Love is Dangerous

8. Love is Dangerous (Part II)

She had to move as fast as possible, not only because Daniel was trying to kill her...but also because the local police was carrying out an investigation of her and the fight in the Roman Baths.

She was walking silently down the streets of Bath, with a unhappy smile on her face.
There was just one thing she wasn't able to understand in all that situation... why did Daniel decide to attack her? She had already suffered enough because of his "death"...

And, especially, why did he come to haunt her in the last months, after two years of indifference? 
Jealousy she thought, suddenly. He was simply jealous of her new life and, once he realized that she was starting to be happy again without him, he wanted to destroy her.

Probably, he had been keeping an eye on her since the beginning, since the day she moved to Newcastle, but he never really wanted to hurt her until that moment, when he understood that her career in the South of England was becoming successful and rewarding.

It was particularly sad to think that Daniel had come back to her not because he loved Charlotte, but because he hated her.
At that moment, she almost wanted to laugh, to start laughing in a desperate and tired way.
She felt so hopeless that she couldn't even move anymore, so she decided to stop and sit on a bench for some minutes. A lonely bench in the middle of nothing.

Nothing...and no one.

It was quite weird, because just a few people were walking around her and, especially, no police car seemed to be there chasing her.
Maybe they were already at the train station, waiting for her, but she really didn't know... she simply didn't care anymore.

That entire situation was just...a huge disappointment for Charlotte. She thought that, after her escape from the hospital, all the agents of the city should have started to look for her everywhere, especially near her house; while actually nobody, NOBODY, was there for Charlotte, not even Mark.

It seemed like they had already started to forget her, just like in Newcastle... 
Charlotte hid her face in her hands and started to weep, and she didn't move for many minutes, until she realized that, before leaving, there was one last place she needed to visit: the Parade Gardens.

She used to go there during summer, spending there all her days off, and she knew that a piece of her heart would have always stayed in that place.
So Charlotte stood up, and she started to walk towards those amazing gardens. She arrived there in just a few minutes but the real problem was how to enter.

The Parade Gardens were closed in the evening but Charlotte knew that one of the side entrances was protected only by an ancient and damaged gate.
As a cop, she knew some tricks, and she was able to force the lock quite easily.

Once inside, she almost gasped in amazement; that place was even more beautiful than usual.
At that very moment the sun was disappearing in the sky, so the light gave new shades of colours to every tree, every bush of the garden.

Red roses seemed brighter, while the green grass looked almost orange.

That place was so quiet, so relaxing, breathtaking. Exactly what she needed.

Charlotte walked around for a few minutes, until she found a place where she could rest a little; it was near some ancient stairs, hidden between some flowers full of colours and a statue.

She felt so relaxed...that she almost desired to live there forever, in that ageless place, where she could have spent her days in peace.

There were no problems there, among the roses.

That was also the first time ever she had the possibility to see that place without anyone else around. Usually, the Parade Gardens were full of people, all screaming and shouting, and it was almost impossible to think that a paradise like that belonged only to Charlotte in those moments; she almost started to laugh, suddenly, thinking about all the times she wanted to visit that place during night, all alone.