Hope

Chapter Twenty Four

The phone rang shrilly, waking me from a deep sleep. "H'lo," I mumbled.

"I'm so sorry, Izzy. I know you wouldn't have wanted me to do it, but I couldn't help myself."

I sat up straight in bed, "What did you do, Gabriella?"

"I didn't really do anything. I just answered a call."

My feet swung over the edge of the bed and I started pulling on a my new clothes, "What call?" She didn't answer, "Look, Gabs, I promise not to be mad. Just tell me what happened."

"The sister called me about thirty minutes ago. She sounded really distraught so I talked to her for a few minutes. She..." Gabriella paused for a second, "She wanted to know where you were so she could come and talk to you."

"You didn't."

"I couldn't help it. She cried, you know how I feel about crying women."

"I know, Gabs, you are a sucker for them." I sighed, but I couldn't be angry with her. She was my best friend and only did what she thought was best for me, "It's alright, really. How long do I have?"

"She should be there any minute. She said she was going to leave as soon as she got off the phone with me."

I heard the doorbell ringing, "She's here. I'm going to have to go."

"Don't be too hard on her, Izzy. She's just looking out for her brother."

"I know, I know. Seriously, don't worry about me, I'll be alright." I hung up the phone just in time to hear Connie calling for me.

I went down the stairs slowly, looking at the figure standing in the foyer. Her eyes looked at me accusingly, but she didn't say anything when I got down to her, just wrapped her arms around me, "Danny hasn't seen the note yet."

My hands reached up and pushed her away, "I can't go back with you Daisy, I just can't."

We went into the kitchen and sat down with a cup of coffee. I waited patiently while she gathered her thoughts, "Danny is still at work for another day. You could come back and he would never know you were gone. Please, Rose, he loves you so much."

"My name isn't Rose."

"I know it isn't. Gabriella told me that it's Isabelle Bellefleur. And you know what, I don't care what your name is. He loves you so much, he would still love you if you turned out to be Jack the Ripper."

I sighed, today was not turning out to be as good of a day as I had hoped. It had only been a day since I found out who I was, and already people were trying to get me to go back to Hope. No one understood why I couldn't go back, why I had to stay away from Danny. "You don't understand Daisy, I'm not good for him. You don't know anything about me or my family. I love Danny, but he deserves someone so much better than who I am."

"I told you, it doesn't matter who you are."

I held up my hand to stop her from saying anything else, "Daisy, my family is not the same fluffy family as most are. My father... my father has done some pretty horrible things in his life, and my mother stood by doing nothing while he was doing them. Our money is blood money, and I can't bring my family name down onto Danny. I love him too much for that."

Her eyes filled with tears, "Please, Isabelle, you leaving is going to kill him. He lost Claire to his best friend and that nearly destroyed him. He didn't feel half as much for her as he does for you. You have been the best thing that ever happened to him."

My eyes started to fill with tears and I stood up, taking the coffee cups to the sink to hide them from her, "I know Daisy, and he is the best thing that ever happened to me. But I need time, I can't just forget everything I learned about myself. I've only had a day to process everything, and without more time, I don't know if I'll ever be able to go back to Danny."

She walked up behind me and placed a friendly hand on my shoulder, "I understand, I really do. But don't you think that Danny can help you with that? Shouldn't you give him the benefit of the doubt and let him know that you remembered everything. Tell him who you are. Let him help you figure everything out. Everything is easier with someone you love, trust me, I know."

"I can't, Daisy. Please don't ask me again." I turned around and hugged her hard, "Now please, go. Don't call me or come here again. When I'm ready, if I ever am, I will come and find you."

"I don't know if I can do that."

"You have to." I looked at her seriously, "And please don't tell Danny my real name or where I am. Please, Daisy, I'm trusting you with this. I know that Danny is going to be hurting, and that hurts me, but I don't want him to find out where I am because I don't know if I can turn him down if he showed up here." A little light shone in her eyes, I could tell that she was thinking about telling him where I was and I couldn't have that, "Daisy, listen to me. If you tell him anything, then I will have to disappear and he may never see me again. Trust me, with my parents money he would never find me. You have to let me handle this."

"Will you at least give me your phone number for emergencies?"

"No, I won't. If there is an emergency, then you can call Gabriella, I'm sure you must still have her number." She nodded, "Are you going to keep quiet about me to Danny?" She nodded again, "Good. Now go."

I turned my back on her as she left the house the way she came, looking angry and sad at the same time. My heart started hurting all over again, the pain as fresh as it was as the previous day. I fell to the kitchen floor, my back against the cabinets and my knees to my chest. I hugged them tightly against me as I cried.

Connie came into the room and found me like that. She sat down on the floor next to me and put her arm around me, "Hush, baby girl. It's okay."

"How much did you hear?" I sobbed.

"Not everything, but enough." She wiped the tears away from my face and placed a soft kiss to my forehead, "You loved him dearly, didn't you?" I nodded, "Are you sure that you want to stay away from him?" I gave her a look, "I know what you said to her, dear. But I also know you better than you know yourself. If you give up on him you are going to hate yourself forever."

"I just need some time, Connie. Some time and some space to decide that I want. I'm not planning on staying away from him forever, I just can't do this right now." I wiped away the rest of the tears and stood up, offering Connie a hand up, "I love him so much that it hurts, Connie. But you know what my family is like, you have been with us longer than I have been alive."

"I do, dear heart. But just because there are skeletons in your parents closet doesn't mean that you should hide away from the world." She hugged me, "Just remember that while you are deciding what you want to do. If this man loves you half as much as Daisy says he does, then he will do anything for you. Maybe getting away from your family would be a good thing."

"But then I would be away from you too."

"I know, but I just want you to be happy. And if this guy makes you happy, then I am happy too. Your parents probably won't like it, but that doesn't matter. You don't fall in love to please your parents. You fall in love because you have found the person that you are meant to be with for the rest of your life." She held me at arm's length and looked into my eyes, "True love is not something that comes around that often. When it does, you need to grab it by the horns and not let go. Trust me on this. I had love once and didn't understand what it was worth and so I lost it. Don't make the same mistakes that I did."

"What do you mean?"

"It was a long time ago, I was 16 years old. He was nineteen. We were madly in love with each other, but he was going off to war. He asked me to marry him and I said that I would when he got back from the war." She pulled a necklace out of her shirt with a tiny diamond ring dangling from it, "I should have married him instead of waiting. But, my parents didn't approve and I was a good daughter. He was the only man I ever loved, and he died before the war ended. I never got to see him again." Her eyes were full of unshed tears, "Don't miss out on something just because you are scared, or because you think that he's not right for you. He loves you, you love him, that is all that matters in the end."

"Thanks, Connie. I will keep that in mind. I just need a little space from him right now, and then I will figure out what I am going to do."

"Just don't wait too long. You never know when he will decide to give up on you."