SWNOVELS Chapter 161 A Second Chance
Scarlett's POV
I stop, but I don't know how to turn around.
For a long moment I pause there, and for a long moment, he waits patiently behind me.
How great it would be, if he had asked me this question at ANY POINT in our marriage? If he had doubted Ava just a little bit in the long time window when I kept hope, I would have jumped to tell him the truth. If I had even a shred of confidence that he would have believed me, I would have.
But now...
I turn around, only to find him standing on the green grass when I'm already off on the cold blacktop. A hard line between us, like the five years that we can leap over. He looks at me with too complicated a look that I can't quite read. In his eyes are hope, struggle, hesitation, and...fear.
Fear of what? Of me being the girl he saved? Or not?
"The question is..." I take a deep breath just so I can look into his eyes, "Do you WANT me to be?"
Were you taking care of Ava ONLY because of that girl, or was your love for her also because of who she was? For ten years she has been a mean girl but you could never see that. Just like how for ten years I have been the girl who had a crush on you when you could only see me as an evil dragon.
I don't see how such a strong love could only come out of a glance of one day, but if it was...then maybe, maybe, I can try again?
"I..." Sebastian hesitates, the hope in his eyes dims together with the sky. I maintain my smile as I count the seconds, giving myself a time limit as I wait for his answer --
If you loved that girl more than you loved Ava, if you choose me over Ava before the sun goes down, then I will be brave for you one last time.
"I guess you are right," In the end, as
the last shred of sunlight pulls our shadows so long that it reaches into the darkness in the corner where the sun can't shine on, Sebastian lets out a resighed laugh, "the harm is
done, and the truth so long ago
doesn't matter now."
I close my eyes when the dim sky somehow burns them, smiling at the sky. The story of my first love ends here, but, for what it's worth, it has an ending as pretty as its beginning.
Something wet touches my lips. Startled, I open my eyes as I flinch, but Sebastian locks my waist in his arm as he deepens the kiss.
"Wait--!" I struggled but he wouldn't let me go. In tears, I close my eyes and accept the kiss. It ended anyway, so why not? This is the only kiss shared between us without hatred in his eyes and jealousy in mine.
The girl who was saved ten years ago deserves this kiss, and so does the boy who saved her.
"Maybe you are not the girl, or maybe you are. It doesn't matter anymore because that's not why I proposed to Ava!" When he finally finishes that long kiss, he blurts like a machine gun as I pant for air," protected her for that, yes! I took care of her for that, because saw the desperation in her eyes for her own home that day, and I wanted to keep her eyes clean as how I found them. I loved her like my little sister until she proposed to me!"
Wait, what? My oxygen brain is not able to process all these bombs.
"What?" I blink in tears, but the sky gets dark so fast after the sunset and I can't see clearly his solemn look.
"SHE proposed to me. The video you
saw was me making it official for
atma Bet
her. I think she staged there because neither of us videoed it," Sebastian cups my face, bending a little to put our eyes on the same level, "But it doesn't matter either. It's just a tiny mistake in the million horrible mistakes that I made. What is, Scarlett Fuller, I would have fallen in love with you with or without any of these mistakes. I fell in love with you even though you weren't the girl I saved, even though I didn't know you in high school, even though I hated you for bullying the girl I was trying to protect! Even when I saw you as evil as the green witch, I couldn't help myself but fall in love with you!"
"Scarlett Fuller, you owe me," Sebastian gazes into my eyes, "You owe me a second chance, for us."