I sit in my office doing some work when the email notification rings. I check my inbox and find an email with the photos from the charity event I assisted with Hope not too long ago. I go through the photos and see again how beautiful my wife looked that night. The shine in her eyes as she smiles for the camera, her arm hooked in mine. When will I get to have her so close again? It's been a couple of weeks now since she's been back and things are far from good. She hasn't spoken to me since they day we got back, she avoids me as much as she can. There's times I go in to the kitchen and she is eating with my brothers and if I sit down she gets up and walks away. I've tried to speak to her again but she ignores me and walks past me. We are right at the beginning, but this time is worst. There's a knock on my door and I look up.
"Come in." I say and Harrison walks in.
"Hey."
"Hey, any news?" I ask.
"No, but don't worry we are still looking." He says and I nod my head. We haven't been able to find out who shot Sam, but we are working on it, it's just a matter of time. "Are you alright mate?"
"No." I answer honestly. "She's still not talking to me."
"Give her time, it's what happened last time."
"No Harrison, last time was different. Last time she would talk to me, well yell at me but still, I'd prefer her to be yelling and cursing than ignoring me, it hurts more." I say and Harrison gives me a sympathetic smile not knowing what to say because the knows I'm right, he knows I'm hurting.
"Have you told her about the dinner?" He asks.
"No not yet. I haven't find the right time to tell her."
"Do you think she'll want to go."
"I hope so, it would be an opportunity for me to be alone with her."
"Well go tell her then," he says pointing to the door. I give him a concerned look and he sighs. "Mate you need act on the moment, whatever has to happen will happen, go." He says again and I nod grabbing the invitation and sprinting out the office.
I'm now in front of Hope's room door, pacing back and forth in the hallway with the invitation in my hand. I feel nervous about going in there, she's probably going to kick me out. I don't understand, I've killed people without hesitation and im afraid of no one, yet here i am nervous and scared of going to talk to my wife. I finally grow some courage and open her bedroom door. Hope is sitting on her bed and stands you as soon as she sees me.
"What are you doing here? Get out." she says and i walk up to her and hand her the invitation. "What's this?"
"An invitation to a business dinner on Friday with really important people in London. We have to attend." I say.
"We?" She questions. "Sounds like a lot."
"Yes we, you are still my wife therefore you have to go with me."
"What if I don't want to?" She crosses her arms.
"I'm asking you as a favor, please?" I say defeated and she stays silent for a second looking at the invitation.
"Only as a favor." She says and sits back down on the bed with the invitation on hand.
"Ok thanks." I say leaving her room with the biggest smile on my face. This is great.
***
Friday arrived and I'm done getting ready. Hope's stylist got here hours ago so she should be done too. I go towards her room when the stylist is leaving closing the door behind her.
"Mrs. Holland is ready." She says smiling.
"Thank you." I say and she nods walking away.
I open the door and walk in to find Hope bending over her vanity to get closer to the mirror as she puts some lipgloss and I forget how to breathe for a second. She's wearing a black top with an orange pencil skirt that makes her look amazing, her hair in a low bun, her bruises are gone and if she had any mark left it was covered up with the makeup. Every time, every time she leaves me speechless. I like to always acknowledge what she's wearing to take it all in to remember when I don't have her close. She always looks good but when she gets ready, she looks unbelievable. Just as I'm getting deep in my thoughts, Hope stands up and turns to face me.
"What?" She asks and I clear my throat.
"Uh, nothing. Are you ready?"
"Yeah let's go." She says grabbing her coat and walking out her room.
The drive to the restaurant was done in silence. It's only me and her, well and Leo who is driving us. We have other men with us as well since I am sure Paulo is going to retaliate and I don't want to be surprised. I had expect to talk to her during the drive but I am feeling nervous. What the fuck Tom. We arrive at the place and I get off as Leo rushes to open Hope's door. She meets me at the entrance and I go for her hand. I am sure she is going to pull away but she just turns to give me a confused look and I start to walk in before she can say anything.
"Mr. Holland welcome, if you can follow me please." The hostess says and we follow him to the back of the restaurant. It was a private area that sat around 20 people with a private bar. When I arrive eyes are on us, or her I should say. People aren't seated yet so everyone is around the room chatting and drinking. We walk around greeting people, everyone smiles at us and takes time to compliment Hope who always answers with a smile. We are done greeting everyone and we stand by the bar.
"You look beautiful." I say and she looks at me before rolling her eyes and looking away. I smile at her reaction. I order us some drinks and the moment I'm going to grab mine, it slips off my hands landing some on me.
"Fucking hell." I say.
Hope is looking at me with concerned eyes but I know she's trying her hardest to not laugh. I need to go the restroom but I don't want to leave her alone and I can't take her to the restroom with me, I would love to, but I can't.
"Stay here." I say to her ear. I feel uneasy leaving her alone but knowing the buildings is surrounded by my men gives me a piece of mind. I rush to the restroom and see that my shirt got wet too. I grunt as I attempt to clean it with paper towels. I have no option but to put up with my wet clothes. I walk out the restroom and find Hope with a man who is kissing her hand. I feel furious at the fact that he's not only touching her hand, but kissing it. And they way he is looking up to her. Oh fucking not. I walk over fast and I can see Hope pull her hand away as he smirks.
"John." I say.
"Oh hi Tom," he says. "Good to see you."
"Likewise. I see you met my wife." I say putting an arm around Hope's waist and pulling her body close to mine.
"Oh so you're the husband. I was hoping she was lying about it." He says with a sarcastic tone. I put my hand into a fist on my side. "Let me congratulate you Tom, you have a beautiful wife." He adds and I'm mentally counting to ten so I don't break his face.
