Never Forgotten

Part 7

Part 7

Marlena looked around the loft, tracing her fingers over the kitchen table. Everything looked the same.

She remembered the last time she was there. He had announced that he was leaving Salem with Brady.
With Roman standing beside her at the Pub, she wasn't able to react. To tell him how she felt and tell him not to go. So she went to his loft later that day, to try and change his mind, to beg him to stay. At one point she thought that she had succeeded, when she reached out her hand, pleading with him to take it and not to go. But he didn't take her hand, he stood firm, saying it was for the best if he left. Or else he would destroy her and her family. It broke her heart when she realized that she was never going to hear his voice again, never gonna have him to turn to when she needed him. She was losing her best friend, the other half of her heart, her one true soulmate.

John came up behind her, running his hands up her arms, making her shiver inside. " Let me take your jacket" he whispered in her ear, his breath hot in her ear.

She swallowed the lump in her throat as she let him slide her jacket off her body. The sexual tension was already filling the room.

Without turning around to face him, she said in a small voice "I came for you...the night you left...I drove to the airport, but I was too late!"

John stopped, did he hear her right? After years of thinking that she had let him go, after thinking that he was the only one whose heart broke into a million pieces that day, could it really be that she came to stop him from making the biggest mistake of his life?

"Why did you go to the airport Marlena?" He asked with a serious voice, wanting her to explain.

Turning around to face him, she took a deep breath. It was time for her to be honest, with him and herself. " I came to try and stop you from leaving..."

"But you already tried that night you came here to the loft." He pointed out, stepping closer to her. "Why did you go to the airport Marlena?" He said again, wanting her to tell him the truth.

"I.... I..was desperate!" She said as remembered what she felt that night. "I felt as if I was losing everything, losing my best friend, my confidant....my heart and soul.." she swallowed the lump in her throat and continued. " I realized that night that what we had was too strong, too special and magical to be ignored. I was...I was ready to break my wedding vows to Roman, regardless of the consequences, if it meant that you would stay....no, I was ready to break them because I wanted to.. All I thought about was how much I loved you, how much I needed your love!"
Covering her mouth with her hand, she was shocked by her confession and the honesty behind it.
She watched as John closed his eyes, preventing her from being able to see or feel what he was thinking.

Her admissions came as a surprise. But not as a shock. He knew that she had loved him deeply. Before he left, they had been fighting their feelings for each other. Doing everything in their power not to act on them. Their history, their love and the natural pull they had towards each other, had led them dangerously close to ruining her life. She had told him that she loved Roman and that she would never betray him. That's when he decided that the only way to not hurt her or the children was for him to leave.
So to hear her now say that she had wanted him, that she had been willing to jeopardize everything just for him.. that was a surprise.

When he opened his eyes he saw her standing in front of him, one hand covering her mouth, the other wrapped around her stomach, if she was protecting herself. Shielding herself from whatever he was about to say.

"You have no idea how much I wanted you to tell me that 25 years ago..." he said, sadness coating his voice. "Ever since I left, I have laid awake every night, wondering if it was easy for you to see me just pack up and leave. Thinking that you didn't love me as much as I loved you.
I know you tried to stop me, but my God I kept praying that you would try again as I sat on the plane and waited for you to come. I thought that your love for Roman really was greater than your love for me".
It was the first time John had expressed to anyone what he had been going through. She was the only person who would understand.