"Are you sure you want to do this?" Rosa asked anxiously for the second time.
Adeline looked over at her gloomily "No, I don't want to do this but I...I...can't keep this up anymore. I had hope, Rosa despite everything, I'd hoped---that...well one can only hope for so long..." She threw her cardigan along with other clothes into the suitcase in frustration. It'd been more than a month and nothing had changed, she was still hurting deeply.Noah still couldn't remember her and being with Melanie wasn't helping either. They'd even moved back in together, living the life. The idea of them together was draining her mentally and physically so she took the simplest but hardest road, leaving.
Carla had gone to Japan for awhile leaving Rosa alone to deal with this but the sweet old lady could only do so much to change her mind. "I wish you wouldn't go but that's me being selfish."
"This hurts me more than you could ever imagine..." Adeline tearfully begun as she pulled her into a heartwarming hug "I'm so grateful to have you, Rosa. I hate..."
"I understand." she sniffed back her tears and pulled back."I'm going to start dinner, okay. You should call Raina and Max. It could be your farewell dinner."
"Lets go together, I'll call them from the downstairs!" Adeline exclaimed as they walked out her room. For some reason, she looked back at the suitcase on her bed and smiled
The next day at the Hedlund mansion,Noah stood by the wide window in his old study watching the vast green yard filled with colourful spring flowers and birds happily chirping in the trees. It was indeed a beautiful day yet there was a gloom cloud hanging on his head. The once radiant emerald green eyes held such strong melancholy, it was enough to draw tears from a hardened soldier. He'd been this way since he took this path of revenge. It made him bitter but he wasn't going to give up. He drank the rest of the scotch in his hand as he turned to the phone ringing on his desk.
He answered, "Hello!"
"Noah!" Rosa's voice sounded sadly at the other end. "She's gone!"
His grip on the handset got tighter and his jaws clenched in anger. He brought this on himself and that made him more infuriated. Just then Melanie's voice rang in the air announcing her presence. Without a word, he hung up and tried breathing. She chose that moment to burst into the study with a bubbly attitude.
Strutting seductively towards him, she placed a kiss on his cheek and said, "Hi!"
Noah wanted nothing more than to strangle her at that moment but instead he put on a convincing smile in response "hello!"
"I got so many things..."she begun blabbing about her shopping trip with her mum but he tuned her out."Noah, what's wrong?" she had finally stoppped speaking long enough to see his bored expression.
"My grandma said Adeline is gone" he stated noticing she was a bit taken aback.
"Really, that's... well that's...bad for her. Do you...are you perhaps beginning to remember her?"
"No"
"Okay, that's great. It's best you don't remember. You have some really bad memories with her, Noah so don't be sad. I'm here for you." she hugged him, a triumphant grin lightening up her face. Finally, she thought.
"I know. Do you want to go on a trip this weekend?"
*****
The adrenaline coursing through him caused his blood to pump faster than normal. The sound of his heart beating rapidly drowned her pleas. All he could see was the evil grin she held when she knocked them down that fateful night. The joy she found in taking his son's life,he just couldn't forget it, no matter how hard he tried. That memory was what led them to the end of the Eastbourne cliff in Sussex in the middle of the night.
"Noah! Don't...please...I'm so-" she choked out in fear unable to take her eyes from the gun aimed at her.
"SHUT THE FUCK UP!" he yelled in frustration trying to find the courage to pull the trigger. Spending the rest of her life in jail wasn't enough, he reasoned. "You don't deserve to live, not... after what you did, don't you think so? Huh... ANSWER ME!!"
Melanie was visibly shaking but not from the cold ocean breeze blowing over them. How did it get to this, she thought. How did she miss the signs, that he was playing her all that time making her think he had lost his memory. She should've noticed his strange behaviour when he spoke about Adeline leaving but she was so caught up in herself, she overlooked it. She had allowed him to fool her perfectly and now here she was pleading for a life she doubted would be spared. The man before her was not the man she found love in four years ago. He was alas her doom and that brought shameful tears to her eyes. This was her undoing. She finally dropped to her knees and shed regretful tears.
"Just kill me!" she pleaded "Let's just end it. I won't resent you so please pull that damn trigger and get over it"
Noah broke into a humourless laugh "You always want the last say, innit?"
