Chapter 270 Chapter 270

Chapter 270 Chapter 270
ARIANA

It’s true what they say about life flashing before your eyes. I can feel the blood seeping out of my open wound, the pain is nothing compared to the thought of leaving my son in this cruel world in the hands of his father. The things I had to endure, the manipulation I had to suffer because of him, because that bastard held a knife to my throat by threatening to hurt our son! What kind of father would leverage his son to get what he wants? Only, Dominic.

I wince as I try to breathe, I don’t know what the rod punctured but every time I breathe it feels like hot molten is thrown down my throat and swirling in my lungs. It’s a beautiful sky, it is almost poetic to die in a night like this, staring as the milk spills its gracious milk down on me.

“Sh, don’t move,” I feel an arm around my neck, slowly hoisting me from the ground and that is the last straw. The tears that had pooled to the side of my eyes broke free from its dam and slid down the side of my face. How can she even look at me at this moment? How can she, after everything I have done, hold me?
“How?” After all the questions that have burned in my mind to ask her, after all the theories I was prepared to state, the only words that can make it out my words, is how?

How can she still care for me after all I have done to her? I hurt her badly, beyond what a family should do, beyond what a sister should do. She was supposed to be my best friend, someone whose back I would always have, but what did I do? I antagonized her, made her a mockery, ridiculed her.

I still hate myself. I hate myself for not being strong enough to fight back. I hate myself for bending to his rules without thinking about what I was doing to her. If she were in my shoes, she would have acted differently, she would have put everyone else first, she would have let us know, she would want to save everyone. But I was too selfish.

“Look at me, Ariana, don’t close your eyes,” she taps my face rapidly. This gentle breeze that whispers sweet nothings in my ear like a long-lost love begging me to come home.

“Bella?” I call her with all the strength I have left. This is it, there is no other day, no other hour, this is the moment when I finally leave. I had thought about the moment so much that it feels so strange for it to be this close to it.

“Yes?”
“I’m sorry,” I say.

The words feel heavy in my mouth and almost tasteless. How is that supposed to cover for all the things that have happened to her? How is that supposed to rewind the hands of time and change all the decisions I made that have hurt her? How is sorry supposed to fix anything? The tears stroll down the side of my face once more, burning a path as it hits the ground.

“I know I hurt you so much,” I sniffle, my heart quakes as it beats its final drums, “I know I have been the worst sister to you. I know I have caused you so much pain, but I am so sorry. For everything that I did, for the pains I caused, for the nights of tears I gave to you,” my chest tightens as a wave of pain runs across my spine from the heavy breathing.

“Save your strength, we have to get you out of here,” she rocks me back and forth, “I need to get help,” she tries to move and I hold her firmly.

“There is no use, Bel, this is my time, I can feel it.”
“No, Damien needs you,” she says and it almost causes my heart to break that I will be leaving him once again.
“He needs his mother.”
“He has one. He has you.”

“No, don’t do this to me, Ariana, you don’t get to do this to me,” I can hear the sadness in her voice now. Is it sickening that my heart bubbles with joy that she still feels something for me?
“Please, promise me you will take care of him?”
“You will be there to also take care of him.”

“No, Bel, please, promise me that you will treat him as your own?”
“I love Damien like the child I never had. I know what it means to lose a son, I don’t want Damien to know what it means to lose a mother.”
“That is why you will shower him with so much love that he forgets that I ever existed.”
“Ari…”
“Please, do this for me,” I hold on to her hands tighter before dragging a breath, it burns.

“Before I go, I need you to know that he loves you.” She stiffens underneath me, “he never stopped searching for you for those two years you were gone. It drove him crazy. He would spend weeks without sleep mapping out areas he had searched and checking other places in hopes of finding you. Whenever he sent a search party, he would sit at the edge of his seat with the same bubble of hope burning in his eyes, expecting good news only to be defeated every time.”

She drags a deep breath, “he really loves you.”
A deep painful growl erupts in the field and the sound of the pain fills my heart with bliss. I know who that is, I know who that sound belongs to. Dominic. The pain erupts again and my eyes begin to flutter as a smile stretches across my face.

At least I can die knowing that my son is safe with them.
“I hope you find a place in your heart to forgive me, Bel. Tell Damien that I love him,” suddenly my tongue stops cooperating with my mind. It suddenly feels too weighty to move, even my eyes are now too heavy to even move.

I guess this is how it ends, the sudden fatigue and the chill. The slow walk till I fall off the end of my thread.
Damien, mommy loves you.