From Vangar, With Love: Sci Fi Alien Romance Love Letters by Julie K. Cohen

Author:Julie K. Cohen [Cohen, Julie K.]
Language: eng
Format: epub
Publisher: Julie K. Cohen
Published: 2024-02-02T00:00:00+00:00

CHAPTER TWELVE

TORG

When Chloe finds me in the supply store, she keeps her distance. Arms folded over her chest and eyes glaring, she waits by the door. As quickly as I can, I pay the merchant and take my box of solcaps and other items I need for repairs in the house.

“You found Garrog’s tree?” I ask as we head to the transit platform.

“Not a sapling. An older tree. Two years old according to a soldier who helped me.”

I knew she might discover the discrepancy when I took her to the remembrance field. While I could have discouraged her from going, she needed closure even at the expense of seeing me for the fraud I am.

Now that I see the pain laced with anger in her eyes, I regret not telling her the truth in that first letter I wrote.

When I reach for her hand, she refuses. “You lied to me.”

I turn and walk toward the transit. Her anger looms over me like a dark cloud as we enter a bubble. When she slides a full seat over to get away from me, my heart clenches.

When we wrote letters to one another, talking to her was so easy. She wasn’t here, and I was pretending to be Garrog, a charismatic second prime well-liked by all his peers. It was easy being him on paper.

My brothers warned me, told me to follow the rules of otath and immediately inform her of Garrog’s death, but I did not listen. She’d just written about her boss pressuring her for sex. She feared losing her job and said she felt so alone. I understood that. Not being pressured for sex, but the loneliness. Knowing Garrog would come for her allowed her to survive. I could not destroy that.

Beautiful brown eyes cloud with tears and her lower lip trembles. “You had someone write those letters in Garrog’s name, stringing me along. You made a fool of me. Why?”

I fell for you! The words lodge in my throat.

“Who wrote those letters?” she demands, her hands curling into fists.

“I did.”

Her mouth drops open. “You? You did not write them.”

“I pretended to be Garrog so I could give you hope, not add to your misery.”

Wide-eyed and speechless, she stares at me. Disgust pours off her. I’ve vekked this up.

When the transit reaches Prosh, I exit and wait for her on the platform. She stops several feet behind me, sending a clear signal that she won’t walk with me.

“I did not mean to deceive you,” I say as I head toward home.

“Then what? Were you lonely? You needed a pen pal?” She speaks fast, but I understand most of what she is saying, even though English is not my first language.

I stop again, hoping she’ll walk beside me the rest of the way. “What is pen pal?”

“Never mind. It doesn’t matter. I just want to get to your house, pack my stuff, and leave.”

“I will prove my worth to you.”

“You hurt me, Torg, by lying to me. You strung me along for two years, letting me believe I had a future on Vangar.

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