Lifting her hand to my mouth, I gently kissed it. “With all my heart, I promise you.”
Closing her eyes, she slowly dragged in a breath. “Promise me you won’t be angry with Devlin. He loved me, Danny. He was there for me in my darkest hour. Do not hold that against him. Please.”
Nodding my head, I pressed her hand closer to my lips as I let my tears fall freely. “I … promise you … I won’t be angry.”
Nodding her head slowly, she looked into my eyes. “Promise me you will find love again.”
Shaking my head, I whispered, “No. I cannot promise you that. For the only woman who shall ever have my heart is here in this room.”
“Danny … I’m going to be with our little girl. Promise me,” Sophia whispered.
Placing kisses on her hand, I stood up. “Sophia Marie Covington. You shall always remain the keeper of my heart and soul. Each night I close my eyes, I shall see your eyes. Each morning I wake, I will dream of your smile. You will forever be the love of my life. Darling, I promise you I will be happy. Please don’t worry about me. I shall count down the days until we are together again.”
Sophia reached up and wiped my tears away before her hand fell back to the bed.
“I walked to the dock every night when I was in Savannah and prayed for your ship to sail in. I need you to know that you will forever have my heart, Daniel Gael Stowe. My life with you was the happiest I have ever been. Remember our dreams, Danny. For every time you look out over the ocean, I shall be there. Every time the wind blows the branches of our tree … I shall be whispering your name. Our hearts were destined for each other. For eternity.”
Pressing my lips to Sophia’s, I kissed her. Pulling slightly away, I whispered against her lips, “I love you, Sophia.”
Smiling weakly, she whispered back, “I love you, Danny. Will you hold me?”
Crawling into bed, I wrapped Sophia within my arms. She lifted her head up and smiled at me as she whispered, “I always knew you’d come back to me.”
Closing her eyes, I watched as the love of my life took her last breath.
“PLEASE, STOP READING,” I said through a new round of sobs. The gut-wrenching loss tore away at me. The heartache combined with the unconditional love was conflicting. This wasn’t how love was supposed to be. Sophia wasn’t supposed to die.
Life. Was. Cruel.
Gael held his hand over the page, waiting to turn it. “Are you sure you want me to stop?”
“Yes, I need time. This was not what I expected.”
There was an ache in my chest. With the ending I had resigned myself to when Sophia’s journal ended, I was thrown off-kilter by the truth. My world had been rocked to the core. To imagine the depths of Daniel’s loss would haunt me for days to come. But now I had the answers I had desperately sought. The only comfort I had was knowing, now, after all this time, they were together. That was some solace at least.
Why hadn’t love won? Love was supposed to win.
Gael closed the journal and laid it on a stool next to the small bed in the storm room. The radio continued to urge residents to take shelter. Hurricane Peggy was due to make contact within the hour. Burying my head in his chest, Gael soothed me as I processed the loss Devlin and Daniel felt.
There was an empty feeling that loomed over the hope I felt in happily ever afters.
“He kept his promise, Ashlin. Sophia died knowing Daniel had kept his promise to her. She died with her one true love by her side. She died with a complete heart and her one true love holding her. She was able to leave a beautiful legacy through her daughter, Annabelle.” Gael continued to stroke my back and I remained silent. The rawness churned within me.
So many emotions ran through my body. Love had won in a cruel, wicked way. Sophia had left a little girl behind who would be motherless but know the two men who had loved her mother fiercely. Life was cruel. Life was terrible. Life was unfair. Love had always been taken from me, just like Sophia and Daniel.
Deep down, I always felt I wasn’t deserving of being happy. I was afraid of losing what I had found with Gael—true love.
My tears ceased as I tried to numb my thoughts. “She’d felt he was alive. Sophia had thought marrying Devlin could be a mistake. What if she’d stayed away? What if she’d waited a little longer? They might have had their happily ever after.”
“If she hadn’t married Devlin, we wouldn’t be here, together. You or I wouldn’t exist.”
It was hard not be thankful for all that had taken place which made me feel terrible. Through their heartache, I was getting my one true love. The world was a double-edged sword that hurt regardless of what way you chose. “I know. I know. As silly as this sounds, through these last two week’s I had invented an ending for them, for me, really. It was stupid in hindsight, but I needed closure to this for some reason. I don’t know why.”
The storm kicked up a notch outside as it swirled around us. “Because you feel connected to Sophia and you’re afraid that something is going to take away your happiness, too, like it did hers, like it has all your life.”
I sighed and knew what loneliness felt like—to not know where you belong and feel like your world was falling apart. “I am. I’m terrified. Somehow everyone leaves me or gets taken from me. I know I sound like a broken record.”
“Time will lessen that worry, sweetheart, when you see I’m not going anywhere.”