The Subtle Art of Love and War 2

Chapter 47: Three Tests, One Result

It's crazy how days, weeks or even months pass me by like they're a whole ass lifetime when I'm with Hero.

I vaguely recall the barely two months we shared three years ago. That felt like a decade worth of experiences and emotions instead of just the seven weeks we spent together. So much happened between us-from that forced engagement, to my deception, to my discovery of the fight club, to Hero's admission that he knew I was his fiancée all along, to getting locked up, to finally admitting my feelings for him and agreeing to marry him, to finding out about my forgotten childhood past at the manor and finally to running away from him on our actual wedding day. Shit, that's an awful handful for just seven weeks.

And now as we walk hand in hand in Central Park, I recall the past months since we accidentally saw each other again at his building.

I remember the way he was devastatingly mad at me the first time he saw me after three years.

I remember the rough and punishing way he fucked me against the glass of his office that night and the way I ran away from him after eavesdropping on his call.

I remember how utterly surprised I was at finding him outside the hotel room waiting for me when I thought he would never find it in himself to forgive me... that he shouldn't even consider, even for just a fraction of a second, to forgive what I did to him.

I remember how I begged him to forgive me and how I brazenly told him I wanted him back.

I remember our first date after three years apart and all the pictures we took in Shoreditch which are still taped to one of my walls in my bedroom back at the apartment.

I remember him getting jealous over Blake and I remember finding out about their fight after surprising him of my arrival in London.

I also vividly remember the heartbreaking confrontation we had when he saw the ultrasound photos of the baby we never had.

I remember how I got tricked by Cecilia and the drama that ensued in Paris that fateful day.

I remember how livid Hero was when Blake came to fetch me after our fight.

I remember us trying to navigate being not being together but wanting to fix things between us.

I remember Glastonbury and how we danced in the rain.

I remember the bliss I felt when he proposed to me after Kath and Felix's wedding.

I remember the satisfaction of kicking Cecilia's ass and that awful sound of the gunshot at the basement of Felix's club and the way my skin crawled at the feeling that something bad was about to happen.

I remember the dread at seeing the news about two members of the fight club being gunned down and in critical condition and thinking how I'd die if one of them were to be Hero.

I remember the debilitating relief I felt when finally saw him safe.

Did I say a lifetime if shit in just a few months?

God, how I wish we could catch a break from all this shit. It's exhausting and distracting. I just want Hero and I to focus on us, on our life together and our future.

It's just been a few days since everything was finally settled back in London. After making sure that the case involving Hero and the rest of the men of the fight club has been dropped and all blame has been pinned only on Christopher, closing the case all together because of his death, Hero and I decided it be best to spend some time away from dreary old London.

Blake's been doing amazing with his recovery after waking up from his comma. Hero and I agreed that I've already helped the Lancasters enough and after a long conversation with Blake, I'm glad to say that everything's cleared up between the three of us.