Louise: A New Beginning
Page 25
“What if it was not me?”
“What do you mean?”
“What if it was not me that had gotten shot that awful night, but Will instead? What would you feel seeing him, dying right in front of your eyes?”
I didn’t need to think about the answer, it was obvious. “I would die too.”
“Then I think you should know something. . .”
I looked at her, frowning. “What should I know?”
“The sharpshooter was not there after me, Louise. He was there to kill William…”
Her words were like a splash of cold water in the middle of winter.
“What did you say?”
“It’s true, Dear. Your father hired that man to kill Will. Because he found out about the press-conference you two had planned. And he wanted to stop you. He thought that if you were alone, you wouldn’t be brave enough to reveal the truth about him. So he hired that man to kill Will. Only the shooter wasn’t as good of a shot as Fletcher believed him to be and Will and I were standing too close. When the shooter saw the guard coming, he probably assumed he could shoot quickly and hit the right person, only he was wrong. I got shot with the bullet that was supposed to kill your Will, not me.”
“But…how did you know he was there to kill Will?”
“The shooter made a confession. Will told me about it when he was here yesterday.”
“Oh, God. . .” A lump formed in my throat. I would have never been able to forgive myself if Will had died. I would have died with him, right there and then, because even thinking about watching him die hurt like nothing else.
“What time is it?” I asked, frantically looking around.
“Half-past two. Why?”
I had only thirty minutes to get to the airport…
“I have to go, mom. I’ll be back later, okay?”
“Sure, Sweetie. Don’t worry, I’ll be fine. I hope you are going to reclaim your man.”
I kissed her on the forehead and rushed to the door. “I’ll tell you all about it later. Love you!”
I called a taxi and asked the driver to take me to a private airport where I knew Will’s jet usually landed. It was too far away from the hospital and there was no way in hell I would make it there on time to catch him.
When mom said it could have been Will killed that night, everything suddenly took its place in my head, and in my heart. My love for Will didn’t go anywhere, it still lived, filling every small part of me. I didn’t know how much I loved him until the moment I realized I could have lost him forever; not to another woman, but for real, without a chance to see him again, to hear his voice or feel his touch. My memories would never do enough justice to what it felt like to be with Will, feeling his love, seeing it in his eyes and hearing it in his every word addressed to me.
I couldn’t lose it all, I couldn’t lose him.
When the taxi stopped at the airport, I paid for the ride and ran to where I remembered the plane to be before taking off. Will and I were here before our trip to Paris last summer.
But when I got to the place I expected to find him, I saw nothing but a white plane taking off the ground.
Too late. . .
I came too late to stop him, and now he was gone…
I watched the plane, taking the love of my life away from me, feeling my heart breaking into a million tiny pieces, taking away my every reason to breathe, leaving nothing but the endless emptiness within.
Every memory of Will, starting the very first day when we met at the train station and to the last time I saw him, flashed behind my closed eyes. Every small moment he and I had ever shared, a touch, a kiss, a look – all were gone now, with the wind taking him farther and farther away from me.
I couldn’t believe it, I didn’t want to believe he was gone. . .
Wait, it’s not like I didn’t know how to find him, right? I could buy a ticket to Paris, I could call Christopher and ask the address of the hotel or another place where Will was going to stay, I could. . .
“Looking for someone, Miss?”
My heart skipped a beat at the sound of the familiar voice ringing out behind me. Slowly, I turned around and gasped, unable to make myself speak.
Will was there, standing just a few feet away from me, as gorgeous and irresistible as ever.
“What are you doing here?” I asked, when my ability to speak finally returned.
“I could ask you the same question,” he said. I couldn’t read his face, honestly, I never could. To me, he was still my Mr. Secret from the dance room nine.
“Why didn’t you tell me the bullet was meant for you?” I asked.
Neither of us moved. We kept watching each other in the distance.
“Would it have changed anything?” He asked. He didn’t sound angry, or upset; he sounded thoughtful, nostalgic even.
