Tragic Love (32 page)

A small sparkle dims in her eyes and she whispers, “I chose love, Drake.” She releases a gasp of air, her eyes roll slightly to the side and her body falls limp into the concrete.

I kiss her lips again, hoping this is a fucked up fairytale and she will come back to life. However, this isn’t a fairytale. This is real life. And real life always has a way of fucking everything up.

I pull Presley in my arms and hold her lifeless body against my chest. Sobs break from my throat and pain of unimaginable proportions takes over my body. My limbs are shaking and my eyes are swollen as my own life is being sucked from my body. I can’t breathe. I can’t think. I can’t do anything, but feel the excruciating pain coursing through my body. I’m dying. This is what it truly feels like to die. Nothing else can explain why I’m filled with all this unbearable pain.

Chapter 22

Drake

It’s been raining for the last few days, flooding the streets and saturating the ground, creating makeshift lakes in the backyard. The rain is washing all the evidence of that night away. The blood is gone, but the hate still lives in my body. The rain falls and falls from the sky as the black clouds mirror the blackness that has taken over my heart.

I never knew what real tragedy was until the night Presley was shot. I thought witnessing her overdose in my arms was as tragic as life could get, but I was wrong. There are no words in this world that can explain just how agonizing I feel right now. I had to hold the love of my life and the mother of my child in my arms and watch her slowly slip away. Nothing could have been done; life saving measures were unlikely. She lost too much blood and there just wasn’t enough time to save her. And that is what my life has dwindled down to, time. There’s never enough time. I fucking hate time right now.

I’ve barely left my room in the last few days. I hold her pillow all day and night to my chest. It smells exactly like her. If I think hard enough, it becomes her and she’s snuggled against my chest. God, I miss her. I’m nothing except an empty shell. Drained of all life. Drained of all love. I know soon I will have to get myself up and be the father Mia needs me to be, but right now, I have nothing inside of me to give. All the love escaped my body the moment Presley took her last breath.

Delilah came up from Memphis immediately after Jake called her. I’ve heard her sobbing for the last three days, but I’ve made no move to get out of bed. Reggie, I assume, has been handling the arrangements. I’ve done nothing to prepare for her funeral. I’ve done nothing because the delusional part of me still believes she will come walking into our lives. That this will be a sick joke she conjured up, and after our fight, we will spend the rest of the night making up for lost time. Fuck! Time.

There’s a knock at my door and it slowly opens, Reggie’s standing in the threshold. He hesitates to walk into the room, but slowly does, stopping at the edge of the bed. I don’t want to know what he has to say. I want to stay in the safe haven of my room and pretend I’m holding Presley as she sleeps.

“Funeral is in an hour.” He puts his hand on my shoulder and squeezes. I don’t even acknowledge him. I stay lying on my side with my back to his towering body.

“I can’t even begin to think what you’re going through right now. I’m sure you feel like you’re dying inside, but it’s time to say goodbye to Presley.”

I push his hand off my shoulder. “Fuck you,” I seethe. No one is going to tell me when it’s time to say goodbye to her. I will never tell her goodbye. “I’m not going.”

“Drake, I know it seems impossible right now, but you have to do this. You will never forgive yourself. Everyone needs that closure.”

I sit up in bed, absolutely livid from everything. He doesn’t know shit. “Fuck you! You have no idea what any of this feels like.” I choke back the tears boiling underneath the surface. “You can go to bed every night and hold the woman you love. I can’t!” I grab the pillow, holding it up to his face. “This is all I can hold now! A goddamn pillow! This is all I have left!” I flop back down, ignoring his reaction completely.

“Drake, I’m not even going to pretend I know what you’re feeling inside because I have no fucking clue, but you have to stay together.” The bed concaves as Reggie sits down next to me. “You have a daughter that needs her father and you have family who needs you, too. We’re all hurting, Drake.” He stands and expels a deep breath. “This is going to be the hardest day of your life, hands down, but you have to stand on your own two feet. You have to keep moving forward.” Reggie claps me on the back one last time. Before he walks out the door her says, “Think of her. Think of how hard it was for Presley to keep going when she was in rehab, but she did it. She did it for you and she did it for Mia.”

