Love Always Wins

27

Michael felt his heart starting to beat faster and faster as his eyes settled on Chloe. The closer he got to her, the faster his heart beat. As he walked with big, confident strides with Sabine beside him everyone else faded from his vision, all he could see was her. She looked breathtaking, he'd never seen her looking so beautiful and radiant; pregnancy clearly suited her and that thought brought him rapidly back to his senses. She was pregnant and married and he shouldn't be looking at her or thinking of her in the way he was. He came to a stop and he was soon caught by the hard glare of Sebastian. The younger German was eyeballing him suspiciously while holding possessively onto his wife, his arms acting as a shield as if he was protecting her. In a way this amused him; surely Seb knew that he was no threat or was it his wife that he didn't trust? Either way, the man clearly had issues. He returned his gaze to Chloe, her green eyes, though tear filled, were luminous; her creamy, clear skin glowed in a way he'd never seen before and her long auburn hair looked soft and glossy. After seeing her laying bleeding in Seb's arms and looking devoid of life, to see her now was like a gift from heaven.

Chloe wanted to move, she wanted to go to Michael and tell him how sorry she was for everything that happened. She wanted to hold him for one last time. Dressed in a grey suit with an open necked black shirt, he looked quite stunning; like the man she used to love. Used to. She didn't love him anymore and hadn't done for quite some time, her heart was full of Sebastian and was only get to fuller still with their unborn baby but seeing Michael now moved her to tears because she felt so bad for him. He was here because his wife had tried to kill her and that was because they'd drunkenly slept together years ago and she'd been stupid enough to keep the evidence on her laptop which had then been accessed by Antti and passed onto Stephen who had blown their guilty secret wide open. Ultimately she felt solely responsible. The feelings that she'd packed away to the back of her scattered mind soon after the shooting had come surging forward. Seb's tight hold on her made her unable to move and the lump in her throat made her unable to speak as she looked into Michael's hazel eyes, his lips curled into a smile that told her he was more than pleased to see her. His smile only made her feel worse. As she stifled a sob, Seb moved his hands from where they were pressed to her back to stroke her hair and kiss her forehead again, not only was this to comfort her but it was also to help himself and to send out a signal to Michael that the woman in his arms belonged to himself and no one else. Feeling her hands move from his back to grab handfuls of his shirt at the front helped to reassure him; hearing Britta and Sabine greet each other made him acutely aware of their small audience.

Chrissie sat bolt upright in her seat, riveted to the scene in front of her. She'd never met Michael but had known how deep her daughter's feelings for him had once run and judging by the way that Seb was holding onto her, it seemed that he was aware too. She couldn't imagine what must be going through his mind right now. She could see that Chloe was getting upset and while a part of her wanted to tell Michael to leave right now, another part of her knew that her daughter might well need this moment as some sort of closure, even though it was distressing for her to witness it. As if he knew that she was staring, Michael briefly looked her way and smiled, then returned his focus to Chloe. Now she could see why her daughter had fallen for him, he was an extremely good looking man and he carried a certain amount of arrogance that told her that he knew it.

"Seb, please let go of me." Chloe whispered. "Please, I need to speak to Michael." She felt him loosen his hold on her and she cupped his face in her hands to bring him in for a kiss. "Ich liebe dich und nur dich." (I love you and only you.) She added as they parted their lips, seeing the trepidation on his face.

"Ich liebe dich auch. Immer." (I love you too. Always.) He replied, kissing the tip of her nose in acknowledgment of her use of his home language and then kissing her one more time on her lips before he let her go and looked on protectively as she walked over to Michael.