Chapter Twenty Six: One last wish

"What?" I asked as I stared into his eyes.

"Please tell me it's a joke." I asked him but I knew it was not. I could see it, I could clearly see it in his eyes. Those eyes, I have never seen them so closely and seeing them filled with water bought a pang in my chest.

I couldn't look at him anymore. I couldn't hurt him, he was my best friend.

"Oh Adrian" I whispered as he wrapped his arms around me. I melted into his embrace as his arms encircled mine.

Seconds passed which turned into minutes, as we both remained in the embrace of each other.

"I can't do this to you. " I choked.

He pulled up my chin,so my eyes directly met his.

"I love you Adrian, but as a brother and as my best friend. I have never thought about you that way." I whispered as tears ran down my cheeks .

"Shsh Pearl I know, I know you didn't love me like that and I knew we would never be together because you are with him. But love, it's not always about a forever, it's just about a moment or a memory. To love you, I don't even need you to be with me. I just want you to breathe, I want you to complete your dreams, I want you to fall in love and have kids and just be happy."

I looked at him as I wiped the tears of his face .

" That's love, it hurts but that's the beauty of it." He whispered.

"Adrian." I whispered.

"I'll talk to Ozymandius, I'll tell him to have your memory erased and send you back. I don't want to hurt you, I want you to forget me and be happy." I told him.

"No Pearl, no that's not what I want. I want you in my heart forever. Even when I have kids, I want to tell them about you.I want to tell them the value of friendship and I can only do that if I have you with me, in my heart, always and forever."

I looked at him, in his eyes that were shining with rivers. I couldn't do it, I couldn't say no when I knew that maybe it was the last time I had meet him or the last time he had asked me for something.

"Okey." I whispered.

"Thank you, I just have one last wish, a memory I want to keep of you with me."

I looked at him as he smiled.

"Just close your eyes." He whispered and I closed them.

I felt his hands caress my face and then slowly his lips came to mine. His arms wrapped around mine as he kissed me. It was slow and soft. I knew this was wrong, but I wanted to make it right. I wanted to fulfill his last wish that he had requested from me so I wrapped my arms around him and kissed him back .

We broke away panting, and there was a smile on his face. A smile that cracked my heart.

"Thank you." He whispered.

And just then I had a feeling, it was like I wanted to cry and be alone. I just wanted to think, think what I would be losing and what would I be getting. I just wanted to breathe, breathe the fresh air.

"I need to use the rest room, I'll just be back. Don't go, please not right now." I lied to him as I particularly ran out of the room to the balcony.

I knew that he knew I was lying but I was glad that he had respected my privacy, like always.

I looked at the sky. The beautiful sky. I closed my eyes and took a deep breathe and soon the oceans started flowing. I gripped the railing as I looked at the birds. The clouds were coming and I knew it was gonna rain, as if the sky itself shared my grief.

I was gonna lose him, I was gonna lose him forever. I was never gonna see him. And what for? For the Alpha Ozymandius? And did I even love him? Or moreover, did he even love me or was I just a possession?

My mind ran over the memories and confused me. I grabbed my head in my arms as a headache started to form.

And then I felt arms wrap around me and I knew who it was. I opened my eyes and saw him, I saw the rage in his eyes probably because he could smell him on me. But today I needed him, or someone to tell me that its gonna be okey, so without a second thought, I wrapped my arms around him and started to cry.

He kept me in his embrace as he let me cry.

"Go, go with him." He whispered after a long time.

"What?" I asked as I looked at him.

"Go, I can't keep you a prisoner here. Love doesn't work like this, its not a possession, it's your own free will. It was wrong for me to kidnap you and separate you from your family. I can't force you to stay here when you don't love me."

I looked at him in shock. Never in my whole life I had expected him to say something like this.

"Do you love me?" I asked him as for the first time I looked directly into his eyes.

"It doesn't matter." He told me.

"It does to me." I whispered.

" I loved you from the moment I saw you sleeping next to me, I loved you from the moment that I saw your inner self. Pearl, you dont know how pure you are and how beautiful you are from both the inside and the outside."

And that was when I realised it. I realised what love was. It was powerful and it was not always rainbows, but sometimes it was knife in your stomach. It hurt you and made you cry but it was an experience and in that experience, it was the small things that mattered.

"I love you too." I whispered.