Neptune

Chapter 64 | The Other Half

C A S S I E

Present

The tears that have fallen from my eyes onto Aiden's drawing paper in my hand soak his watercolor painting.

My sobs are uncontrollable. I can't breathe. My lips tremble as I scream in my heart.

I remember everything.

How could I not when I stared at all these paintings of his? When I saw what he wrote.

These three letters from him that I keep reading and reading all over again make me go crazy. Mom.

Panic swells inside me, as if the car crash has just happened again.

My baby. My baby. He was hurt.

My hand shaking, I finally dial Luke's number. Luke. The man whom I'd missed so much, to whom I gave all my heart and soul.

How could I forget him?

Please, pick it up. Pick it up, Luke.

I bite my lower lip, trying to control my sobs or else Luke won't be able to understand what I say. When he finally picks up the call, my heart bursts.

"Cassie," his masculine voice echoes in my ear.

He sounds devastated but at the same time worried.

"I'm sorry," he rasps. "I just dropped Aiden off at school. I was taking care of him. I was worried about him; that's why I haven't contacted you. I didn't have a chance to—"

"Are you just going to keep pretending?" I cry, letting out all the emotions inside me—I feel like I'm about to explode.

I want to scream. I want to run to him. I want to hold him.

"Are you just going to keep silent about the promises you made to me all those years to go? Did you think that you could just hide those things from me?" I shout, my chest heaving up and down.

Luke goes silent. The only thing that I can hear is my own ragged breathing. Perhaps, he's too shocked to swallow what's happening.

"Where are you?" I cry. "You promised me that you would be here with me for the rest of my life after seven years. Where the hell are you? You shouldn't have left my side. You shouldn't let us tear apart like this. You shouldn't have gone. You shouldn't have let me go. You—you should yell at me, talk to me. You—" I choke, my throat hurting so bad that I can't even speak anymore.

"Cassie." Luke's voice is shaking, barely a whisper. "You—" He pauses, as if he can't believe the words that are going to roll from his tongue. "You remember?"

"Where are you?" I burst into tears again, and I can hear him let out a soft cry. "I missed you. I need to see you. I need to see Aiden. I need—" I choke again. "I need you."

"Oh, God," Luke rasps, and I can hear the hustle from the other side of the line, like he's rushing. "I'm coming, Cassie. I'm fucking coming there to get you."

I can hear a door slamming, Luke getting into his car, another slamming as Luke closes his car door, and the sound of the engine starting.

I can even hear the tires screeching—Luke must be driving madly.

We don't dare end the call, as if the other would disappear if we did. While he's driving, I keep crying and crying.

I just can't control all of these emotions. I have no words to describe this feeling. It's something so big that has triggered my memory to come back.

The pain of losing them and that one word from Aiden are enough.

Even when my head was still struggling hard to remember, my heart couldn't hold it in anymore.

"Jesus, Cassie," Luke says, sounding worried and panicked. "Would you stop crying?"

I know that he's driving at great speed, and if he worries about me like this while speeding, I'm afraid that something bad will happen on the way here.

I try to stop crying, but I can't.

"I can't help it," I stutter. "You're—" My words are cut by my sobs. "You're crying too."

He is. His voice is shaking when he keeps telling me that he'll be here. I get up from the floor and rush to the foyer, waiting for him.

I pace around, shaking as I hear Luke's soothing words over and over again even though he can barely control his emotions too.

When Luke's car finally pulls in, he gets out of it, and while he's running to me, I run to him too.

He catches me right in his arms. He cups my cheeks and presses a hard kiss on my lips.

"Cassie." He stares into my eyes with his broken ones. "You remember. You remember about us?"

I nod, breaking into a smile with tears streaming down my face.

He wipes them away before kissing me again fiercely. "I missed you." Another kiss. "I missed you so much." And another kiss.

I cup his face too. "I missed you." A soft cry leaves my lips before I kiss him just as fiercely. "I was dying when I lost you. I missed you. I missed you so badly that it hurt."

Luke pulls me into another quick and hard kiss.

"Oh, God," he cries before kissing me again. I kiss him. He kisses me. We just can't stop kissing each other.

He pulls me to his chest and hugs me tightly, like he will never let me go. I bury myself in his warm embrace, my arms wrapping around his back.

I can't believe that we're finally together again. After everything that has happened. After all the tragedy.

All because I believed Josephine's lies. Now I know that she was lying, because the marriage between her and Luke never happened.

I pull away from Luke, staring into his eyes again. My tears are still flowing when I whisper, "Tell me, Luke. Is Aiden..."

Luke cups my cheeks and wipes my tears again, a small smile tugging at his lips. "He's ours."

And I break down even more.

Aiden. My baby. He really survived the accident. He did.

I grip Luke's arms. Thank God Luke is holding me, because I feel like collapsing again due to this overwhelming feeling.

It's the joy of finding my son again. The relief that he's safe here with us. The sadness from not realizing it sooner.

And most importantly, the rage and fury boiling my blood as I think of all those years that we've spent without each other.

My voice is shaking when I beg Luke, "Please, tell me everything." The urgency in my tone is evident. "How did you find him? Please tell me everything, Luke. Please."

Luke's expression turns serious as he stares into my eyes, and I realize that he's telling me to be prepared for whatever he's going to say.

There's nothing I want more in this world but the truth, no matter how painful it is.