Forever Destiny
Copyright 2014 Mia Rodriguez
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Table of Contents
Preface
Chapter 1
Chapter 2
Chapter 3
Chapter 4
Chapter 5
Chapter 6
Chapter 7
Chapter 8
Chapter 9
Chapter 10
Chapter 11
Chapter 12
Chapter 13
Chapter 14
Chapter 15
Chapter 16
Chapter 17
Chapter 18
Chapter 19
Chapter 20
Chapter 21
Chapter 22
Chapter 23
Chapter 24
Chapter 25
Chapter 26
Chapter 27
Chapter 28
Chapter 29
Chapter 30
Chapter 31
Chapter 32
Chapter 33
Chapter 34
Chapter 35
Chapter 36
Chapter 37
Chapter 38
Chapter 39
Chapter 40
Chapter 41
Chapter 42
Chapter 43
Chapter 44
Chapter 45
Chapter 46
Chapter 47
Chapter 48
Chapter 49
Chapter 50
Chapter 51
Chapter 52
Chapter 53
Chapter 54
Chapter 55
Chapter 56
Chapter 57
Chapter 58
Chapter 59
Chapter 60
Chapter 61
Chapter 62
Today is only a reflection of yesterday.
Preface
Destiny finds you. It hunts you down. It is a sneaky prankster in this grand adventure called life. It is a quiet trickster tip toing all around you.
If you don't surrender to it, it'll shake you. It'll rattle you. Of course you have personal will—the ability to take what's handed to you or rebuff it.
It's your decision.
Pick wisely.
There's an eternity at stake.
Chapter 1
Kate spent an inordinate amount of time worrying and sweating bullets. Much more than she would allow herself to face.
Too many what ifs ganged up on her, wanting to swallow her whole.
What if her life with Enzo was an enormous lie?
What if Enzo would never love her like she loved him?
What if her relationship with him came tumbling down like a house of cards?
What would she do with another enormous loss in her life?
Chapter 2
It was going to be one of those days—maybe one of those weekends. Chaos. From waking up to deafening thunder in the very early hours of the morning to continuous showers from then on, Lorenzo Montes’s Saturday wasn’t going at all as planned. There was a saying in Spanish, 'El hombre propone y Dios dispone.' It couldn’t have been truer, he thought wryly, because even if he had his plans, God seemed to have other ideas.
Lorenzo and Kate were supposed to have gone to the city of Ruidoso, New Mexico to do some hiking and stay in a beautiful cabin in the woods for a few days. That wasn’t happening anymore so in the evening, after being cooped up all day, he suggested they catch a movie.
Because of accidents and slow traffic, he and Kate arrived at the cinema late. Ordinarily, he liked to get there at least fifteen minutes early, so he could buy what he needed at the concession stand and pick out the seats he wanted. Groaning, he looked at his watch—only a five minute cushion. Several lines had already formed outside the ticket office. He hated standing around doing nothing, and he fidgeted until he was in front of the ticker seller.
“That movie is sold out,” stated a teen-ager with several bumps of acne on her face. The day was definitely not going as planned.
"What do you think?" he conferred with Kate. "What do you want to watch?"
Her pretty face and shiny green eyes looked at him with amusement. "Anything is fine with me."
"Okay, Katie."
He picked another film—a horror one he didn’t particularly want to see but the line behind him kept getting longer and he had to make a quick choice. The masses of people inside waiting for popcorn made him want to turn around and leave the theater all together but instead, he got in line again.
With a large tub of buttery popcorn and two large sodas, Lorenzo and Kate finally stepped away from the lobby and gave a fresh-faced young man their tickets. He promptly tore them, handing back the ticket stubs and telling them which direction to go—the opposite of where the adventure movie they had originally wanted to see. A couple in front of them had been fortunate enough to get tickets to it.
As they went through the hallway, Kate suddenly stopped walking. The color drained from her face.
“What’s wrong, Katie?” Lorenzo asked, worried.
“Leonel,” she muttered.
“What?” Lorenzo looked in the direction her eyes were focused. A man with his coloring, dark brown hair and eyes and a tawny complexion, but shorter in stature and with tailored clothes stood outside the women’s bathroom checking the face of his watch.
Kate quickly hid behind Lorenzo, but the man didn’t even glance at them. Instead, the man stepped over to the poster of an upcoming movie next to the restroom and started reading it. Unfortunately, it was also next to the film she and Lorenzo were supposed to see.
“One of your patients?” Lorenzo asked.
She nodded with disconsolation.
Now he understood her strange behavior. Kate hated bumping into her patients outside the office. He had personally witnessed how some of them tried to get therapy during whatever activity she was in the middle of. It didn’t matter if she was at the supermarket or having dinner at a restaurant, they would bombard her with personal stories—talk he was very uncomfortable with. Where was their sense of privacy? he’d wonder. To be discussing such things in front of him—a total stranger.
