up after the last heartbreak. He thought they were finally mending the broken roads. Then came tonight.