Family (It's What You Are) | Port Orthos 2

chapter 50: fawn's fall | final chapter

chapter 50: fawn's fall 

~fawn~

       Fall probably is my favourite season out of the four. I love everything about it. The seasonal food and drinks, the colourful leaves, even the weather despite most of the days being rainy and wet. I don't mind. It's a good change from the heat from the summer.

       I think Fern likes the rainy days, too. Whenever it's raining, she likes to spend her time just sitting by the window, looking outside. She doesn't really like going outside in the rain. Just watching it.

       It's what she's doing right now as I clean up a bit around the house. Harlow will look outside for a bit too, but mostly because she's waiting for her poppa to come home. She'll look outside, look at me and ask, "Poppa?" and then when I tell her he's not home yet, she'll go play with the cats before repeating the process.

       Harlow has recognizes the sound of Marius's car pulling into the driveway because the moment I hear it, she runs over to the window and looks out of it. "Poppa!" she says excitingly, jumping out and down. She waits impatiently for Marius to walk inside and the moment he does, she runs over to him, holding her arms up until Marius picks her up. Once he does, she hugs him.

       "Hi, Harlow," Marius says, hugging her back. "Someone's happy to see me."

       "She's been waiting for a long time for you to come home," I say. "She was waiting very impatiently by the window."

       "Awe," Marius says. "That makes me happy."

       Fern decides she wants a hug from Marius as well, moving away from the window and walking over to her poppa. Marius picks her up as well, hugging both of the twins. No matter how many times I see Marius interact with our girls, I just know I made the right choice marrying him and starting a family with him.

       I'm about to get started on dinner, but my cell phone suddenly rings. Seeing the number calling me is from the mayor, I answer it. She asks if I can do a few last minute repairs at the lighthouse. She had someone scheduled to do it, but they cancelled and seeing as we're in for some cloudy and rainy weather, she wants to make sure it's up and running.

       She tells me it shouldn't take too long; it's just a few repairs inside to make sure the lighthouse keeper can do what he needs to do without any problems.

       I tell Marius I'm going to head there now. He tells me to let him know when I get there and when I'm done, and he gives me a kiss before I leave.

       I head to the lighthouse, and sure enough, I knew that the repairs really wouldn't take too long. It's just simple repairs for me; the storage door, a few stairs, the stairs railing. Just things that could be a safety hazard for the lighthouse keeper.

       I text Marius to let him know I'm at the lighthouse before I get to work on the repairs. It takes about an hour and a half but I'm soon done with the repairs. I double check everything before I walk out of the lighthouse. The rain hasn't let up a bit, so I'm glad the mayor thought to ask me to do the last minute repairs.

       I take out my phone, about to text Marius that I finished the repairs and that I'm on my way home when I hear a voice I haven't heard in years. "Well, you're certainly a hard person to find."

       I hesitate, not wanting to look up because I know the moment I do, my mind is going to flashback to all those years of memories I tried so hard to get through. The memories that made it so difficult for me to fall in love again and get married again. The memories that still haunt me to this day.

       But I know that if ignore him and don't pay attention to him, everything will get worse. So I look up, seeing my vile ex-husband standing there. He takes a step towards me, but I step back. "Don't," I say. "Don't come near me."

       "Come on, Fawn," Quentin says. "You can't avoid me forever."

       "I want nothing to do with you," I say. "Why can't you just get that? Why can't you just stay out of my life?"

       "Because I still love you, Fawn," Quentin says. "I've loved you since we were teenagers. For ten years. I can't just let you go that easily."

       "You're going to have to just... just move on. And please, leave me alone. You're not even supposed to be in Port Orthos right now. You're supposed to stay away from me and Marius."

       "No, I was told to only stay away from Marius and his family. Nothing about staying away from you."

       Nothing I say is going to convince Quentin to leave me alone, so I start to walk away and hope that he doesn't follow me. However, he grabs my hand to stop me. My hand with my wedding band on it. He looks at it in shock before I pull my hand away.

       "You... You married him?" Quentin asks. "You actually married him."

       I can't deny it since Quentin already saw the wedding band, so I say, "Of course I did. I love him."

       "But I love you, Fawn! More than he ever will!"

       "No, you don't! You don't love me! You loved the fact that I loved you! If you loved me, you wouldn't have hurt me or cheated on me or turned my whole family against me! You would have realized that I'm in love with Marius and just let me go!"

       "It's because I love you that I won't let you go." Quentin grabs my hand and pulls me closer to him. "You need to realize that you and I are meant to be together."

       "No, we're not," I say. "We are definitely not meant to be together when you made me so miserable. You made me feel like I shouldn't be alive, and I tried... I really tried to kill myself, Quentin. You made me want to end my life because of everything you did. But Marius makes me want to stay alive. He actually loves me. You don't. You just want me to love you again so you can get whatever fill of narcissism you need. You need to just leave me alone."

       Quentin's grip on my hand got tighter, making it hard for me to pull away. "Not happening."

       I really don't want to be anywhere near him anymore. I just want to get back home to my family, to my husband and daughters and animals, so I muster all the strength I have yank my hand out of his. "I want nothing to do with you," I repeat in one final, desperate attempt to get him to leave me alone.

       "I know you still have love for me, Fawn," Quentin says. "I know there's still love between us. And I can prove it."

       Before I can even stop him, Quentin kisses me. The disgust I feel immediately washes over me, so I use both of my hands to shove him away. The force causes me to take a step back and it's only then I realize how close I am to standing on the edge of the strip of land the lighthouse is on. Below is a rocky area of the beach at a ten foot drop.

       The foot that stepped back is balancing on the edge and I try, I really try to step back onto the strip of land. But I don't. That foot soon slips off, sending me falling onto the ground below.

_________________

and that brings us to the end of the second book! (sorry...)

the third book will take place about two months later and the first chapter will be tomorrow! i already have the synopsis and all that created, so i will have that posted as soon as you see this. it's called "love (it's what i have for you)", and i'll post an update to my profile linking it! if you can't find it (if you're reading this a while after it's posted), just look for the port orthos reading list i created.

that being said, thank you for all the support on this book! i hope any of you who enjoyed it will continue with marius and fawn's story for the third book <3

-laeti