Deserving | ✔

Chapter 50

I felt a soft kiss on my forehead as I open my eyes. My eyes are met with the angelic face of my Juliet, my Stephanie. I jerk up to a sitting position as she smiles with her eyes. First, they glow a beautiful sky blue, then they turn an aquamarine blue and slow shift to a sea green that only I have been blessed to see about every living moment with her. As they gleam at me, aided by the tears that spring from the alcove of her eyes, my world feels complete in a new sense all over again. No explanation was needed for me to understand that those were the tears of happiness and contentment. And I have caused that.

"You have, Phillip. You have done it," she whispers, shifting her vision from my eyes to my lips. A smile creeps my lips as I claim her pink clouds of heaven in pure bliss. This, this is what I'm destined for. To love her. 

When we part, she kisses my cheeks and a happy tear streak travels down her face. I stop them with the pad of my thumb as she says, "You caught them, Phillip. You caught them and gave them what they deserve. You gave my parents what they deserved; your mom got her soul satisfied, and me... You have my purpose of life rooted now. You did it, love."

I raise my eyebrows. "What did I do, love? I don't remember anything. While I am so happy to see you like this, I have no damn idea what I did."

She chuckles. "Ian will explain everything once you wake up. But it's all over now. All the bad things in your life are over now."

That's when it suddenly hit me. It's all over. And yet, she's not coming back. Stephanie's death still happened. And it is irreversible. She'll not return back to my life.

"I'm sorry, Phillip. But I can't come back. My life was just written that way. But I'm so glad, so thankful, that you fulfilled my wish. I wanted to give my parents a deserving end, and you did it for me. Do you know what I was thinking the last thirty minutes of my life? When I was under Denver's capture? I was thinking how any of this could possibly happen to good people like my parents. They had nothing but love for Denver and him... He betrayed them. He ended their life so he could escape a bloody case. Is that what life is really worth of? A bullet sent out by mistake? A framed accident? A betrayal from the person you trusted the most? Are these reason enough to trade your life for?

"But then, I realized. Life is really not a big picture. However much we try to enlarge it and alienate its presence in exponential magnitude, life has the simplest of meanings. Life means to live. Really, that's all there to it. Every second you breathe, every second your heart beats, every second you smile... Every second you live, your life gets a meaning. So, in a way, my parents did have a meaningful life. I did have a meaningful life. Your mother did have a meaningful life. With you, I had a life that even the Angels above would be jealous of. My soul is as light as a helium balloon, and it is tied to your hand. It will float happily into space when you let it go. But, will you?"

My heart wrenches from inside out as I look at her. My eyes don't blur because I have no tears left. No more tears. No more sorrow.

But before I can reply, a flash of light blinds my vision.

***
"I think he's waking up," I hear Ian's voice floating into my conscience as my eyes slowly flutter.

The first thing I see is Elaine's hopeful eyes as they light up seeing mine. My eyes scan the atmosphere quickly. I'm inside a car with Ian, Elaine, and Trisha. They all smile at me.

"Wh - what? Where..?" I try to frame questions and Tri chuckles.

"First off, we're safe. We're far away from New York. Second off, you've been out for two days. Well, mostly because of the shots the on-call doctor gave when she treated you for the wound on your back."