A/N: This is the last chapter of SWK (plus an epilogue!). I just want to say thanks to every person that followed this story to the end. You all mean the world to me. XoXo 💋
XXXV: Sealed With a Kiss
I WAS SICK WITH NERVES. Standing on the steps of Mercer Manor, I could barely make it up to the double doors. A maid holding a tray full of glasses offered me some champagne, which I gratefully accepted, and swallowed in one gulp.
Placing the glass back on her tray with a thankful smile, I took a deep breath and walked through the threshold. My white shift dress I wore to work stood out like a sore thumb amongst the sea of chiffon and silk. Everyone, dressed so elegantly, eyed me with curiosity as I swept my eyes around looking for one mop of messy blond hair.
I spotted him in the ballroom, sitting at the bar. Watching him across the room, he looked so defeated. Resigned. We have both hurt each other so deeply, can we ever overcome the lies and the distrust? Our cuts will heal with time, but I'm beginning to think it will leave a scar.
My steps slowed the closer I got to the bar. I had a weird sense of déjà vu. We were here again where it all began, at Mercer Manor. Here again, will we come to an end, put our story to rest? There's so many unanswered questions, but I owe it to him, to us, to finally listen.
"This seat taken?"
Cole jerked to attention, his eyes swooping up in surprise. He watched me sit on the stool without a word, wariness seeping from his icy blue orbs.
I sat awkwardly, sweeping my sweaty hands down my dress, smoothing away invisible wrinkles. To distract myself, I focused my gaze on his drink, on the nervous clicking sound of his ring hitting the glass.
"What's your poison?" I said, stealing his first words to me. It had been so long ago, but here we were again, our roles reversed.
Cole sighed, rubbing his stubble with his ring hand. "Club soda, actually. I'm laying off of alcohol for a while."
The bartender appeared before us, and to buy myself some time, I ordered a dirty martini. He placed it in front of me on the bar and left quickly, probably sending the tension between Cole and I.
"What are you doing here?" He asked softly.
I played with the stem of the glass, avoiding his gaze. "I was invited."
"I mean here, with me."
I pushed the glass aside and turned in my stool to meet his gaze. "We need to talk."
His blues eyes showed his shock, but he didn't say anything, simply nodded and stood. "Okay."
I stood also and led the way out of the ballroom to a more quiet hallway. Turning back to look at him, I watched him shove his hands into the pockets of his dress pants and lean against the wall. "What did you need to talk about?"
I released the breath I was holding and leaned against the wall beside him. "I know about the contract, I know you signed off your fortune to your mother."
"Poppy--"
I held up my hand, "I'm not finished." He shut his mouth and nodded, letting me continue.
"I know you were a part of Olivia's schemes from the beginning. I know you were in on the plot to take back Mina's money, I know that from the phone call I overheard." I stopped to pushed off the wall and eye him. "But what I don't know is when you began to defy your mother."
He opened his mouth to speak but just then a couple woman passed by the hall, giggling and eyeing Cole with undisguised interest. "Maybe this isn't the best place to talk."
"I need an answer," I said looking away, watching the women. They were around my age, yet so much younger. They had no worries to deal with, no truths to unravel.
"I don't have one." I snapped my head back in his direction. "I don't know when it happened, when my lies became the truth. I've dated so many woman, said all the things they wanted to hear that I didn't realize when I stopped pretending."
"That's not good enough, Cole!" I stopped, flashing my eyes around to see if anyone heard my outburst. "It's not enough. I need to know everything."
"What do you want me to say, Poppy? I don't have the time to the fucking millisecond of when I fell in love with you!"
"I'm not asking for...ugh! God you make it so impossible to talk to you!" I paced down the hallway, anxiously running my fingers through my messy hair. "When my father came back, were you a part of that?"
"Why does it matter?"
"Because I need to know! I need to know when you stopped purposely hurting me." I wanted to cry. I could feel the lump in my throat but I knew I couldn't. It wouldn't solve anything.
Cole signed, "I didn't know my mom was going to do that. When I opened the door that morning and I saw you there, crying and broken, something changed. I called my mom while you were asleep, and I told her we went too far. She claimed it was just supposed to distract you, create enough publicity that you'd be afraid of being in the limelight. But I saw what it did to you. I don't know the whole story but I could see it in your eyes, seeing him exhumed something from your past that you had long ago buried."
"Then what about the Art Institute? Was that a lie too?" Cole grimaced at the word, his eyes cast down to the floor.
"At first I was supposed to cause a scandal with the press. Get the rumors going that we were together. We thought being under the microscope would cause you to run back to the cloak of animosity in Brooklyn. But when that didn't work, my mother formulated another plan, one that didn't exactly sit well with me."
He paused and looked up, meeting my gaze. "I was supposed to romance you, get you to trust me enough to sign my grandmother's money back to us."
I bit down on my lip, causing myself pain to wake me from the numbing ache his words caused. I think a part of me knew all along, but hearing him confirm this made it so much worse.
