Painting romance - Choose your ending

Chapter 34: Cleaning the mess

Saturday, standing in front of the gates of hell again.

How I wish everything was back like then.

I wait patiently, I know Maxen is at the game, this is my only chance to at least make it right with someone, even though technically I didn't do it.

"Michelle." Olivia says as she sees me.

You can see easily that she cried a lot.

"I don't think I want to talk to you." she says as she looks at me.

"I wouldn't want to talk to me either." I reply.

She looks intrigued at me.

"Honestly I didn't imagine seeing you here ever again, since you hadn't even the guts to hand the letter to me in the first place." she smiles weakly.

"That's because I didn't write that letter." I reply.

"Maxen is convinced that you did." she replies.

"I know." I say as tears roll over my cheeks.

"Can we maybe talk inside?" I ask.

She studies me.

"I don't see a reason why we should do that." She replies.

I take a deep breath.

"There is a reason, actually two" I reply.

"For one, I love Maxen and I'll do anything to fix that." I say.

She looks surprised at me.

"And two?" she asks.

"My father didn't cheat on my mother." I reply.

Olivia has let me inside and now we are sitting at their dinner table.

With trembling hands she hands me the letter that I supposedly wrote.

"You knew about the cheating?" she asks.

I nod my head.

"Maxen told me when we started dating." I answer her question.

"He simply told you?" she asks, not believing what I am saying.

"No, no not like that. It's a bit complicated." I say.

"Maxen and my brother used to be friends some time ago." I start.

"Yes and then there was another boy I believe." she adds.

"Yes Lucca." I confirm.

"I paint, but my paintings are sometimes a bit explicit." I say as I feel how I blush crimson, not something you want to tell the mother of your boyfriend, or is it my ex-boyfriend already?

"I saw them." she softly smiles.

I feel how I blush even harder.

"My father is basically the only one who supports my painting style." I say not sure where that part adds in.

"Anyway Lucca discovered them and showed them to my brother, telling him that it was Maxen who had gone through my stuff. Mason was furious and he stopped being friends with Maxen." I start.

"I don't see where this is relevant for the letter." Olivia says.

"We'll get there trust me." I say.

"Maxen wanted to convince Mason that he hadn't done anything wrong, but apparently Lucca knew about the affair of your husband." I feel like I am on the brink of crying.

"He threatened to tell you if Maxen didn't leave us alone. Your husband was dying at the time and Maxen didn't want to" my voice fails as I can't hold the tears back any longer.

"I can't imagine what Maxen had to go through." I stammer.

I feel how Olivia wraps her arms around me, she is crying too.

I take a deep breath and look at her.

"That still doesn't explain the letter. How do you even know all this?" she says.

"I know. When Maxen and I collided over that assignment we both felt that there was more. My brother warned me about him, but I didn't believe it. So I only wanted to give Maxen a chance if he was honest." I say.

"He told you everything?" she asks, baffled.

"He truly likes you a lot." she whispers.

"I would never betray him, I demanded honesty from him, I wouldn't do that to him. He was looking for the right time to tell you. I was willing to wait for however long that would take." I reply.

"I don't know if there is anything left to wait for." I softly whisper.

"Believe me there is, he still has that painting with you guys entangled standing next to his bed." Olivia smiles.

"My dad left my mom because she blamed him for my despicable taste in painting, she didn't support him. He never cheated on her." I softly whisper.

"So then who wrote the letter?" Olivia asks.

"Someone is trying to break me and Maxen up." I softly whisper.

"Did you perhaps recognize the person who gave you the letter?" I ask.

"No, it was a boy around the same age as Maxen. But I didn't recognize him, it wasn't one of Maxen's friends. And I was too shocked by the letter to pay really attention to him." she replies.

"Did he say something?" I ask.

"Just that you couldn't be with someone who wasn't honest" she softly whispers.

Tears roll over my cheeks.

"And he wanted some of your stuff back. So I let him in Maxen's room." she softly whispers.

Hence how he got the paintings I gave Maxen.

"Do you believe me?" I softly ask, afraid of hearing the answer.

"I do." she softly says.

"Now if only Maxen did too."