Fairytale Come Alive (Ghosts and Reincarnation #4)(60)

She closed her eyes slowly.

Then she opened them and nodded.

“I can’t f**king believe this,” Prentice growled.

Bella finally spoke, her voice timid and soft, a voice Fiona had never heard, a voice Prentice (by the looks of him) never heard.

Nor did he like.

“It was for the best.”

“It was for the best?” he repeated, sounding appalled.

“I’m… you…” she stammered. “You wouldn’t have Jason. You wouldn’t have Sally.” It was Prentice who closed his eyes then and Bella went on, her voice getting stronger. “You wouldn’t have had Fiona.” Prentice’s eyes opened and pain was there, Bella saw it and she swallowed. Then her hand lifted and she touched the laugh lines at the sides of his eyes with her forefinger. “You wouldn’t have those, Prentice, because you wouldn’t have had the laughter I know Fiona gave you.”

Fiona felt her throat close as she watched Prentice bend his neck and rest his forehead against Bella’s.

“I have to go,” she whispered and his head shot right back up.

“Sorry?” he asked in a dangerous tone.

“I have to go,” she repeated.

Fiona watched Prentice’s eyes narrow. “What the f**k are you on about?”

“I have to go,” she said yet again.

Fiona got close and shouted, Don’t. Don’t Bella. This isn’t you. You aren’t the dark cloud. That was all your father. Don’t do this. Don’t go.

“You aren’t going,” Prentice declared.

“I am. I have to,” she told him.

“You aren’t and you can’t,” he shot back.

“Don’t you see?”

“No, I f**king well do not.”

Her body jolted. “Annie and Dougal’s wedding, perfect, except for me.”

“You didn’t ruin their wedding.”

“No? Who did? Me being here brought my father here and –”

“This is insane, Elle. You aren’t –”

“Insane? Like my mother?” Fiona watched Prentice’s head jerk but Bella wasn’t done. “She was insane, Prentice. People in their right minds don’t kill themselves.”

“People in their right minds find reasons to kill themselves every day,” he returned.

“You don’t know.”

“You don’t either.”

“I know my mother wasn’t in her right mind. I know that for certain.”

“Elle –”

“And you don’t need that in your life or in your children’s lives.”

Prentice’s face grew stunned. “Are you saying –?”

“I’m saying I’m a product of her and him and that is what you’ll have around your children if we carry on with this madness.”

“You may be a product of them, Elle, but you’re you.”

“And who’s that, then? You said yourself you don’t even know me!”

“Yes, I do. You’re the girl I fell in love with twenty years ago. That girl came home drunk two nights ago. Last night, she let me make love to her, telling me it’s never been that good, and later, she slept in my arms.”

“That girl isn’t me.”

Prentice glared at her.

Bella glared back.

Then he tore his hand through his hair and, at that gesture, Fiona knew he was losing patience because she’d seen him do it many times before.

“This is ridiculous,” he clipped.

Yes, losing patience.

“I agree, just let me go.”

His eyes narrowed. “I told you, this time I’m keeping you.”

She put her hands to his chest and gave a hearty shove. Prentice’s torso rocked back but then came in closer.

“You can’t keep me,” she snapped. “I don’t want to be kept.”

He put his face close to hers. “Bollocks.”

She pulled in breath through her nose and looked at the heavens.

When she looked back at him, she asked, “Prentice, don’t you see?”

Fiona shouted, No! No, he doesn’t see! You have to tell him. You have to tell him so he can sort you out. He has no idea. You HAVE GOT to TELL him.

Bella shook her head to clear Fiona’s words.

And then she said, “It’s for the best. It was twenty years ago, and you can’t deny that.” His mouth got tight at that and Bella went on, this time quietly, “It will be again. You’ll find happiness, Prentice. It’s just never something you’d find with me.”

Prentices eyes got hard. “Elle, you get in that car and drive away, that’s it. You leave me and the children this time, if you get second thoughts and you come back, I’ll no’ make you work for it. There’ll be nothing to work for.”

To Fiona’s shock, disappointment, anger and sadness, although Bella’s face paled and her throat convulsed, her head nodded.

Prentice felt those same four emotions and he didn’t hide them.

His voice was gruff when he stated, “The last time, even though I didn’t know it, you were taken from me. This time, if you leave, it’s all you.”

Fiona saw Bella’s eyes flash with indecision.