“Woman, you and I need to have a very lengthy talk soon. And, yes, again and again—forever and a day, until death you and I part, until my last gasping breath—I’ll never stop loving you.”
Epilogue
Reiss
“Love is patient and kind. Love is not jealous, it does not brag, and it is not proud. Love is not rude, is not selfish, and does not get upset with others. Love does not count up wrongs that have been done. Love takes no pleasure in evil but rejoices over the truth. Love patiently accepts all things. It always trusts, always hopes, and always endures.” – 1 Corinthians 13:4-7
Who would’ve thought that a girl and a boy could find lasting love at the age of sixteen and seventeen? Yet, it had happened to Ava and I.
When young, we were molded into thinking that life was what you made of it, that our younger years were merely a stepping stone to a bigger and brighter future ahead of us. Consequently, when we stumbled upon each other and ignited this consuming love, given our gullible age and our naiveté, it was inevitable that we would make a disaster of it.
Young though we were, it didn’t make our feelings any less intense, any less powerful, than people falling in love in their mid-twenties or more. Who was society to judge what real love was and what it wasn’t? Some were lucky enough to experience love twice or three times in their lives. Some only had that chance once in their lifetime, and would thoroughly live that experience through a glorified way of remembering the love once found. However, for the folks that didn’t toy with fire, most didn’t ever find love at all.
I proudly boasted that, not only did I find my one true love at a very young age, I also was given a second chance to correct what had gone wrong. This kind of luck normally didn’t happen. One would have a better luck in playing the lottery than trying to win this kind gamble.
Love.
One word, consisting of four letters. It looked simple and uncomplicated. It was rather plain English that didn’t make anyone sound scholarly compared to saying the word meretricious or succedaneum. Although, that was where the simplicity ended.
It was a frightening process to put your faith and trust into one person, risking everything in them. It was a sacrifice that everyone needed to make before achieving the all-consuming dream that was worth more than life itself.
I was a lucky man indeed to have such a woman who had never given up on believing in me.
A week after that horrendous nightmare, Ava and I left to visit my parents. The culprit who stole millions just happened to be the CFO of the company, a man who I met during studying economics in my university days. He was a man I trusted but his profound greed made him betray one of the people who had helped him achieve the wealth he had acquired…but with his arrest and the courts on his bloody traitorous arse hounding every account they could trace, he was done for. I was negotiating so the company could take back all the money that was lost, or what was left of it, without him going to prison for a decade. I believed a year or two would suffice. He used to be a good man at one point. Maybe spending time behind bars would enlighten him a little. With all this chaos involving work, I took a short hiatus right after, needing to cater to my wife and simply enjoy her company since I still owed her a honeymoon. Much more so, a real wedding, consisting of our closest friends and family. I wanted an intimate ceremony, a different kind than the one she’d had with Ashton.
Therefore, on the third day of our trip, I took her somewhere special. We drove for about forty minutes before parking the car underneath a tree. We got out of and I blindfolded her. Then, we strolled for another ten minutes or so before reaching the intended destination where I took the cover from her eyes.
“Oh, my God, Reiss!” she shrieked as her eyes grew huge, delighted by my surprise. “I haven’t been back here since you left. Though I thought about this place quite often, I never did have the courage to return.”
The lake—our lake—where everything had begun between us. Where I had first set my eyes upon her and it had changed my life forever.
The place was surrounded by torches, aglow with fire, while rose-scented floating candles lit the lake that was trimmed with blue LED strip lighting.
This wouldn’t have been possible had Charlotte not offered to help me. She had since mellowed down, and was trying to make amends by building a relationship with me. It wouldn’t have been possible unless both parties were willing to move forward and, fortunately, such was the case.
Basking in Ava’s glowing happiness, I knew there wasn’t anywhere else on earth I’d rather be than right here, content as I watched her take in everything with her eyes.
Clearing my throat, my thumb caressed her hand before I got on one knee and gazed at my soul reflecting back at me in her eyes, showing me what the future held.
“Ava Watson Chambers, you and I had a very passionate start. Short as it may have been, it ended on a tragic note that painted our lives differently. After years of separation, you and I found each other once more, and I can’t apologize enough for my horrific treatment of you in the beginning, but I will make up for it by making a solid foundation for our marriage, compromising when need be, and continuing to love you even if you’re being a lovely pain in my arse. Lovely perhaps, though a pain, all the same.” I beamed as she grinned, blushing profusely. “Marry me again, with our family and friends to witness our undying love and devotion, and I swear to you, on my honor, our honeymoon will be better than our living room floor.”
“But I love that living room floor, and I wouldn’t dare change a thing about it. But with that aside, I am privileged to marry you again. As long as I’m with you, the rest is simply non-essential.”
She looked into my eyes as I slipped the ring atop the other one I had given her. It was the same setting, yet a different stone. A diamond. Charlotte had given me the advice that diamonds were essential to a woman’s wardrobe. Therefore, with the expertise of a jeweler, I had found the perfect one for Ava.
Grinning from ear to ear, I sealed our bond with a kiss, believing everything she had just said. As long as we were together, the rest was non-essential.
Second chance at love. Second chance at marriage. Life certainly came with surprises.