“Don’t move.” She flashed the gun at me, pointing it at my head.
My hands sprung up immediately. “Whoa, Melody, put that down.”
“If I wanted to put that down, I would. Don’t fucking tell me what to do. You can’t do that anymore.”
I looked at Amy, still asleep, I prayed she stayed asleep to not have to see this. My eyes went right back to Melody. “Ok, Melody, why are you doing this?” I asked calmly.
“Why?” She giggled. “She took what I wanted.” She pointed the gun at Amy lying there innocently. Then back at me. “You destroyed me, and she took my place. Then you thought you could just get rid of me by paying me some fucking money. As if I was some object at a pawn shop. Not your ex fiancé, but some fucking object to just get rid of.”
“Melody, that’s not how…”
“SHUT UP!” she screamed. Which was what woke Amy, who shifted in the bed before her eyes flew open in horror at what she saw.
“Noah! What is going on?” She sat up quickly in bed with fear in her voice staring right at the barrel of the gun that was now pointing right on Amy.
“You weren’t supposed to be awake! See all of this is all wrong now. This wasn’t supposed to go this way. Fuck!” she yelled, nervously shaking the gun.
“Melody, please…just put the gun down, we can talk about this. I’m not trying to get rid of you.”
Amy’s arm entwined with my mine, gripping me hard as I could tell she was scared. I looked over at Amy and whispered it would be ok. Her eyes searched mine, and I could tell she didn’t believe me.
“NO!” Melody shouted. “Don’t fucking talk to her! Get away from her, you’re not supposed to be with her, Noah!”
“Please…” I started to stand up, my hands in the air, showing her the control she had in the situation. I made my way closer to her, before she shouted again.
“STOP or I swear I’ll fucking shoot you both now.”
“You don’t want that, Melody, you love me. I was never getting rid of you. I was making plans, you see.”
“I do love you, I never fucking stopped loving you and you ruined me. You called everything off when I loved you.” She sighed. “Why is this happening? Why are you making me do this? It was supposed to just me and you forever.” She started to wander over to the window in the bedroom as she was basically talking to herself and what she was doing in the situation she had just put herself in.
I glanced over to Amy while Melody was distracted. I mouthed to her to get her phone. Quickly I glanced back at Melody. I had to try to do something. This wasn’t going to end well if I didn’t try to stop her. I had to for Amy, I couldn’t let anything happen to her. I never knew Melody had this side of her, I couldn’t believe this was happening. I got real close to Melody before she turned around and spotted me.
She jumped back, startled, and that was my moment. I leaped toward her and grabbed the arm with the gun knocking it against the wall, but she didn’t let go yet. Amy flew off the bed and ran out of the room and Melody screamed, trying to regain control. I knocked her hand again and the gun fired into the wall and I knocked it harder as it fell to the ground. I quickly pinned Melody against the wall, trapping her arms behind her, shoving my knee into her back to help give me some leverage.
“Noah, you love me!” she cried.
“No, Melody, I loved you.” I glanced over my shoulder. “Amy, baby, are you ok?” I yelled as she peeked her head back in the room as she was crying.
“It’s ok, baby, I’ve got her. It’s ok.” I looked over to her. Within minutes, cops were running into the condo and in the bedroom. After they apprehended Melody and took her away, I ran over to Amy.
“It’s ok, I’m here.” I shushed her as she was still crying and shaking from the incident.
“I was so scared, Noah.”
“I know, its ok.” I held her tightly in my arms.
We had to make a statement and headed down to the police station. I knew most of the guys as we deal a lot with the police, working at the fire station. I took Amy and tried to make her feel as comfortable as she could be. We were there a couple hours, and we headed back to the condo.
“I’m so sorry this happened, Amy.” I rubbed her back as we laid back in bed.
“Next time for warn me when you have psychotic ex-girlfriends.”
“There won’t be a next time, baby.” I chuckled, glad she was making the conversation light.
“Thank you for saving my life.” She smiled.
“It’s what I do…”
“I’m so glad that Brad saved yours.” She kissed me, and it was deep. The raw emotion from this single kissed sealed everything for me. It was funny how our lives changed. It was fate.
I made love to Amy, before we both fell asleep, peacefully.
9 - CHAPTER nine
Amy….
The light shining in my room was the worst type of light. Especially for a dumb, hungover bitch like me. I sighed and rolled over and saw Noah sleeping next to me. I smiled, and then I wanted to cry. I was so rude to him, I was dumb for doing what I did. But I wasn’t thinking. I just wanted to escape, and I sure as shit escaped, but not where I wanted to go. I didn’t want to feel this way and I definitely wasn’t thinking about yesterday. I didn’t even want to talk about Melody anymore and what happened. I still needed to talk about before what happened with Melody. I glanced at the clock, it was only seven am. I hit the pillow and closed my eyes. Apparently, it was a little rough because it woke Noah. He rolled over, wrapping his arms around me.
