I Buried My First Love After He Died in a Fire 30 Years Ago – I Mourned Him Until I Realized Who My New Neighbor Was

I took the photo, tracing the edges with my thumb.

I looked at him, searching his face for the boy I loved. “Did you ever try to run?”

He nodded.

“The first year, I tried twice. They found me both times. After that, I was always watched. Even as an adult, someone was always there — a nurse, a caregiver, someone from the family.”

A lump rose in my throat.

“And you just… accepted it?”

“I stopped fighting when they told me you were married.”

“Did you ever try to run?”

“Gabe, you need to stop living under her thumb. It’s been 30 years of this nonsense.”

He shook his head, rubbing the scar on his arm. “You don’t know Camille, Sammie. She’s gotten worse than you remember. She has lawyers, money, connections everywhere. She’s been controlling everything for so long, I —”

I reached across the table. “Then let’s fight. Together.”

He looked at me, uncertain. “Fight how? She has everything. My father is dead, and he was starting to understand…”

“She doesn’t have everything,” I said. “She doesn’t have the truth. And she doesn’t have us working together. Gabe, you’re not Elias. You’re Gabriel. Stop letting her decide who you are.”

I looked at the taut, burned skin on his forearm.

“Then let’s fight. Together.”

“She threatened your father. She threatened you. If we go after her —”

“I’m not afraid of your mother, Gabe. Not anymore,” I met his eyes. “And you shouldn’t be, either. I’m here now.”

For the first time since he walked back into my life, I saw the boy I remembered.

“What do we do?” he asked.

“We expose her,” I said. “You take back your name. You tell the board you’re alive and here. And you reclaim what’s yours — your life, your company, your history.”

He let out a shaky breath. “If I do this, I need you with me.”

“I’m not afraid of your mother, Gabe.”

“I’m not going anywhere,” I said. “You’re Gabriel. And I’m your Sammie. And trust me when I say that I know how to fight.”

A slow grin crept across his face. “You always were the troublemaker.”

I squeezed his hand.

“And you always covered for me.”

He laughed, but it faded into something serious. “She’ll come after us.”

“I’m counting on it,” I said, standing up. “Let’s make her play defense for once.”

**

“You always were the troublemaker.”

Janet had always been my ride-or-die, but I’d never seen her this fired up. She dropped her tote bag and got to work.

“Okay, spill everything,” she said. “Are we just here to make Camille sweat, or do we want the world to know she erased you and staged your death?”

Gabriel hesitated, but I didn’t.

“We want the truth out, Jan. She can’t keep hiding what she did to us. Not after everything. Gabriel was isolated in private care under his mother’s control.”

“Everything in my life was supervised,” he said.

Gabriel hesitated.