Chapter 27

I love you

Those three words. I love you. Is this real or is it the alcohol. The words slips out of her mouth flawlessly like it was intended to come out. Its almost too good to be true. Everything around me starts to fade but her words echo in my head, repeating them and trying to make me believe that this is not some twisted shit my mind is making up right now.

"I know its too soon and its weird and strange but I think I never did stopped loving you even after the accident. I don't know if that's even possible because in the first place, it didn't crossed my mind that I was in fact once in a relationship with you." She looks at me, straight in the eyes and it was making my heart race. " But, from the moment I saw you, I felt that strong connection. It was different and I have never felt that way ever, not that I remember."

I couldn't speak even if I opened my mouth to tell those three words back to her. My emotions are caught up in my throat forming a barrier from my voice. She lets out a shaky breath and her eyes turned pale, breaking eye contact and my heart starts to race faster than ever as she says. "I'm sorry, m-maybe I should just go-"

"No" I croaked forcing myself to speak. I can't let anything ruin this moment. Not even my doubts or anything. I just wanted to let her know the truth and get this thing over with once and for all. "Please, I'm sorry. I was just" I let out a sound between a laugh and a cry as my hand made its way to the side of her face stroking her cheek.

"I just can't believe this is happening." Her eyes sparks with hope as I let out a smile. I feel this overwhelming feeling at the the thought of after two miserable years of my life without her, trying to cope up and adjust back to my old self, still its only her that could fix me. I have been waiting for this moment to come and now here it is and its making my eyes feel hot with tears daring to come out. This is just unreal.

"I-I love you Shannon, I never stopped and I-" Her lips crashed into mine cutting me off in mid sentence. I feel my heart expands and suddenly explodes with so much love for this woman. That euphoric feeling coming back in an instant and its overwhelming. Too much for me to handle.

Is this real?

I say once again, in my head, as we continue to kiss each other with full of passion. Then, I ask myself again. Why is it so hard for you to believe? Maybe because I'm scared  and too hurt by what had happened to us before that it caused a huge wall to be built around my heart and made me doubt everything that is happening right in front of my eyes.

She pulls away as air becomes an issue. Hot breaths slamming into each other's mouth and hearts beating louder than the sound of the clock ticking on my wall. Her hands around my waist tight and warm while my hands are cold and shaky as it rests on their spot on the side of her face. I opened my eyes just in time for her to open hers too. She frowns a bit looking deep in my eyes, her warm hand taking mine placing a kiss on my palm.

"You okay?" She whispers finally taking both of my hands and warming them up and looked at me with worry and fear laced in her ocean eyes. I'm still figuring out if this is actually real or not.

"You mean it?" It was barely a whisper but with the silence that's surrounding us, I'm pretty sure she heard it. Her eyes landed on my lips as hers curved up into a small smile then back to my eyes. Her pupils are dilated but different. It wasn't like before. She's here and I can see her.

"I do, I love you. I really do." She chuckles softly as she places a kiss on my palm and lead it down to her chest. I can feel it beating loudly in her chest. The scene is too familiar but at the same time different. Last time this happened it led to the worse but this is different, I'm at ease. I'm surprise at how things are repeating themselves over the course of time but changes in some ways you could never imagine it would be. This happened before. I know. I was there, but this time, I'm not scared of how her pupils are so big, how fast and loud her heart is beating right now and how I can tell that she's here with me right now, and that makes me well up in tears.

"Feel that, Its loud and fast and I can't stop it but it feels so good. I know I've had girlfriends before, the ones I remembered. But this is the only time I felt this strange, warm and cozy feeling just like-"

"Home" She nods and smiles. The first tear fall as I let out a soft giggle. She wipes it before taking me in her arms once again. I melt in them as she places soft kisses on my head. "You're still my home, after all." She whispers and that's just sets it all up. God, how could this day get any better. She pulls back making me look at her. Her eyes are still big and so bright the blue in her eyes are expanding into a thin layer of color around her pupils as she say,

"I love you, I'm going to stay for good and I'm not just saying that. I really mean it. I'm going to stay this time my love." Hearing that brings so much comfort in me and I believe her. I smiled as my eyes landed on her lips then back to her eyes again feeling the urge to kiss her again but them she leans in first taking my lips in hers, just like the way she does before, and just like that we are back together.—————————Shannon's P.O.V.I open my eyes to fingertips running on the scar engraved on my bare shoulder. I smile at the sight of the most beautiful angel that has laid here on earth and how fortunate am I that I can already call her mine.

"Good morning" I whispered her strong jade eyes slowly meets mine and as soon as it landed on my blue ones my heart starts doing jumping jacks on my chest. We stared at each other for quite sometime waiting for someone to break the silence. I did, and turned completely to her as her smile grew wider with this.

