The 3 Month Plan

Cruel Intentions

Daniella tilts her head in my direction. "I snuck out."

"What?" I question.

"I snuck out of the house and carefully made my way here so Rocky wouldn't know," she says sighing. "I'm going to hell. I'm honestly the worst sister."

"I have a bad feeling about this," I tell her.

Daniella pushes her head up from the couch and looks at me. "Which part?"

"The part where I go back to him."

"No no no," Daniella shouts jumping off the couch and walking over to me. "You have to go back to him.  Can't you have a bad feeling about the part where you make him suffer."

I sigh taking a seat on the kitchen stool. "Just think about it, Daniella. I have hurt him so much these past few months. Not because I want to but because my family has issues and it's dragged him into it. With Paul and Aaron. He doesn't deserve that. That was the whole reason I left because that sort of stuff never really goes away and I don't want to see him get hurt because of me. That day when I was trapped in the bathroom, I thought they killed him. My heart almost stopped, Daniella. If I go back, whose to say that won't happen again."

Daniella nods as if she understands what I mean. "I don't think the whole Paul and Aaron debacle was completely on you. If my brother didn't put Paul behind bars, he wouldn't have gone to get revenge. But do you want to know why Rocky did that. He did it because he loves you, and if you're in love then you endure it all. Sure it got messy, but it's at a good place right now. You're healthy, he's healthy. No ones out there to hurt you guys. Why are you both stubborn enough to not go back to each other?"

I dip my head low and stare at the carpet in front of me. "Well that's why I'm doing all of this, I want to go back to him," I say wiping at my tears now falling down my face. "I miss him."

Daniella points at the envelope sitting in the fruit bowl on my kitchen bench, the fruit bowl that has no fruit. "You still haven't opened Rocky's wedding gift."

I sigh. "What's the point?" I tell her. "You know it was fake."

Daniella laughs through her tears that are now forming as well. "Rocky is going to kill Frank once he finds out."

I nod. "I think he already knows."

"You should still open it," she says with a subtle smile. "You never know."

When I grab the envelope out of the fruit bowl, I stare at it for a few seconds, suddenly jittery.

I turn the envelope around, take a deep breath and run my thumb under the opening to pry the envelope open. When I pull out the letter, my heart stops. It's not a letter, there are too many pages to be considered a letter. It's a deed.

I freeze, my eyes going up to Daniella but she only watches me with a genuine smile on her face as if she's happy for me.

I flip the first page, then the second and then the third. "What is this?" I say holding the document up.

"What does it look like?"

"It's the deed to this house," I tell her. "And it's in my name," murmuring the rest.

She nods. "You should have opened that ages ago, maybe then you wouldn't have worked day and night to pay him the expensive rent."

I shake my head. "You're telling me that even though he thought I was marrying someone else, he still gave me this house," as a shiver takes over my body.

Daniella walks up to me and gives my hand a squeeze for support. "That's my brother for you."

This time I sink to the ground and the tears drop free fall. I cannot believe it. After everything and he still has that much love in his heart to have put me first.