Run to Me

Epilogue

Dave

When I told Katerina everything about my past, she cried. She couldn't believe the things that I told her. She was in shock. She got angry. Angry at the people who have caused us so much pain.

"I get it now," she said.

"Get what?"

"What Nate meant when he said that you didn't want to win me that way."

"I don't understand..."

She shook her head. "It was something Gabby overheard Lia and Nate talking about. Something about your secret and that I should just know everything, according to my sister, but Nate said you didn't want to win me that way," she explained. "They knew, they knew I would understand why you did what you did."

"I wanted you to be with me because it's what Yu wanted, not because you felt obligated to."

"I'd never feel that way about you. But they're right you know. I wouldn't have let you go or even allowed you to push me away if I had known everything," she said.

I let out a small smile.

"You did it to protect me, Dave. To keep me safe."

I nodded. "I will always protect you and do whatever it takes to keep you safe."

She smiled at me tearfully. "I'm sorry."

"Hey, baby no. You have nothing to be sorry for."

"All this time I thought you were just scared, I didn't know that you were risking your life for me and for my sister... just to keep us safe."

"You never really left me. You didn't give up. Not when they were torturing you over and over again. You continued to fight."

"I fought because I wanted to get back to you. I wanted to come home. You are all I ever thought of during all of it. You kept my heart beating." I kissed her on the lips.

"I wish I was there for you. I wish I knew..."

"But, Katie, you were with me. It was your face that gave me the strength to fight."

She gave me a tearful smile before she nuzzled her nose against mine.

"I think my brother was right," she said.

"Right? About what?"

"We both needed time. Time to grow up more. It wasn't the right time for us then..."

"And now?"

"We've learned from the past and brought us to where we are now, where our faith in each other and love for each other is stronger."

"You're not afraid of what's going to happen and what we're going to do?"

She shook her head. "No. I know you can be stubborn, but I'm just as stubborn. I'm not letting you bug out on me ever again."

I chuckled.

She hit me on my chest playfully. "I'm serious. If you ever try to leave me again, Dave Larson, I'm going to tie you to our bed and torture you."

I laughed. "I'm not going anywhere, but I like how you think baby," I wiggled my eyebrows at her suggestively, making her giggle. "Death by pleasure... I love it," I teased.

She rolled her eyes.

"But I think if you're going to do sinful things to my body, you need to make an honest man out of me first," I said as I pulled out a ring box.

Her eyes rounded and she swallowed visibly.

"Dave..." she croaked out softly.

I opened the box and said, "Katerina, I love you. You are my life. My life means nothing without you, because only with you, do I have everything. You charmed me as a little girl and casted a spell on me when you were seventeen and made fall deeper and deeper into love with you as the years went by. Our time apart has only made my love for you stronger and grow deeper. I know that I'm not perfect and you may not always agree with the decisions I make, but you are the reason for every choices and decisions. My love for you is what drives me. You may not know it, but you control me. My every move is dependent on you. I breathe because you. My love for you will always be above all. I promise that no matter where life takes us and wherever I may go, my I will always come back to you, because you are my home."

She smiled tearfully.

"Please marry me, my love. Make me the happiest man on earth. Be my wife?"

She nodded eagerly. "Yes. I'll marry you."

My heart soared just like it does whenever we're together.

I slipped the solitaire diamond ring on her finger. There was diamonds around the band, that wraps around infinitely, just like my love her.

"I love you," she whispered softly.

"I love you, deeply, so deeply," I whispered back.

4 months later

As I watched her walk towards me, I couldn't breathe. I was mesmerized by her every step and by her beauty. She was a vision in white. My every dream come true.

My love.

My life.

My everything.

We've been through so much and every challenges and heartbreak that we have faced, though painful and heartbreaking, I can't help but feel blessed and thankful for those struggles because it led us to where we are now. It brought us closer together and made us treasure each other more. It made us work harder at loving each other better.

She has the power to kickstart my heart and make it stop beating at the same time. It may seem scary for some to think that someone has that power over you, but with the right person, it just makes you feel powerful and stronger, like with her you can conquer anything. I have found that with Katerina. And to her I surrender everything. She owns me and I love every second of it.

"I love you, deeply, so deeply," I whispered as she stopped in front of me.

She smiled as her father handed her hand to me and shook my hand.

"I love you just the same and then some."

"Let's go get married, my love."

*****

"Love is powerful. The most powerful, because it has the capacity to forgive over and over and over again."

"Choices. Life is full of them."

"My love for you is greater than your mistakes"  - Katie

"When the person you love the most hurts you, it's the mind that gets angry. Your feelings never change, because your never stops loving."

"When you lose the one you love most, everything about that person holds meaning, but everything about them hurts too."