“It would change everything.”
“It doesn’t matter now. Everyone is safe and sound, and you don’t have anything to worry about.”
I didn’t know what to do. A part of me wanted to stop talking, to just step closer to where he was standing, wrap my arms around him, and get lost in his warmth. But the other part had a few more questions to ask.
“Why did you stay?”
He smirked, taking a step closer to me. “I guess I’ve never had enough strength to leave. I wanted to leave, that’s true. I have planned the flight, I have packed my bags, I have reserved a hotel, I have taken care of everything I would need while I am in Paris. But I couldn’t make myself leave you. . . God knows, I wanted to. I wanted it so bad, I thought I would lose the remnants of my mind if I stayed here, for even one more day. But when the time to leave came, I closed my eyes and realized that I don’t want the memories of you to be the only part of you I will have with me in Paris. I realized that being here, even without a chance to fall asleep and wake up by your side, is still better than living so far away from you, without a chance of seeing you for real. I would probably go to your school to watch you dance, or come to one of your shows to enjoy your beauty. . . I wouldn’t interfere into your life. I would stay in the shadows, always caring about you, always loving you. . .”
With every word he was saying, I felt like my heart was being ripped out of my chest, over and over again, making the pain that I felt at the thought of not seeing him, ever again hit its maximum.
“Do you still love me?” I asked the only question that I needed to hear the answer to.
“I think not even death would make me stop loving you. I’m just that addicted to you, Louise. I can’t help it, I can’t change it. I don’t want to change it. . . Because my love for you is the best thing I have ever felt. It’s the only thing I want to keep in my heart forever.”
“Will you believe me if I tell that I love you too?”
He laughed quietly. “Don’t know. . . Do you?”
“I do… I love you so much, Will… I would have died with you if the damn bullet hit you.”
“I have died every day waiting for you, Louise. Every day, I hoped to see you again, I hoped to get at least a call from you. But you never called.”
“I’m sorry. . . I’m so sorry for everything that I put you through. If only you could forgive me. . .”
“What would you do? What would my forgiveness change?”
“I would never let you fall asleep alone again. . .”
He just stood there watching me. It seemed like an eternity before he spoke again.
Then he said, “What about your precious freedom? Would you give it up for me?”
I sighed, feeling as weak as ever. “For you, I would give up on anything.”
Not a muscle moved on Will’s face.
“Okay,” he said after a short pause. “Will you promise me something?”
“What do you want me to promise?”
“Promise you won’t give up on your dreams because of me. I want to live those dreams with you. I want to see you dancing, showing your performances all over the world and being happy.”
“Only if you promise to be the inspiration for every one of my dances.”
He smiled shortly. “That I can promise you.”
I dared to take a step closer to him, still keeping some distance between us. “So. . . Does this mean we will try again? Being together, I mean?”
He crossed the distance between us and cupped my face in his palms saying, “We will start it all from the very beginning, from the very first kiss. . .”
Epilogue
Paris
Four years later
“I take you, Louise Woods, to be my wife, to walk with me down the roads that our destinies have prepared for us, to share the light and the darkness we might face, to never let you down, to cherish and support you whenever you need it, to be your strength and a shoulder to cry on, to be my love, the brightest of my dawn and the longest of sunsets, to be my best friend and my soul, to be my heart and my every breath. . . And I promise to love you for as long as this universe exists and even longer. I give you this ring as a sign of my eternal love that will never fade away, no matter what.”
Will put a beautiful platinum ring on my finger and kissed it, smiling brightly at me.
“Now, your turn Miss Woods,” the priest said.
I took a deep breath, before I said, “William Blair, I take you to be my husband, my soul mate, and the biggest mystery of my life that I will never tire of solving. I promise to love you unconditionally, with no fears or doubts. I give myself to you, to be your shelter when it’s raining, to be your sun when you feel cold, to be your light on a stormy night, to be your best friend and the mother of your children, to love you for as long as the sky over our heads exists and even longer. I give you this ring as a sign of my love, boundless and eternal, the love that had saved me when I was lost, the love that has freed me from the prison of my past, the love that has made my reality better than any dream I have ever had.”