“Good morning.”
I smiled. “I’m an idiot. I know.”
“You’re ok, that’s all that matters.” He kissed my forehead. “Come on, I want to show you something.” He grabbed my hand and slowly brought it to the opening of his shirt before he let it rest on his belly. “Are you ok?” he asked quietly.
“Ok.” I nodded.
He lifted his shirt up and over his head, revealing his beautiful chest. Grabbing my hand back in his, he slowly let it trail up before my hand was hovering over his scar.
Tears immediately flooded my eyes in silence as I felt his scar from top to bottom. We didn’t talk, I just felt. We looked into each other’s eyes and I felt his warm chest; right underneath was his heart, beating rapidly. Beating because of Brad. I closed my eyes and took in the moment. This was it. This was the moment I’d been waiting for, to feel Brad again. As crazy as I sounded, I felt him more clearly than any other time I’ve tried to. My whole body shook and I trembled before him. I cried. Not only did I cry for this moment, but I cried because of how much I missed Brad. It was the understatement of the century, but I cried till I couldn’t cry anymore. This explained it all. This explained the connection we had. I wanted to think of it personally as Brad leading us to one another. That Brad wanted me to move on. It was fate, it was purely a miracle. Noah was the answer to all my unanswered questions over the last two years.
Noah was everything. It was then I knew that I was meant to be with Noah. I was pretty sure he knew that too. I couldn’t imagine how he could be feeling knowing it was me. We both received the shock of our lives, and we had to run with it. We had to embrace it. This was our story. This was our happily ever after. This was what was meant to happen. I was so beyond grateful for our fate. I never thought I’d feel the beat of Brad’s heart. But now that I did, in Noah, it was the only heart I wanted to feel. The only person I wanted to be with.
“I love you, Noah. I know that sounds ridiculous, but I do,” I said through broken sobs.
“You will always have a piece of Brad, in me, and if that isn’t the most beautiful thing in the world, I’m not sure what is. I love you, too, Amy. We were meant for one another.” He placed his hand on mine and squeezed before bringing it up to his lips and kissing it gently.
I was happy, I felt more healed than I ever felt. This was my moment to move on. Everything about meeting Noah was literally a small token from up above, they were all signs and like Noah
said, it was the most beautiful thing in the world. It was my moment to have loved Brad, and to start loving Noah Hendricks with every beat of my heart.
epilogue
2 Years Later….
The phone rang and I was excited to be answering the call. It was Noah and I was picking him up from the airport. Our lives were uprooted and we decided living in Chicago was where our hearts were meant to be. Florida was exciting, but Chicago was where most of our friends were and we wanted to start our life there, engaged.
“Hey, babe!” I answered, excited.
“Ready to get me? I just landed at O’Hare.”
“Yup, I’m on my way.” I rubbed my belly as it kicked. “It seems the baby is just as excited, it’s kicking up a storm.”
“It’s not an “it”, Amy, that’s my baby girl in there.”
“We will see in a matter of days, hot shot.” I laughed.
“Your parents are moving in two weeks, you know we have to at least wait till they're here to make the announcement.”
“I know. Ok, stop talking, I’m pulling out of the driveway now. I’ll be there in fifteen minutes.”
“Love you, babes.”
“Love you, Noah.”
My life was complete with Noah in it. Moving back to Chicago was the best decision we made. Once I found out I was pregnant, my parents decided moving to Chicago was the best for them too, to be closer to me and their first grandchild. I slid my hand over my belly and rubbed it, just envisioning this little miracle baby and wondering if I’ll have a daughter or son. We decided if it was a boy we’d name him Bradley and if it was girl she’d would be Bradelyn. Noah and I felt it would honor the life of Brad and the beautiful purpose for how we got together. It was fate, it was meant to happen and I never felt so blessed in my life than I did in that moment. Our two story home was a picture out of a magazine and the white picket fence, was a dream come true. We’d raise a family there. We’d be a family there. I had all and everything I needed in my life, with Brad as my angel looking over my shoulder every step of the way.
Noah was my rock. He was a great provider, and the best soon to be husband and father I could ask for after dealing with such tragedy in my life. He was starting at a new firehouse in two weeks and was chosen for a battalion chief position. For me, I was able to find a spot to possibly restart my flower shop. That was a ways away, for now, my focus was our family. As family was all you had in the world. It was all that mattered. Noah and the baby were my life now. Oh, and Sara, she was over the moon happy I was home. It was all complete. The ducks were finally back in a row.
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Other work from Author Nickie (Nalley) Seidler
A Lucky Second Chance
A Tattered Love
Taking My Love
Love Burned Deep
Somebody Worth It (Book 1 in the For Me Series)
Shamelessly Worth It (Book 2 in the For Me Series)
His Unplanned Lesson
Beat of His Heart Page 9