All Chapters of Beyond Reach: Chapter 11 - Chapter 14

Zac was stunned. After all these years, this was the first time his father had ever brought up the subject of remarrying. His father told him that his marriage to Zac's mother had always been a business arrangement, with no real feelings involved. When Zac’s mother found true love while traveling abroad and asked for a divorce, his father agreed. But for the sake of ten-year-old Zac, they continued to pretend to be together. It wasn’t until later, when his father met my mom, that the sham marriage finally ended. After Zac heard all of this, his eyes turned bloodshot. He clenched his jaw, trying to find some hint of a lie in his father’s expression. But he seemed to fail. His father’s first heartfelt conversation with him turned out to be a brutal revelation. "So when you met my stepmom, you and my mom were already divorced?" Zac’s father nodded awkwardly. "You were still young back then, so I didn’t tell you. Now, your stepmom and I are planning a world tour,

I had been dead for a while now. If you had told me before I died, maybe I would have gone along with his little play of getting back together, pretending there were no regrets left in my life. But I was dead. I no longer needed Zac’s display of affection. I lost track of how long Zac stayed by my grave, rambling on and on. All I remembered was that the sky slowly darkened, and still, he could not bring himself to leave. But it felt like I was fading away. I noticed my body becoming transparent, and I could see the road to the afterlife, lined with flowers.At the other end of that road, a little girl with pigtails seemed to be calling out to me, "Mom." My body started drifting uncontrollably toward the light, and behind me, I heard Zac screaming desperately. I did not want to turn back. I never owed Zac anything. But love could make people lose their way. I loved Zac for so many years. This time, I just wanted to love myself and the child I neve