"And you're a coward. You would be dead by now if it were me."
"Yeah, I would..." he cocked the gun ready to shoot when a bright light shone over them from the distance. He turned back to see Carla frantically running out of a car and yelling out to him . He could only hear bits of what she was saying but it didn't take a genius to know she wanted him to stop.
"DON'T DO IT, NOAH!" he finally made out but he didn't want to stop. Tears clouded his eyes threatening to fall but he wasn't going to cry, at least not yet. Carla was finally a few feet away from him with a man he had never seen before. "Please don't do it, Noah. Drop the gun, please..."
He shook his head refusing to look at her"Why should I? She ki-killed Benjie!"
"I know! The police are on their way here so you don't need to do this."
"NO! Jail's not good enough for her..."
"Noah, please... think about Adeline. She would be devastated if she found out..."
The mention of Adeline made his hardened heart crumble a little. He was doing this for her, all this pretense was to right the wrong made towards her but... the sound of sirens in the distance finally made his stance break completely. He dropped to his knees sobbing profusely. For first time, he wept bitterly about his son's death.
Meanwhile, Melanie had been grateful for the interruption but hearing Carla talk about police brought her mind to the aftermath. Her life was over after this. The whole world would know her crime and they would be brutal. Her ally from before, the media would turn against her. She could see and hear the vicious remarks thrown her way not to talk of prison. No, that life wasn't cut out for her. She could handle death not everyone turning against her. That was much more worse than being tortured physically. She looked behind her, at the vast ocean down the cliff. It looked calm and very inviting. She could hear it calling her name with promises of peace and no judgement. She looked back at Carla hugging her broken brother and smiled. At least, she'll be remembered. She stood up from her crouching position and walked to the edge. Carla saw her just in time and shouted her name but it was too late. She just turned with a grin before letting go of herself. She could still hear her name being whispered so she opened her arms wide and allowed the cold ocean embrace her.
Carla looked down the cliff but saw nothing, it was too dark. She was still recovering from the fact that Melanie had jumped. This hadn't been what she imagined would happen at all. She couldn't help but feel guilty for pretending to not know about Noah's pretense. Dr. Larsen had told her about it when Noah had asked of Melanie after he woke up but he made her promise not to let her brother know so she hired someone to follow him. When she got the call from Detective Nielson two days before that Melanie was the driver in the car that knocked them down, her worst suspicions came to pass. She had Henry get her a private jet to London and rushed to Sussex immediately with the info the PI sent her. She broke countless speed limits to stop the worst from happening but alas Melanie is dead and Noah shattered. The police had arrived then and taken over the scene. After asking a few questions, they allowed her take Noah home promising to question them further later. She drove him back to the hotel he was staying. She then had him shower and get in bed. He had been quiet that entire time the only sound to be heard was his breathing. Carla had the PI bring her sleeping pills before he retired for the night. She gave one to Noah to take since she doubted sleep would come so easily to him anymore.
It was all over the news the next day, The Hedlund Tragedy. Every media channel was running it, the newspapers, television,the internet, everything. Nothing had made more ruckus than this, not even the birth of the Duke and Duchess of Cambridge's second child. The Aldywich Mansion's yard had turned into the camping site of dozens of reporters waiting to get the lastest scoop. In the mansion, Rosa, Max and Noah's parents, Andrew and Heather sat in the hall waiting anxiously for Noah and Carla's return from Sussex. The increased noise from outside and the banging of the front door made them aware they were back so they rushed to the door. Rosa and Heather broke down in tears at the sight of them rushing over to hug them both but Noah hardly acknowledge them. He'd entered a state of depression from which would take quite awhile to come out of. The entire family had to be strong to help him and that's exactly what they were going to do.
"We'll get through this, honey." Heather assured as a single tear slid down his face.
*******
Thank God for the weekend, Adeline thought as she woke up from bed. It meant no work and no work meant enough rest which was something she needed after such a tiring week. Her job as a PR member in Ben's uncle firm was very hectic. In fact, the entire year she'd been in Ghana had been hectic.She smiled brightly as she got up to start her day. As excited as she was about the weekend, it was going to be same. Do house chores and perhaps watch movies or sleep, that was her unchanged routine. It helped her a lot when she heard the truth about Benjie's death and Noah's depression. She had been so heartbroken to find out that he put himself through that for her. She had wanted to return to him at first but both his family and hers thought it was best to let him heal a bit so she fell into this life of working herself tiredlessly to keep sane. From what she heard from Carla from time to time, he was making slow progress.
