"I almost killed her?" Cato hisses at Thomas' remark. "You think she's just forgotten what you've done?"

"It was an accident," Thomas approaches Cato, muscles tense, body on edge. "I'm trying to fix it."

"You can't fix death."

"Neither can you! What if she died?" Oh gods, Thomas has never been so full of rage. "Kill that fucking thing, and stay the fuck away from my fiance!"

The word cuts a knife through the room, and Cato backs down. Cato had admitted that somewhere down our whirlwind romance that he planned on marrying me. In fact, he admitted it the night I questioned him about our future. He just had to betroth Gemma first to escape his family's bankruptcy.

Saying yes to Thomas is a risk that I'm willing to take, one that feels so right. I'm certain I'm making the right choice. For me. For the baby. For us.

"Fiance?" Cato's gaze falls onto me so helplessly. It's like I'm holding a dagger, and I'm stabbing him in the heart over and over again.

I used to be his solace, his shoulder to cry on when the world turned upside down, but how can I ease his pain when I'm the one who caused it?

But I can't run back to him. I've already gotten this far, and the idea of growing a family seems to jive in Thomas' world, not Cato's. I refuse to be a mistress. I refuse to be set to the background while Cato thrives.

I take a deep breath in, trying to calm my accelerating heart. "Cato, I know you're hurting, but—"

"You always loved him," Cato grits, shaking his head as reality crashes down. Every frustration, every grievance and resentment he ever felt about us, together, pours out. "Fuck it, Maureen! If he hadn't screwed up so fucking bad, you'd never have come to my estate, would you?"

I hold my breath. There's a truth to those words, and they well the rims of my eyes up with salty tears.

"Did you think of him when you were with me?" Cato accuses. "Were you using me as some sort of coping mechanism for your messed up life?"

A coping mechanism? No, what I thought I had with Cato was love. And to call my life 'messed up'? It's not a walk in a garden, but for him to dare admit that I live in shambles, for him to think that I used him as a way to bandage it all up... how can he?

We've been through so much together, and for me to leave him pains me as much as it agonizes him.

"Cato, I—"

"Was any of it fucking real?"

"Do you think I would lie to you?" I breathe, the tears on my cheeks falling more freely. "It was real. All of it, but I don't fit into your life."

"You do, and you can. I let you into my life, because I was happy. For the first fucking time in years."

The next four words that leave my lips officially break him to pieces. "But I am not."

Cato runs his fingers through his hair. He's the perfect vision of defeat and loss—heaving chest and lost green eyes. Yet, that expression that shatters him quickly resurfaces into that revenge-boiled rage. He flickers over to Thomas."

Thomas pushes in front of me. "Go Cato. I don't want to hurt you." Secretly, I know he does. The hatred between the two seems to be drawn from the pits of hell.

Cato shakes his head. "I told Maureen I'd never leave."

"So did I."

Cato clenches his jaw, and a fist flies through the air, colliding with Thomas' jaw. Blood spews from Thomas' lips, but I can tell from the glint in his blue eyes that this isn't his first fight. He wipes it away with his wrist before swinging his arm around Cato, locking him in a headlock.

I gasp, as the two men tumble onto the wooden floors and broken glass, contorting and throwing punches in frustration. Somehow, both of them become an equal match.

I try to intervene, but they're wild, unhinged. Thomas throws a punch against Cato's head, but the blow hardly remains enough to knock him out.

Thomas pins Cato down, holding him in his grasp. "You're going to do two things, else I'll put a bullet in your fucking skull." Cato gulps in response. "You're going to stay away from my wife, and you're going to kill the occisor."

Cato laughs. "You're not going to put a bullet in my skull."

Wrong words, Cato. In the flicker of a second, Thomas whips his gun out from beneath his shirt, holding the nose of the pistol to Cato's temple. I gasp.

"Test me," Thomas spits.

"Thomas," I hiss, taking a hold of his shoulders. "Stop this."

He listens, begrudgingly freeing Cato. A dark bruise haunts Thomas' scarred cheek like a ghost, and a bead of crimson blood drips down from his lips. I keep a hold on Thomas' shoulders, knowing that the moment I let go he'll go back to unleashing his wrath upon Cato. I take the gun from his fingers and throw it across the room, out of Thomas' grasp.

Cato stumbles to his feet, studying Thomas and I.

Blood drips down Cato's temple, and he holds a hand to his shoulder, popping the dislocation back into place.

Cato's voice breaks as his green eyes fall onto mine. "Is this what you want?"

The baby in my womb leaps at the sound of Cato's voice. There's years of familiarity between Cato and I. We were inseparable as children, or so we thought. Cato's return only brought back the feelings we longed for in those late years, but how can we keep up such heated emotions in a world beyond our bedrooms?

I nod my head and run a hand down Thomas' arms. I release Thomas from his hold, stepping towards Cato.

"You're a brilliant man, Cato," I whisper. "You're so deserving of a woman who can give you everything you need in your life. You need one that can support you wherever you go, and can follow you to the moon and back. You need one who..." I take a deep breath in. "Who can give you a family, one that you can love and tell stories about the stars."

"It just can't be you."

I nod my head. "It's not me."

He'd fallen so hard, and look at us now? We've hit rock bottom, standing in a destroyed apartment from an alien creature. Blood bleeds from his clothes from Thomas' punches, his clothes and hair disheveled. He stands before the woman he loves, only to find out she's engaged to another man. I've fallen pregnant, and had nowhere to go but here.

Look at us. This city wants us to fall. It wants us to keep falling.

There's nowhere to go but up.

"If anything goes wrong, you know I'll let you back in," Cato looks down at his shoes, too ashamed to even meet my gaze. "No matter the time. Even if it's fifty years from now."

A tear falls down my cheek. "I'll be okay," I breathe. "You've done so much for me, and it's time I figure out the world on my own."

Cato looks up to Thomas, who laces his arms around my stomach as he pulls me against his chest. Thomas holds me tighter, not saying a word, although even silent I can read his thoughts.

Cato meets Thomas' eyes. "I'll kill it, but you have to promise me you'll take care of her."

Thomas' voice rumbles through his chest. "I will."

One last look. One last gaze of those forest irises. We had the world in our hands, and loved so deeply it created new life. Yet, there's no hesitation to go back. I can navigate the world now without the guidance of my astronaut.

"Goodbye, Cato Leveque," I breathe.

* * * * *

My astronaut.

I'll always love you, my first love.

We grew up laying next to each other in innocence, but we never knew that it would become something so out of this world. I'll miss the sparkle in your green eyes when you speak of what you love. I'll miss being close to you, as well as the melody of your voice.

Don't stop loving the stars. When I look up at them, I'll think of you. Your gaze is always up in a world that isn't this one. You see so much potential and possibility. So go. Explore it.

I'll be here, watching your every step.

We'll be here.

When you return, I'll be waiting to congratulate you.

I love you, but it'll never be the same as it was. I have a family to grow now.

One day, I'd love for you to meet them.

-----

*sobbing, crying* Last chapter is released Friday, July 8 between 7:00 PM - 10:00PM EST. Epilogue will also be released shortly after.

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