*"What nonsense are you spouting? Why can't I confess to Amy? I, Dominic Delgado, will never let Amy Ware down!"*
I stared at the page.
This wasn't a hallucination.
This was real.
On the other end of this impossible connection was my eighteen-year-old self.
The boy who had just received his acceptance letter. The boy who was moments away from changing Amy's life forever.
I dragged my sleeve across my face and wrote back, handwriting urgent.
*"I am you at thirty. Believe me. I would never lie to you."*
I waited.
And waited.
No reply came.
A bitter smile twisted my lips as fresh tears dripped onto the page.
Of course he didn't believe me. He was me, twelve years ago.
How could I not understand him?
He was an eighteen-year-old boy who thought a crush was destiny. Who believed love was an unbreakable vow. Amy Ware was the center of his universe—the girl he'd sworn to protect with everything he had.
If he gave up just because a stranger scribbled a few discouraging words in his notebook, he wouldn't be Dominic Delgado.
I clutched the diary to my chest and curled into a tight ball on the cold floor.
When Amy was still alive, she used to fall asleep like this. Defensive. Lonely.