“Enzo, do you mind if we see another movie?” Kate mumbled, her voice shaky.
“Sure, I didn’t want to see a horror movie in the first place.”
Kate blindly slipped into the first film next to them, not caring if it had already started, not even noticing the name of it, and not stopping to see if Lorenzo was behind her. He was, and they seated themselves on one of the top tiers. The theater buzzed with lively chatter. It was already full. They were fortunate to get two seats together and that the movie hadn’t started.
Maybe the evening wouldn’t be completely ruined, he thought. What chaos. He went over the eventful day—the weather ruining his trip to Ruidoso, in turn going to a movie that he was late to because of traffic, and finally in turn having to choose another one again because of Katie's patient. She had been so unlike herself for a few weeks that he had suggested a special weekend in Ruidoso to cheer her up but with what had happened to their trip, they'd have to settle for a movie night.
The lights started dimming as they took their seats, and the loud sounds of the coming attractions resonated throughout. A sudden, sharp gasp flew out of Kate, her eyes glued to the man stepping in from the corridor. It looked like they just couldn't get away from Kate's patient. He was holding someone’s h
and, obviously his date, but Lorenzo couldn’t see her yet since she was blocked by the walls of the corridor as Kate’s patient seemed to be figuring out where to sit. Lorenzo eyed him intently, now fully curious about him and his date.
Kate’s purse suddenly fell to the ground, sending a lipstick, a compact, and a pen in different directions. He handed the popcorn to her and bent down to retrieve them—the male tweens next to him annoyed that he had asked them if they could move their feet so he could get the objects.
“I’m so clumsy,” murmured Kate when Lorenzo handed her things back to her.
He straightened out in his seat wondering what she had wanted from her purse in the first place. She had sat it on the floor to watch the movie in comfort, but then had abruptly snatched it off the ground and accidentally dropped it.
The film started and his eyes shifted to the front. Unfortunately, Katie’s patient and his date had apparently found seats because they were nowhere in sight and Lorenzo would have to leave his curiosity unquenched. The giant title Destiny flashed on the screen, and he had to subvert an instant groan. He disliked love stories almost as much as horror flicks.
“Let’s watch something else,” Kate blurted anxiously, her words quiet but in a hurry.
“Let’s just stay,” he said, tired of all the running around.
“We could leave the cinema altogether. Leave—“
People in the immediate vicinity shushed them angrily. Lorenzo shook his head at Kate to give her a response and pointed at the screen, indicating that they might as well stay put. Even if he had no desire to watch an unrealistic, Hollywood romance where two people burned for each other so much that they couldn’t be without one another, he didn’t want to leave. The first scene of the movie, the one where the credits were jumping in and out of, had caught his attention.
A dark-haired unconscious woman was being carried into a hospital’s Emergency Room by a desperate man.
“Save her! Save her!” he repeated over and over as a medical team took her, putting her on a gurney and forcing the man to let go of her. “Please save her and my baby!” he begged. The camera panned the woman’s heavy womb.
But that was it for the opening scene because then the movie went back in time to explain the present situation. Kate fidgeted uncontrollably, her breathing ragged and painful. Next to her, Lorenzo, despite how he felt about such silly romances, stared at the screen completely absorbed.
The man in the film had fallen in love with the pregnant woman since they were children, but she cared about another man. He gave up hope and got together with another woman. After many obstacles, he and the first woman ended up together because destiny seemed to be constantly throwing them towards one another. She got pregnant but when the labor pains came, she lost consciousness. In the hospital, he waited with excruciating impatience until the doctor told him that they were unable to save his wife. He looked completely lost as he gazed at his new baby girl from the nursery window in the maternity ward.
As the ending credits rolled, Kate jumped up. “Let’s go,” she demanded, rushing towards the aisle. Being the first one out of her chair, she flew down the stairs without having to stop for others. Lorenzo hurried to keep up with her. Throwing his empty soda container and bucket of popcorn in the trash bin, his long, strong legs had to almost run to catch up to her.
“What’s going on with you?” he asked, grabbing her arm and stopping her.
Her ashen face looked beyond him.
"Leonel," she mumbled for the second time that evening.
Lorenzo turned to see Kate's patient coming out of the film. His curiosity about to be quelled when Leonel's date would step out in a few seconds.
“Let’s go now,” she insisted, fiercely grabbing his hand with both of hers and rushing away. Allowing himself to be pulled because of the deep concern for Kate, he chose to follow her abrupt stride out of the theater. His curiosity would have to stay where it was at. Fortunately, his car was parked near to the exit.
“You're acting very strange,” he said with a worried tone as he clicked on his seat belt.
“Let’s just go,” she murmured.
“But—“
“Please,” she pleaded, staring nervously at the exit door as it opened. A slew of unknown people stepped out. “Please, Enzo, let’s just leave now.”
He turned the ignition and backed out. As he drove away, the exit door opened again. Lorenzo caught a brief glimpse of Leonel stepping out.
