Falling From Grace: Student-Teacher Forbidden Romance

Chapter 72

★★★★★★★

So this is the FINAL chapter in the story of Father Gabriel and Leonie.

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★★★★★★★

[RECAP: Leonie has made several films, and Father Gabriel - now just Gabriel - is officially and openly with her...]

Four years later

It was always sunny in California. Yet despite the luxury and the glamour that surrounded her, Leonie was conscious that there was another world out there. A world Gabriel worked in, where people's lives were much harder and more troubled.

It kept Leonie grounded. It even gave her a reason to work, because she committed some of her income to the charitable foundation that Gabriel and his sister had set up.

The past few years had been a whirl. Leonie had never worked so hard or partied so hard. Partying was work, in Hollywood. There were always people to meet, or movies to market. Someone or something demanding her time and presence.

She sat by the pool, enjoying the peace. She wondered if she should take a dip or wait for Gabriel to arrive home. He had been out meeting with philanthropists who wanted to be involved in his organisation.

For Leonie, the current time was a brief respite between movies. She had just wrapped filming for a romantic drama the previous week, and next month she started shooting an major action thriller.

Everything had happened so fast that she had barely had time to reflect or even appreciate much of it. First class travel, five star hotels, luxury limousines, assistants attending to her every need: it was all a strange kind of glitzy blur. She had now reached a stage where she could probably take some time out without it hurting her career. But there was always one more great script.

She leafed through the pages of the action movie she had signed up for. The character, Juliana, had intrigued her. She could have been written like any cookie-cutter, skimpy-clothed, babe-with-gun action chicks. But Juliana had backstory, well developed relationships and credible scenes. She even got a happy ending if not one that movie goers might expect.

And then there was the thing that particularly intrigued Leonie. The one aspect that had made her sign, even though she was longing for a break.

She heard a car pull up and finally Gabriel appeared by the poolside. He bent to kiss her. "You look beautiful but tired," he told her. "I'll cook."

They could have afforded any number of staff, but they both preferred to keep things simple and private. There was some domestic help during the day but Leonie wanted her evenings totally private and intimate with Gabriel. She looked at her finger, where a softly gleaming gold band sat next to her beautiful engagement ring.

"You've never regretted any of this, have you?" she asked him, suddenly anxious. "When you're with Father O'Malley, you don't wonder what might have been?" Father O'Malley was a priest whom Gabriel worked with on some of the foundation's projects. He ran an inner city mission for homeless kids in Los Angeles.

Gabriel laughed and kissed her. "Not for one second. Meeting you was meant to happen." Sitting down on a deckchair beside her, he eyed the film script. "You are sure about this? I don't want you getting exhaustion."