I break out into full on sobs, holding tightly to her pillow like it’s my only lifeline. How am I supposed to get up and put one foot in front of the other if she’s the only reason I can do it in the first place?

I love her.

I want her.

I need her.

I lie in bed for another half hour. I know this because Jake stands outside my door and says the funeral is in thirty minutes. I finally allow what Reggie has said to register in my brain. She was so lost, almost dead from the depression and grief living inside of her, yet Presley pulled herself up and kept moving on. She didn’t let anything stand in her way, even when she knew how hard it was going to be for her to get sober. Yet, she did it and now I have to as well.

I stand from my bed and open the closet door. My eyes immediately go to her side. I run my fingers across the various shirts and dresses then come across the hooded sweatshirt she was wearing when we first met. Her favorite sweatshirt.

I yank it from the hanger, closing my eyes, remembering the first time I looked into her eyes. They were captivating, honey-brown irises and I instantly fell in love. I didn’t know it then, but God, do I know it now. I hold the sweatshirt up to my face and smell her all over it. My legs buckle as I collapse to the floor, sobbing into her shirt. A vice grip is squeezing the life out of my chest as all the pain I’ve been feeling for the last few days skyrockets to unbearable measures.

“God, I need her with me,” I pray aloud to God when I have no idea if one even exists. “Please bring her back to me. Please.” The door opens slightly, causing my breath to freeze in my throat.

In walks my Mia, my little girl, she’s full of smiles as she runs to my weary body on the floor. I made her a promise I would never let anything happen to her mother and I broke that promise. I didn’t stop Presley before she sacrificed herself to save me. I couldn’t save her and I couldn’t keep my promise to my baby girl. I fucked everything up.

I pick her up in my arms and feel all the love I thought evaporated from my body come flooding back in. I’m holding my daughter in my arms and it’s then I realize here is this precious life who has so much ahead of her. She needs me to be there for her. I need her to be there for me. We need each other to get through the next painful years of our lives.

As I pull her back and look into her honey-brown eyes, I see what Reggie was talking about. Life must go on. I must go on. For her, I must go on.

***

The funeral is as horrible as I expected it would be. No one knew the protocol of having a young child seeing their mother dead in a casket, so I asked Mrs. Fields, who was happy to oblige, to stay with Mia in the back room until I was ready to leave.

Nothing could have prepared me for seeing Presley lying in the casket, though. I think I just died all over again. As the reality sinks in that this will be the last time I will see her, the last time I would be able to touch her and the last time I would be able to kiss her, I fall forward, leaning half my body over hers and I cry.

I cry for all the memories we will never make together. I cry for the daughter who will never know how amazing her mother really was. I cry for my shattered heart. And I cry as I look at the better half of me lying dead in a casket.

As I lie with Presley underneath me, I feel hands squeezing, rubbing and holding onto me; crying with me. My family, they will always stand behind those they love and here they are, standing right here behind me. We’re a strong unit, and when one of us falls, the others are there to catch you. My family will now be my strength because I don’t have any left of my own. Not right now. I’m not sure I will ever gain it back again.

I know it’s time. It’s time for me to finally say goodbye to the love of my life. I sit up and gaze upon her. She looks angelic and at peace. Her brown hair is down, coming over her shoulders, gathering at the cup of her breast. She is wearing a simple black dress and resting between her folded hands is a picture of me and Mia. A picture we took on Mia’s first birthday, right before she was covered in cake. I see Presley holding that picture and I see her holding the lives she lived for every day. The lives she saved.

Shining from her neck is the heart necklace she’s never taken off. Spots of blood barely visible to the naked eye grab my attention. I run my thumb across the pendant, wiping the last of the red off and onto my pants. I look into her closed eyes and prepare myself to say my final goodbye.