"Good morning honey." She whispers back, her hand slipping to the side of my face as she bites her own lip and that does something to me. Well, everything she do does something to me. I lean down to kiss her precious lips as our bare chests made contact with each others.

"Mmm, I missed that." She whispers against my lips making me giggle softly giving her one last peck before falling down beside her. She then moves closer resting her head on my chest while I rest my hand on her shoulder tracing soft delicate lines against her exposed skin, and the feeling of our naked bodies tangled up made meremember what happened last night, a smile forming on my lips.

"What time is it?" She whispers so I glanced at the wall where a clock hangs and it read 8:45 am.

"Quarter to nine sweetheart." She hums in response before propping herself up adjusting herself on the bed to face me her arms resting on my chest.

"Hi" I say and she smiles, that sweet sweet smile I want to wake up every morning for the rest of my life.

"Hi" She giggles and hums biting down her bottom lip and God she's so adorable. "So are we like, back together now?" She asks cautiously not meeting my eyes. I know she still has doubts about this, but I can also feel how she wants this to work too.

"Well, I've been meaning to ask if you could be my girlfriend or rather if you could take me back again?" I say and she smiles nodding her head before saying,

"Yes, I will." She pull herself up to me and kisses me softly, a giggle erupting from us as soon as we pull apart staring into each others eyes. I can hear our hearts beating loudly in our chests having a loud banter with each other.

"I love you Elizabeth." I whispered sincerely looking deep into those jade eyes letting myself get lost in them, and what I see? Pure love and fear still mixed together but then she smiles and whispers,

"I love you my Shanbee." She says scrunching her nose, I chuckle at the nickname. She raised her brows and joined in. Shanbee, Is that what she calls me before. Shanbee, bee? bumblebee. I smiled at the realization of that, and that made me hold her tight rolling her to the side causing giggles to errupt in the air and now we've switched places. I propped myself up with one arm hovering on her while her hand rests on the back of my neck playing with hairs on it. She sighs looking away, a sudden change on her mood.

"You know this would blow up again right? What we have, its starting to go wild with the public eye." She pauses and it sends a heavy weight in my chest as she looks at me with fear in her eyes. "I don't want to lose you again." Her eyes are pleading for mercy which made me realize that those two years must been so hard for her, traumatic even and I wanted so bad to change that. God, I must be the worst person in the whole world for not even trying to do something to get my memories back in those two years. I was too trusting with my family.

"You won't lose me this time my love. I don't care what others would say. At the end of the day, what's important to me is you, us. I'm sorry I left, I should've known better-"

"Please stop." She sighs cutting me off. " You did that for yourself honey, and I understand. You were right if we went on then maybe it would've gotten worse-"

"But its still the same isn't it? Things got worse even when we were apart." She breaks eye contact keeping her eyes on my necklace before nodding her head.

"I was waiting for you" She whispers and for some reason, guilt starts to build up inside my chest like wet cement sinking me down further as it gets heavier. "We promised we'll meet again and start over. I never got any news from you from anybody not even the paparazzi. It was so hard, terrible and I'm just glad my family never left my side. It never crossed my mind that the reason behind that was an accident that completely wiped our memories away."

"I'm sorry." I whispered feeling the need to apologize. She smiles, finally looking back at me with glassy eyes and I feel fucking terrible at the sight of that. She shakes her head and lets out a soft giggle tears escapes at the corner of her eye as she closes her eyes snuggling closer to me.

"Its not your fault. Don't apologize, you're here now." She whispers a little sadness laced in the tone of her voice. I couldn't speak as a huge lump form behind my throat with my head spiraling in the thought of her situation in that two years, so I just stayed silent and let my heart speaks for itself as I settle down taking her completely in my arms and let her sink in them.

"I'm here now." I whispered softly and she hums in response leaving me deep in thought. —————"What the fuck? that is not a number. That is a fucking crowd." I say frustrated to Trent who's in the same state as me. We've just landed at the airport and what do we come home to, a fucking crowd of paparazzi waiting for us at the arrival area. Trent sighs in frustration as he starts putting our luggages on a luggage cart. Elizabeth is on the phone with Marla, I think, so while she's busy I made my way to the corner calling the attention of Jake and the rest of the team for a quick huddle. It was obviously a surprise  for them since I haven't done this before but I'm really pissed off and I just want everyone to be safe.

"Boss?" Jake says a huge smile on his face as they start to surround me. I gave him a nod and he shakes his head his smile growing wider.

"I need everyone to get through that fucking crowd safe. So I need a much tighter security. I know you'renot a whole right now but most of you are here so I know we can get this through. So the plan is we'll form a barrier around us. Rick, Steve, Dave and Russ you go with Trent and Jarnie along with Ken and John. Don't let one slip out. Harvey, Paul, Anthony and Greg you're with us and Jake?"