“Are you okay, Katie,” Lorenzo asked her as they hit the main road. It had stopped raining, and traffic was heavy but not impossible.
Kate nodded, her pallor a sickly yellow and her breathing shallow.
“No, you’re not,” Lorenzo stated. “Don’t lie to me.”
“I’ll be fine in a few minutes,” she sighed.
“Is that patient of yours dangerous?” demanded Lorenzo.
“No.”
“No?”
“Not physically anyway.”
“What?”
“Never mind,” she said, gulping.
“But—“
“I’m not seeing that patient anymore,” she explained, her color returning to its normal pallor when they reached the freeway.
“Good. I'm glad."
"Sometimes your patients get to you in unexpected ways," she murmured, lost in her thoughts, “like your students get to you.”
He nodded absent-mindedly. “That’s true.”
“Before you know it, they’re under your skin.”
“I know.”
“And it’s almost impossible to get them out.”
“True.”
“Can we talk about something else?” she asked, her lips forming a tight, fake smile.
“Did you like the movie?” he asked.
“No,” she quickly blurted as the fake smile left her face. “But you seem to have.”
He chuckled lightly. “I know that it was corny and predictable, but there was just something about it.”
“It was just a movie,” she asserted, her voice cracking.
“I know, but I couldn’t help feeling sorry for the poor guy. He practically spent his whole life loving this woman and she dies.”
“It was obviously a trick from the filmmakers to tug at our heartstrings,” she blurted.
“I’m sorry about the death scene,” Lorenzo expressed gently. “If I would’ve known it was in it, we would’ve left when you suggested it.”
“We should’ve walked out,” she sighed. “I’m reminded of Lindsey’s passing everywhere I turn.”
“I’m sorry,” he repeated.
She put her hand over his on the steering wheel. “You can’t always protect me from everything involving death,” she explained.
“I can try.”
Kate smiled at him, her eyes sparkling. “Thank you.”
“No thanks necessary.”
“You’re such a great guy, Enzo. Have I told you that lately?”
He chuckled. “No, not in a while.”
“Then I have to tell you more often.”
“I don’t think you should be inflating my ego that way. You’ll end up creating a monster.”
“Impossible,” she said, resting her head on his shoulder. ”You’re a great guy like the character in the film.”
“I doubt that.”
“You are,” she stated solemnly.
“Thank you.”
“I guess he’ll have to go on with his life after she died,” Kate mumbled, her words clipped and hopeful.
“I know I’m talking like a giddy schoolgirl, but they should’ve been together at the end instead of her dying. The writer should've written the ending differently.”
She jerked her head away from his shoulder. “You think?” Kate asked quietly.
“I think so.”
“Don’t say that,” she blurted.
“Why not?”
“Just don’t say that
,” she murmured with a shaky voice as the traffic lights turned a bright green in front of them after what had seemed an inordinate amount of time on red. The car in front hadn't noticed. Lorenzo honked
"Green—the road is clear—go," he grumbled. "Go."
Chapter 3
It had been such a close call, Kate thought to herself with anguish.
A very close call!
Today was just a huge coincidence of odd events, Kate assured herself. Nothing else. It was just a coincidence that she and Enzo had ended up in the movies instead of Ruidoso. It was just a coincidence that Valeria and Leonel had ended up there too. It was just a coincidence that all four had ended up in the very same film.
And it was a HUGE coincidence that the film, Destiny, closely paralleled Enzo's possible past life when he had possibly been Leonardo and Valeria had maybe been Valentina during the revolution in Mexico and they had been fiercely in love.
Reincarnation.
Kate cursed the day Valeria had stepped into her psychiatry office and had turned her whole life upside down. When Kate had hypnotized her to find what was at the root of the strange nightmare Valeria kept having, she never imagined that Valeria's subconscious would click into another life—a life that her patient and Enzo had possibly been involved in.
Good thing Valeria had never been aware of what was happening during those sessions where she had been hypnotized. Good thing Valeria and Enzo weren't aware of one another in this life. Good thing El Paso is too big for them to run into each other.
A very good thing!
Chapter 4
Autumn brought changes.
Most of the people Lorenzo knew hated change, but he was a History teacher. He understood more than others the impossibility of staying in the same place. Events moved forward whether they were accepted or not. Change was to be expected and an obvious and unavoidable part of life. As the new school year started at Adelita High School, students roamed the hallways and teachers took in quick bursts of oxygen hoping for the best as eclectic energy vibrated through the air. As Lorenzo went past the administration office, he solemnly nodded at the new principal—Gus Bleaker.
I just don’t like that guy, Lorenzo said to himself. From the first meeting an ugly friction sparked in the air causing Lorenzo to distrust him and judging by how Principal Bleaker had eyed him, the feeling was mutual. It was one of those instant intense dislikes that escaped logical reasoning. How can you dislike someone so much that you barely met? The old principal had retired and there was so much going on—a new principal, a new superintendent, and several new teachers.
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