Breathing heavily, she shook her sad thoughts "Lets be happy, Addie." she repeated her adopted mantra and walked off to the bathroom. She washed her face and brushed her teeth before heading to the storage room for cleaning supplies. Her parents were gone for their second honeymoon after renewing their vows the week before while her brothers were in school. She grabbed her phone, plugging in her earpiece. Live Like You're Loved by Hawk Nelson begun filling her ear buds and she sang along noisily as she vacuumed.
By the time she was done cleaning, she had gone through the entire Hawk Nelson Diamonds album. The songs there was just uplifting. She pulled out her earpiece then looked up at the clock and realised two hours had already passed. It was funny because she hardly felt exhausted but the grumble from her stomach showed she felt something else. She returned the stuff to the storage room and as she headed to her room, there was a knock at the door. She frowned wondering who it was. It couldn't be Ben because he would've called but then again, Ben was...well Ben. She walked towards the door and opened it. The shock from who was behind caused her to drop her phone and remain dumbfounded. It's been more than a year she saw this face. It wasn't exactly the same face but it was still the face she saw in her dreams every night.
"Adeline..." Noah's deep accented voice called softly bringing her out of her daze. Without a word, she jumped into his arms making them almost fall. Luckily, he stood his ground and held her in an embrace. How long he'd been dreaming of this moment, only God knows. Unable to take the longing anymore, he took the first flight to Ghana without telling anyone. He had been very nervous the entire journey, unsure of how she'd react but now, he knew he was right where he was born to be all along. She, on the other hand, still had no words to describe how she was feeling. She couldn't say it was happiness because it was more than that, it was... it was... just unexplainable. Her tears just couldn't stop as she stayed in his arms, the only place she yearned to be.
In the end, all she could say through the tears was,"Why did you grow so lean..."
6 months later...
She smiled softly as she looked down at Benjie's gravestone. It looked so neat like it was just made the day before. She knew Noah spared no dime making sure it stayed this way. She looked back to see her newly wed husband walking towards her with her flower bouquet. She chuckled and turned back to Benjie.
"Benjie, Mummy and Daddy are finally so happy..."she begun but stopped.
Noah had gotten to her side by then and held her hand, "Benjie! Don't you think mummy looks extremely beautiful? I mean out of this world beautiful..." he interjected as he laid her bouquet on his grave gesturing to her simple but elegant white flowing silk gown.
"Of course he does" she responded laughing. Unable to contain his giddiness, he kissed her for the umpteenth time since they tied the knot a few hours ago. They had stopped by Benjie's grave on the way to their honeymoon.
"Finally, I have mummy all to myself...hahahaha" he laughed out in a cynical voice.
Nudging him playfully, she shook her head wondering what crazy man she'd just married. "Oh! before I forget, Benjie...you're going to have a baby sister soon"
The shock on Noah's face was just priceless she couldn't help but laugh.
"We're...going...are you sure?" he stuttered.
Ignoring him, she touched the headstone one last time, "I love you, honey, always." with that she was on her way with Noah watching her sway her hips.
Turning back, he touched the same spot Adeline did "I love you, Benjamin Noah. Don't ever forget that." He bowed his head in silence for a minute before running after his wife. She had a lot of explaining to do, he mused as he grabbed her off her feet, they both laughing heartily.
THE END
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I'd like to thank everyone who had patience reading my book. It means a lot to me. You helped me a lot with your votes and comments. I'ld like to dedicate this book to you all. *getting emotional here :-[ * Thank you so much, heyheyshay, elnorap, tanaenae, sammykkk and well...everyone who followed me.
If you have any questions please feel free to ask and I'd try to finish my other book, Foreigners which needs major revising and maybe repost Archer Diaries as well.
I need to do this else my friends would kill me... Lydia... Eliada... Elikem... Saranghaeyo!!!.♥♥
With lots of ♥♥,
Edwina.