Close Your Eyes: Book Four

Chapter Twenty

This is the last chapter :(

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My parents and I sat and talked for another hour, laughing about random stuff. I finished my tea and so did my Mom, and I decided that I was going to forgive her. I told her if she ever interferes with Liam and I again, or any of our kids, I will cut her off. She apologized, and I'm deciding to believe her.

Around three in the morning, they got a phone call.

My Dad didn't answer it, but he said it was Liam's number.

I told them I should go home, we said goodnight, and I left.

Now as I pull into the driveway, I shut off the headlights, followed by the engine, well aware that it's after three thirty in the morning.

The front door is unlocked when I walk in.

I lock it behind me and set the alarm.

There's a small lamp on in the living room, and Liam is sitting on the couch in his boxers. He looks exhausted.

"Where did you go?" he asks.

"My parents' house."

He stands up.

"Did you leave because of what I said about Damien?" he wonders. "I'm sorry. That was completely uncalled for and after what you went through with your kidnapping and everything, I should have known you wouldn't want to be around somebody who felt so negatively about another person."

"No, I uh, I honestly forgot about that."

He seems stressed, so I walk over to him.

"I understand." I whisper. "And it doesn't matter anyways, because they're dead. It was stupid of me to get angry over that...it was just so hard to imagine you so...violent. I'm sorry. I was being dramatic."

"While you were gone, I thought about it more and I realized I wouldn't have the heart to watch him bleed out. I would just shoot him in the head and leave before he hits the ground."

"Well I realized if I had five minutes with somebody who died, I would choose my Aunt Olivia, just to see her again. I'm glad Damien is dead, and I never want to see him again."

"Yeah, it makes sense," he whispers.

He reaches out to push my hair back, but he pauses slightly, tilting my face towards the lamp.

"Why have you been crying?"

"I uh...well, I had a mental breakdown."

Concern overtakes his face.

"What? Are you okay? You should have come to get me."

"Yeah, uh. No, it's okay, I'm fine, I just was having a hard time, that's all."

He tucks a loose tendril of blonde hair behind my ear, looking into my eyes.

"Do you want to talk about?" he whispers.

"I don't know, I guess just..." I walk to the couch and sit down. "Just listening to Noah voice my entire kidnapping, listening to somebody else say it...it made me realize how much I missed."

He sits down beside me and turns sideways on the couch. I turn too so we're facing each other. He takes my hands and starts fiddling with my wedding and engagement ring.

"What do you mean?"

"Like...it just felt so real. I was kidnapped, and I missed so much, you know? So I went to my parents and I was crying and my Mom told me that yes, I did miss a lot, but I didn't miss everything. We went to prom. I had sleepovers. I closed myself in my room and went on my phone. I did do normal teenage stuff, I just came back home with a little more baggage than other kids our age had."

His eyes study mine for a moment, and then he sighs a little.

"Obviously what you went through was hard, but I think everything you went through made you into who you are today. You are strong and intelligent and, I mean, you're stunning, Savannah. You're funny and an excellent mother, an excellent wife, a great friend. You are everything to me, you know that?"

I smile, and he leans forward to kiss my nose.

"Like, when we went to buy your car and that salesman tried to use a ton of numbers to scam us, but you were following his math and you caught him before he could? You're like, a human calculator, a human dictionary, and so, so much more."

I smile, resting my cheek on the back of the couch.

"I guess I just accepted what happened to me for the first time, and even though I've been okay since you helped me, right now, I feel better than I have in a very, very long time."

"Can I tell you something?" he whispers.

"Of course," I say quietly.

"I spent six years of my life thinking you were dead. I had nightmares, too, of you like...dead somewhere. You were always the same age, even when I was sixteen, you were still a kid. And it haunted me. It haunted me every day. I tried to get the cops to reopen your case. Begged, even. When I was thirteen, I stole twenty bucks from some kid at school and tried to bribe a police officer to reopen your case. And when I walked into first period that day, I had woken up from a horrid dream. That's why I was late. When I told you that you were in my seat, I was just bitter. I had no feelings for anybody or anything. I loved you. I think I always loved you, even when I had no idea what love was. I never wanted to get married. I never wanted kids. I didn't want any of this, because I wanted it with you, and I thought you were gone. But you looked at me that day, and I saw your eyes, and I felt like somebody punched me in the stomach. I thought it was you. I knew those eyes, those beautiful fuck crystal clear blue eyes. When you told the class your name, I almost cried right there. You are everything, Savannah, every fucking thing. You're the wind and the rain. You're the world, and I just...I needed you to know that. I need you to know that I love you, and I have loved you since I was two years older than Theo."

I feel tears slide down my cheeks and I look down at our joined hands and sniffle.

"Here I thought you took the blame for the pepper spray and wrote me that note about my phone just because you felt bad for me. I didn't know..." I look up at him. "I love you. I love you so much."

"I love you too," he whispers, leaning in to kiss me.

I kiss him back, and he guides me backwards until I'm on my back on the couch. His lips move in sync with mine, slowly, and passionately, and I feel my heat swell with love for him, and then his words ring in my head.

"I don't want to wake up wondering what the next disaster is going to be, so I come here, to this beach. I swim and I surf and I ignore all the annoying, loud people behind us. I talk and make sand castles and I enjoy life where I am right now, because I don't want to be so worried about my life being bad that I forget to live it. So sometimes I just sit down in the sand and I close my eyes and I imagine how my life is going to be in five, ten, fifteen years. And I know, I know it's going to be amazing, because there is no way God put me here to be miserable."

And he was right. I was struggling. I thought I was never going to pull through, and now here I am. I thought I wanted to move out because I was looking for something, but this here, this is everything. It's been sixteen years and one month since that day on the beach, and he was right.

Our life is amazing. After everything I've been through, everything we've both been through, we made it. We have three incredible children, a beautiful home, good jobs, and a roof over our head.

And we have each other.

So I pull back, running my fingers through his messy blonde hair.

"Close your eyes," I murmur. He does, and I lean up to kiss him ever so softly. "I love you Liam," I murmur.

"I love you more." He says in a breathy whisper.

I laugh softly.

"I don't think so," and then I pull his lips back onto mine.

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Well after months of writing this series, it's finally over! This book definitely took the longest but it was well worth it! Love you guys, a new book will be started eventually! This one is going to be great, I'm very excited for it!

~Sam