I let go of a breath and let the bleeding words of my soul fall out of my mouth. “Presley, you’re my love, my life, my everything.” I study her face, imprinting it into my mind as the tears drip down my cheeks and fall onto hers. “God, not a single second goes by that I wish I was in that box instead of you. You saved my life and I am so sorry I couldn’t save yours.” The sobs release from my throat, but I don’t break my gaze from her closed eyes. I let the sobs wail through the quietness of the funeral home. “I love you so much, baby. I’m not sure how I’m even here right now. How am I alive when
I don’t have you? God, I miss you so much.” I take deep breaths as I release my final words. I don’t hold it in. I let it fall out. I let it bleed.

“Please know that not a single day will go by that you won’t be on the forefront of my mind. You will always be in my heart. I love you. I will love you forever.” I lean forward and place my final kiss to her lips. I hold them there, capturing this last moment, seizing the last time her sweet cherry lips will be against mine.

I then, lean up and peel away from her still body, but before I walk away, I say, “Don’t worry about Mia. We’ll all protect her.”

I walk to the back room and pull Mia from Mrs. Fields arms. I kiss the top of her head and walk toward the door. I don’t stay for the rest of the service. I’ve said what I needed to say.

I walk out the door, our child in my arms and walk into our future. We walk into our future broken. We walk into our future alone.

~ The End ~

Message from the Author

Thank you everyone for reading
Tragic Love
. I hope you were captivated, as much as I was, while going through Drake and Presley’s journey. Some of you may feel disappointed with the ending, but everyone experiences tragic events in their lives that become pivotal moments scarring their souls. We can never prepare for tragedy and when it’s all said and done, it can leave you feeling lost, wandering and heartbroken.

For the members of the Evans family, Presley’s death is that one moment which will bind the family together or threaten to break them apart.

This is not the last of Drake’s story, just a major obstacle he’s left to face. You will learn much more about his story and the remaining members of the Evans family in the following books of the Sulfur Heights Series;
Blind Love
and
Redeemed Love
, both planned to be released next year.

Be happy. Feel inspired. Embrace love
. ~M.S. Brannon

Bonus Scene

Tragic Love Alternate Ending

While I was writing
Tragic Love
, the final scenes were heading me in an even darker direction than originally planned. I wanted to share with my readers where Drake and Presley’s story was taking me during its inception.

Drake

As I make it down the last steps, I squeeze my fists, readying them for the impact to Carter’s face. I can hear Presley screaming behind me, but I don’t bother to turn to her. I keep myself moving forward when Carter reaches behind his back. Fuck! His gun!

I stop several feet in front of him and the next thing I hear is a loud pop and I drop to the ground. Screaming, so much screaming. I think I’m shot. I look down and see blood covering the middle of my shirt, but I feel no pain.

When I begin to focus on what just happened, I look down and see Presley crumpled at Carter’s feet. She is lying on her side, crumpled into a ball and there is blood pooling around her body. Oh my God.

“NO! Presley!” I crawl over to her and roll Presley onto her back to see a large portion of her shirt soaked in blood. He fucking shot her! I rip the shirt off my back and press the fabric into her wound. “Call an ambulance!” I scream.

Presley coughs and I release a little sigh of relief, knowing she’s still with me. “Hang on, baby. The ambulance is coming. Just stay with me.” Presley coughs again and her eyes start to flutter closed. I tap her cheek and shout louder. “Presley! Don’t die on me! Please, hang on. They’re on their way. Just stay with me!”

Blood is soaking through my shirt and I can feel it on my legs as it absorbs through my jeans. She coughs again and looks over at me. Peace and tranquility mask across her face. “Read your letter to me.” Her voice is quiet and scratchy. I’ve been carrying around the letter Dr. Garner asked me to write for the last several months, waiting for the right time to have her read it. “Please, Drake. I just want to hear your voice.” She coughs again and her eyes start to close.

I look up and see Darcie across from me, holding Presley’s hand with tears rolling down her cheeks. Jeremy is walking up the driveway like a caged animal, panting and out of breath. Reggie and Jake meet him, but I can’t hear what they’re saying.