"But it wasn't all a lie." I closed my eyes painfully shut, and began pacing again. "Sometime during the night when I took you to Chicago...I forgot I was playing a role. I think a part of me wanted to just pretend I wasn't lying and just become the Cole that you thought I was. Sometime during the night, I became that person and I found I liked him. I didn't do romance and dating before, but I found it satisfying. The look on your face when I took off the blindfold...I'll never forget it."
I paused my pacing and stood a safe distance away. "And California?"
I heard his dry laughter and looked up to regard him with an unimpressed expression. "Oh man, California. That's when shit went to hell."
Cole rubbed his hand down his face, now suddenly serious. "Away from the city, away from my mom's constant calling, I began to...I don't know, test the waters. I let myself imagine what it would be like to stop lying, and I made the rash decision to go for it. We were in the car after we had gotten takeout and you were asleep beside me. The sun was rising, the light hitting your hair at an angle that took my breath away. I realized then that I had to stop to my mom's plans, because I just couldn't hurt someone with the childlike innocence I saw in you that morning."
I willed myself to concentrate on the important part, not the words that would have made the old Poppy fall to his feet. "What happened then?"
"I guess I made my own plan. Getting you wasn't the hard part I knew, keeping you would be. I fed my mom enough information to keep her placated. So while she thought I was charming my inheritance back I was thinking of a way to rid us of it. I never intended for you to know all of this, that's why I didn't say anything before. I acted secretive, I know, but for good reason. I was meeting with lawyers, looking for loopholes in the will, drawing up paperwork. We had it all ready within a few months. I don't know how you found out about it now."
"Felicity found the papers in your office. She told me today. Gemma also told me about--"
"Gemma?" He asked, gobsmacked.
I nodded. "She told me what you did for her."
"I wanted to tell you, Poppy. I wanted to reassure you that nothing was going on between us but it wasn't my place to tell you something so personal about her."
"I know, and I'm sorry. Sorry I doubted you, I just didn't know what to think." I subconsciously touched my naked ring finger, feeling the emptiness of it. "And New Orleans?"
"The best moment of my life was when you agreed to be my wife. Everything felt so clear. Everything was set to give my family the inheritance, and you had my ring on your finger. We were together, and for once I felt like we would survive this unscathed. New Orleans was real, Poppy. Never doubt that."
I believed him. Of course I did. I just wish he would have been honest and told me his plans to give back Mina's fortune. I could do without the cars and the real estate, it was all superficial.
At first, I kept it because I needed the money. I had been behind on my rent, and Mina's money had paid off my student debt. But after the trial, I needed the inheritance for a completely different reason. I met people like Elle and Felicity, I made friends and for once I felt accepted. Wanted.
And now? Now I didn't need it. I've managed without it thus far. I own a thriving gallery and live in the heart of Brooklyn in my newly redecorated flat. I have great friends who even though I pushed them away, never gave up on me. I'm no Eliza Doolittle but I'd say I made amazing strides. I'm a much more confident person now, a changed woman
"So who is he?" Cole asked, wrenching me from my thoughts.
"Who?"
"That boy. The artist."
"Oh, Wren." I said. "He's...a friend."
Cole locked his jaw, "A friend? Friends don't sculpt friends."
"I didn't know he was doing that."
"So are you together?"
Watching him, I raised my eyebrows. "I'm married remember?"
Cole reached into his breast pocket and produced a stack of folded papers. He held it out to me, "Not anymore."
I knew what it was before I unfolded it. He had finally signed the divorce.
"So that's it then? It's over?" I took his silence as my answer. Nodding, I folded the document back up and threw it in my bag. I turned to leave but his hand reached out to grab my arm.
"Please let go. I-I need to leave." I tried yanking my arm back but he wouldn't budge.
"I'm not finished."
"Well I am!" My voice ricocheted off the walls, echoing down the corridor and attracting the attention of a few guests.
"Well I'm not," Cole said under his breath as he dragged me further down the hallway.
He pulled a door open and all but threw me in there. I stumbled inside and reached my arms out to hold myself steady against the wall. Cole walked inside and locked the door, cloaking us in darkness.
"Oh my god, is this...?"
"Yes." Cole turned the lightbulb on and regarded me with his iceberg eyes. "This is the same supply closet."
"Look Cole, I came to talk. I gave my answers now, and I want to leave--"
"I said I wasn't finished, Poppy." I sighed and leaned back against the wall to put some distance between us.
"We've both made a lot of fucking mistakes in the past." I gave him a weak nod.
"I've done a lot of stuff I'm not proud of, not handled situations in the best way. Particularly with the way we met. Poppy, I should have had more respect for you. We went about things wrong. Then the whole mess happened with my mom and...Poppy, I want the chance to make it right."
Cole leaned forward, and placed his hands lightly on my sides of my face. "Starting right now." He gently pressed his lips to my forehead in a soft kiss, and held me.
I was transported to that night in this supply closet. We have always rushed, acted reckless. I was ready to slow down and fall in love with Cole all over again. This time completely and honestly.
Cole took my hand, and together we walked out of the closet. Hand-in-hand, our past was sealed. Not with a kiss but with a promise.
The promise of forgiveness and the promise of tomorrow.
The End