At All Costs

Prologue

Dante

“She was the sweetest girl I had ever met. Every part of her I had adored. Her smile, her laugh, her eyes, the way she lit up the entire room and yet still only preferred me over everyone else. I still never understood why that was..”

Dante felt a hand on his shoulder and he turned his head to meet his mother’s eyes with his own. He could see it through her gaze. The sadness in her eyes. The very same sadness that made his heart ache. He watched as his mother stepped forward, placing a bouquet on the newly placed grave and then walked back to her car. Leaving Dante alone. With June. 

He stared at her name, etched onto the gravestone. It felt surreal. Wrong, even. To see her body being lowered into the ground. Her body, not his.

It should have been him.

That’s what he told himself. He watched as her parents couldn’t even dare to look him in the eye. Watched as June’s mother cried into her husband’s arms. Watched as they were the first ones to leave. Not saying a word to him or his family.

June’s family had never treated her right. Not like he had. They had ostracized her. Left her on the side of the street to be homeless. Dante hated them for it. June refused to hate her only family. It was all that she had ever known. How could she just leave that behind?

Though Dante had argued that if they were willing to leave her on the streets, then they shouldn’t even be considered as family.

June never questioned his rising anger after that.

Dante felt tears brim his eyes. He had remained strong through every part of the funeral. Right until the last guest had left. And now here he was. Alone. Having to go back to a home without its comfort. Without its warmth. Because she was his warmth.

He knew he had to walk away now. But he didn’t want to. How could he leave her alone? After he had promised her..

His hands fumbled with his wedding band. Spinning it around so he could see the initial engraved into it. 

He had promised her. He would never leave her. So even as she is buried six feet below the ground, he couldn’t bear the thought of leaving her. She was everything. After only fifty years together, that time now felt so short.

But now she’s gone. 

And he was alone.

Author's Note

Please feel free to recommend any ways that I can improve this! I want to turn this into something real hopefully one day. And this will be a flashforward as a Prologue. No matter what, it will stay as a flashforward.

I also thought about naming the Prologue as something but I wouldn't be sure what to name it. The whole story will be called "At All Costs"