Matters Of The Heart ✔

Chapter Sixteen

Ian took his girlfriend for a stroll in the garden after lunch at his parents house. He held her hand, swaying their interlocked hands together before they found a bench to sit at. He watched her lifts her legs up to cross them on his lap and he smiled while caressing her legs. The summer dress she was wearing was not doing her any justice. She looked beautiful in everything she chose to wear.

“How did I get so lucky?”, he rhetorically asked, and she rested her head on his shoulder, earning a quick kiss on her forehead. He seemed content, but his past was coming back to haunt him. He was struggling with easing his conscience. Not being totally honest with her ate him up every day. Guilt washed over him like he just committed a crime.

He wanted her to know. So that if she decides to walk away, there's still time before they get in too deep, by being emotionally involved. They promised they'll always be honest with each other, he didn't want to be the one to break their promise.

“There's something I have to tell you”, he felt her nod her head

“What is it?”, she rose her face to look at him

“I haven't been completely honestly with you why I don't drink alcohol”

“That's because you don't like the taste, right?”, she seemed convinced that was the real reason as she smiled briefly at him. Her smile faded a little when he didn't return her smile. She then knew there was more she had to know as he shook his head.

“I'm a recovering alcoholic, Abbie”, he said before seeing her face turn pale for a second as she slowly withdrew from him. He didn't know what was going through her mind that moment, he also didn't want to know.

“How long have you had this drinking problem?”

“It started five years ago”

“Why?”

“It was the only way I could deal with Bianca death”, her heart sank when she mentioned the name of the woman he wrote on the lantern material. The woman who his heart once belonged to. They never talked about her. Now she knew why.

“What happened to her?”, she found the courage to finally ask him

“She got mugged one night, and she was murdered”, tears stung his eyes the moment those words left his lips. He would never come to terms with how she died....why she died.

He felt Abigail hands take his hands in hers, telling him it was okay to tell her

“I was supposed to pick her up from work that evening”, his chest tightening when he recalled the unfortunate day. “I lost track of time at the office, by the time I got to the spot where she was always waiting for me...she was lying in a pool of her own blood “, a sob left his lips as he remembered her face when her soul left her body.

The image never left his mind, when he knelt besides her and took her into his arms. She was trying to say something, but couldn't as her body was taken over by jerking motions and pauses in her breathing as she had difficulty breathing.

“I'm so-sorry”, she finally breathed before a tear fell on her cheek

“Don't say that B, stay with me”, he cried but was hopeful as he heard the ambulance sirens approaching

“You're going to be okay. You'll see”, he smiled despite the fear he felt in his heart when he said his last statement, he wanted her to say hopefully that she was going to be okay.

“I'm so-sorry”, she repeated as she took his hand and placed it on the stab wound on her stomach as she continued bleeding out.

“I was going to tell you tonight”, she whispered, and it dawned on him what she was telling him, she was carrying their baby. He was still coming to terms with the information she just told her before he noticed she slowly drifted into unconsciousness.