Chapter 31

Chapter 31
Four Years Later

Blake's POV

Graduation was loud. Not in a chaotic way—more like a constant hum of applause, names echoing through the stadium, families standing on their feet for people I’d never met. Blue and white filled my vision as tassels swung and cameras flashed. I sat still, hands folded in my lap, my name printed neatly on the program.

Doctor Blake Mitchell.

I should’ve felt unstoppable.

Instead, I felt strangely--untethered.

When my name was called, my dad stood up immediately, clapping like his hands might fall off. My stepmom wiped her eyes, smiling so wide it almost hurt to look at. I waved, walked across the stage, shook hands, accepted the diploma that represented four years of exhaustion, sacrifice, and tunnel vision.

I did it. I really did.

Afterward, we found a quiet spot near the edge of campus. My dad insisted on pictures from every possible angle. My stepmom hugged me tightly, her perfume familiar and comforting.

“We’re so proud of you,” she said. “Med school. Residency next. You never stop amazing me.”

I smiled, but something tugged at my chest. Ashley should’ve been here. Nicole too.

I brushed the thought aside as we sat down for lunch, the conversation drifting naturally toward the future.

“So,” my dad said, leaning forward. “Residency. Have you decided yet?”

“I got accepted to two programs,” I said. I’d rehearsed this part. “Mass General in Boston. And Northwestern in Chicago.”

My stepmom’s eyebrows lifted. “Chicago.”

“I’m leaning toward it,” I admitted. “It feels like a fresh start.”

My dad nodded slowly. “You’ve earned that.”

My stepmom hesitated, fingers tightening around her glass. “Oh,” she said suddenly, like she’d just remembered. “That reminds me—Jason and his fiancée set a wedding date.”
The words landed wrong. Too fast. Too casual.

“Fiancée?” I repeated. I tried to keep my voice neutral.

“Yes,” she said warmly. “Her name’s Elena. They met in Florida. He moved back to Boston last year.” My heart dropped, sharp and immediate.

“They sent an invitation for us,” my dad added. “We thought you’d want to come too. He’s your brother, after all.”

Brother—right. I nodded, because that’s what was expected of me.

“Of course,” my stepmom said gently. “You should be there. Family is family.”

I smiled, the expression stiff on my face, and stared down at my plate.

Jason was getting married.
Not dating.
Not engaged in theory.
Getting married.

My chest tightened, memories colliding with reality in a way that left me dizzy. “I don’t think I can make it,” I said finally. “Chicago starts right away. Orientation, housing, everything.”
It wasn’t true. Not completely. But no one questioned it.

Later, while we walked back to the car, my parents fell a step behind me.

“You don’t have to disappear right away,” my dad said. “Come back to Boston with us for a bit. Before Chicago.”

I hesitated.

“Your friends are still there,” my stepmom added. “They ask about you all the time.”

Friends.

The word opened something I hadn’t meant to touch.

We still had a group chat. That was how we survived distance. Ashley’s voice notes. Alex’s sarcasm. Joanne’s late-night check-ins. Nicole sending pictures of Charlie almost daily—his crooked smile, his curls, the way he held Chase’s hand like it was the most natural thing in the world.

Four years.

Ashley went to Bentley. She never left Boston. Nicole skipped college entirely at first, opened that little bakery instead. Now she was taking night classes, slowly working toward a degree on her own terms. Nicole and Chase got married. Solid. Happy. Charlie was four now. Ashley was his godmother. Braydon… disappeared. Moved away. No one really knew where. He wasn’t part of Charlie’s life.

Life moved on.

I’d just been moving somewhere else.

“I’ll come back,” I said quietly. “For a week.”

The Boston airport felt smaller than I remembered.

As I walked through the terminal beside my parents, suitcase rolling behind me, I wondered what it would feel like to step back into a city that held so many versions of me.

The girl I was.
The woman I became.
And the person I might still be, if things had gone differently.

I took a slow breath and followed them toward baggage claim.

Whatever waited for me in Boston, I wasn’t ready for it.

But I was going anyway.