"Yes I know. Thank you, now if you'll excuse us." I say grabbing Hope from the hand and pulling her to the other side of the bar.
"What's your problem?" She says pulling her hand off my grip.
"Why the fuck was he kissing your hand?" I ask.
"He was introducing himself."
"By kissing your hand?"
"There's more than one way people introduce themselves Tom."
"Not John. You don't know him Hope but he definitely had other intentions."
"And?" She asks and I feel my face getting hot.
"God give me patience." I mumble to myself running a hand through my hair. "You are married Hope, you are my wife." I say firmly.
"I'm your wife just in paper." She says sipping into her drink. Behind her i can see John looking at her in a way that i don't like. That's it. I grab her by the hand and pull her to walk with me.
"Tom what are you doing? Where are we going?"
"We are leaving."
"What? Why?" She asks and I don't answer. I continue to pull her until we are outside of the restaurant.
"Tom what the hell? Why are we leaving so soon?" She asks and I look at her before looking away. "Is it because of your friend?
"He is not my friend." I snap. The car pulls up in front of us. "Come on." I say walking away and she chuckles.
"Are you jealous?" She asks. I turn around and see her standing in the same spot. I walk back up to her.
"I really fucking am." I say as she's looking into my eyes. "Get in the car." I add walking around to the drivers side. "Leo go back home with Jacob." I say and Leo nods. I look at Hope who is still standing looking at me. "Get in the car Hope." I say one more time and she gets in the passenger side and I drive away. I drive for 20 minutes and I can tell Hope has noticed we are not going home but doesn't say anything. I drive up the hill to the tree where I used to come when I was younger and needed to get away from everything. I park the car and get off. I take a couple of big breathes and I heard the car door opening again.
"Where are we?"
"The secret and special place I wanted to bring you to last time. I come here when I'm feeling overwhelmed. I came here when I was told I had to be dad's underboss, I came here when my parents died. It's just peaceful." I say and there's silence. "We need to talk." I say turning around.
"I have nothing to say." She says starting to walk back to the car.
"But I do." I say making her stop. "So please just listen to me." I beg. She turns around and stands there ready to listen. I let a big breath and start talking.
"My parents died 3 years ago. At first we thought it was an accident, but then we found out it wasn't. I discovered your dad was behind my parents death. I was so upset, all I wanted was to kill him. I was young and from one day to another I was in charge of everything. I wanted to get revenge. I later found out of your existence and thought that death was the easy way out for your dad, so I decided to kill you instead, so he could lose what he loved the most the way my siblings and I did. For over the past year I had been following your every move. Where'd you go, who you'd be with, what you'd do, everything. I knew about Mariana and Diego even before I actually met them. There was people following you all the time, you just never noticed I guess."
"Is that how you knew about my interview the day I was captured?" She asks.
"No, that interview was planned by me. They never considered you for the job. They called you there because I threatened them. I needed you far from home so it would be easy to take you."
"Why are you telling me this?" She asks with tears in her eyes.
"Because I want to be honest with you." I say and she nods. "When you were brought here I was ready to kill you, but the moment Sam took the blindfold off and you looked up to me with your beautiful green eyes, I knew I couldn't do it. I had seen you many times in photos, but it was totally different seeing you in person, something inside me didn't want to hurt you, but I had to get back at your dad somehow, which is why I came up with the marriage idea. I knew your dad knowing you were married to the son of his enemy he ordered to kill was going to be hell on earth, but things didn't go as I planned them. I started caring for you more than I would like to, I wanted to see you even if just to argue, then paddy got here and seeing you with him was just something else. I had never wanted someone so bad in my life before. When you and I kissed for the first time, I could not tell you with words everything I felt. As time passed and we continued to have problems all I wanted was to protect you, care for you. But you were the daughter of the man that left me an orphan, how could I care for you? I didn't know what to do and I kept making you cry and upsetting you. I acted so stupid just thinking my about it makes me angry. You didn't deserve anything I did to you. And that night, the night I let you go, ugh, if only I could go back and not say what I said and not do what I did. I didn't mean anything I say Hope I really didn't. My business is not more important than you, it's just, it's all i know. I was an underboss even before i was an adult. And I'm not trying to justify myself but I got scared, scared of what I was feeling, I couldn't bring myself to admit that I am madly in love with you." I say and I can hear a gasp coming from her. "I am, I fell in love with you and I am so sorry for everything I put you through. I know what you suffered those days when you were in that fuckers hands does not compare at all to what I went through, but I really thought I was going to lose my mind if I didn't find you or if something happened to you. I couldn't bare the thought of losing you even though we were in that position because of my stupid decisions. Nothing I ever say will erase the trauma you went through, but believe when I say if I could take all your pain away I would, if I couldn't take all your wounds away I would, I don't ever want you to suffer again. I-" is the last thing I get to say before I feel two hands on my face and her lips against mine. I wrap my arms around her and feel my heart beat faster. It feels like it's been an eternity since the last time I had her in my arms like this. I hadn't realize yet that a couple of tears had escaped my eyes and were mixing with her tears. After breaking up why kiss she put her arms around me and hugged me tight.
"I'm really sorry Hope, please forgive me." I say and she moved back to face me. She cleans a tear with her hand and smiles.
"I love you too Tom." She says and I let out a small laugh.
"Thank god." I whisper before I pull her back close to me. In my 23 years of age, I had never been this vulnerable in front of anyone. But at the same time, I had never wanted anyone as much as I want Hope, I had never been in love the way I am I love with my wife.
A/N: Sorry for the really long chapter😅 i got excited lol Happy Thanksgiving (if you celebrate) Enjoy :)