I put a ring on Will’s finger and covered it with a kiss.
“Love isn’t something you say,” the priest said. “It’s something you do, with every small step you take, with every breath you take. Keep it in your hearts, cherish it, make it grow and get stronger, so that no force will ever be able to break it. Now that you have given yourselves to each other with solemn vows, and the giving and receiving of rings, in front of God and all who are assembled here, I pronounce you husband and wife. You may now seal your vows with a kiss.”
Will smiled at me, bending to kiss me on the lips. The guests applauded.
It was our first kiss as husband and a wife, and it felt so special.
On a beautiful day in late July, our families and friends gathered in an estate, near Paris. Everyone we loved and wanted to share this moment with was there: Will’s mom, Nigel, and my mom, Christopher, Kate and Drew, who to our great joy were finally together; Tess and her boyfriend Joel whom she met about a year ago. She and I had been through a lot together, but in the end, we realized that there was nothing more important than family and true friends. She didn’t leave Le Papillon, she took Kate’s place after my dearest friend found out she was going to be a mom. Despite her fears, Drew was more than happy to know that he would be a father. They got married on New Year’s Eve, in Las Vegas. I had never seen Kate happier than the day of their wedding.
There was one more guest at our wedding who I could have never imagined becoming friends with – my half-sister Audrey. One day, when I was having training at Balero she came to the class, asking for me. She introduced herself and said that unlike her older sister and mother, she had never been angry at me for what I did to our father. She said he deserved what he got, and that she wanted to know more about me. We started talking, and I realized that we did have a lot in common: books, our taste in music, and what was even more surprising was our shared passion for dancing. She asked me to practice with her so she could apply to take classes at Balero. And now, she was one of its students. I was very proud of her. We often had practice together, and she became really close to Sabine, which was another great thing about my new family, a family I could have never imagined having, a family who made my life complete, a family I loved more than anything in the world.
As for Will and I. . . We’d never been happier than today. We had been waiting for this day for so long, but our love never weakened, despite all the trials we had to go through.
Will supported me and as he promised, inspired my every dance, in a very special and intimate way. . . It was a bond that neither of us could explain, we could only feel and enjoy it.
We traveled a lot, especially after I joined the Balero’s troupe. Will didn’t mind going to the shows with me. As a matter of fact, he turned into my biggest fan, always sitting in the front row and taking hundreds of pictures of me dancing on the stage.
I loved every single picture he took. I don’t know how, but he always managed to take the best shots that said so much more than words would ever be able to explain.
We lived our dreams, we made them come true and every night, before to going to bed, we shared another dance. . .
THE END
About the author
Diana Nixon is a Bestselling Author of contemporary and paranormal romances. She was born in Minsk, Belarus, where she currently lives and works on her books.
In 2008 Diana graduated from Belorussian State University. She has a Master of Law degree and speaks several foreign languages, including English, Polish and Spanish.
Visit author’s website:
www.diana-nixon.com
More books by Diana Nixon:
Love Lines (Love Lines, # 1)
Songs of the Wind (Love Lines, # 2)
From Scratch (Love Lines, # 2.5)
Diamond Sky (Love Lines, # 3)
The Curse of Blood (Love Line, # 4)
The Souls of Rain (Heavens Trilogy, # 1)
The Prisoners of Dreams (Heavens Trilogy, # 1.5)
Hate at First Sight
Love Undone (Love Undone, # 1)
In Your Eyes (Love Undone, # 2)
Checkmate (Checkmate, # 1)
No Strings Attached (Checkmate, # 2)
Back in the Game (Checkmate, # 3)
Set Me Free (Set Me Free, # 1)
Shattered (Shattered, # 1)
Louise (Louise, # 1)