"Got it!" He says giving me a thumbs up that huge grin still playing on his lips easing me up a bit.

"Alright, I'm counting on you guys. Scatter your eyes, and keep alert for signals from me and Jake. Let's get this fucking over it. Dismissed." I let out a frustrated breath as they started to disseminate before looking up and realized they've been watching the huddle all this time with Elizabeth's eyes stuck on mine still holding her phone to her ear, Trent with a smirk playing on his face while Jarnie smiles at me.

"God I missed that." Jake mutters giving me a fist bump before talking with his earpiece on. I smiled as I made my way back to Trent.

"That was something. Lizzie told me you're the head of her security but I didn't got the chance to see you in action and that's so cool." I gave him a half hearted smile because I'm still really pissed at the paparazzi at the same time, I'm a bit worried even though I know how her security works, I still need to make sure.

"I just want everyone safe." He nods smiling and giving me a tap on the shoulders. "I have six men surrounding you later on okay?"

"Woah, that many?"

"Yea, I need to keep everyone safe. I have four plus me and Jake for Elizabeth." His smile grows wider and puts an arm around me.

"You really surprise me kid." He says and before I could even say anything, I felt Elizabeth held onto my arm with a nervous smile on her face. Her hands are cold as they come contact with my skin telling me she's not comfortable with our situation right now, so I turned to her making her look up to me.

"Just stay close to me sweetheart okay?" She nods resting her head on my chest.

"Charles is at the entrance already." Jarnie says walking closer to us so I looked at Jake and he seems to get it immediately as he pressed on his earpiece again before speaking and next thing I knew, everyone is in position.

As soon as we were out, Elizabeth's grip tightens around my arm while the camera's starts blinding us and also fans starts closing in on us. I was starting to have second thoughts in when some fans are going in our way but Jake made sure everything was in place and I must say, our men are well built, maybe that's why they manage to block every single one of them from getting near to us and I was feeling proud of that. By the time we got out safely and secure, Trent lead us to their car where I think their driver is. I believe his name is Charles? I don't know.

As soon as we got to a red pick up and still screaming men following us, Rick and Steve starts to put our luggages. I helped Jarnie and Elizabeth got in the car making sure they're secure while Trent gets in the front passenger seat.

"Boss all set." Jake says before I stepped in the trunk. I gave him a nod and a fist bump.

"Thanks Jake, the team did it again. I'm just proud really." He smiles.

"Its all because of you, that huddle gave them a little boost." I let out a chuckle and shake my head.

" That's all on you not me, but seriously thank you." He nods and held the door open for me before I slipped in beside Elizabeth in the back seat.

"Have a good night Jake." I gave him one last bump before he closes the door. I turn to Elizabeth as she latched her arms around mine resting her head on my shoulders. Obviously, that drained her out. Well, its fucking ten in the evening and still, the amount of screaming men we just went through is very hard and tiring to handle to be honest.

"Its good to see you again Shannon" I hear a voice say so I look up and saw a man on the driver seat looking at me through the rear view mirror. Elizabeth raises her head from my shoulders and look at me before saying,

"Uh, Babe that's Charles our driver." She whispers in my ear and I nod looking at him again.

"Hi Charles, it nice to see you too." I say in an enthusiastic and realistic tone. He started driving and all of us just sat in a comfortable silence, clearly, so tired from the flight and that thing after. I'm beat as well, and I still have to book an Uber for me to go home since Zoë's staying at Liz's tonight and that she won't be able to pick me up. Elizabeth had dozed off on my shoulder so I just stared out the window and relax, calming myself down from the peak of my anger with the paparazzi.

I've seen and read celebrities getting papped at the airport but not like what I saw earlier, that was unsettling. Now I wonder how long this would last. I am very aware that rumors are still ringing like every day, Alyssa always emails me this kind of stuffs other than my schedule and my projects. Maybe I should prepare myself for more. Well, Elizabeth is very well known in the industry and who she dates is kind of a big deal to everyone, judging by what we arrived on earlier. So maybe I should start doing my research on everything I need to know about Elizabeth and her world since I don't know nothing about what we had before. Its bits and pieces but its not enough. I just want to be prepared, the media doesn't need to know about the accident. They don't need to know about that.

"We're here." Charles say as we pull over in front of a huge house and suddenly I have this strange feeling starting inside of me. I try to shrug it off, and turn to Elizabeth who is still sleeping peacefully on my shoulder and as much as I don't want to disturb her sleep, I really need to wake her up now.

"Sweetheart, we're here." I say as stroke her cheek and that made her stir in her sleep while Jarnie and Trent gets off the car leaving the both of us inside. Her eyes flicker open then raises her head with a yawn looking around.

"Oh, we're here." She mumbles looking at me and smiles drowsily.She's too adorable at the moment and I couldn't help but to give her a small peck before opening the car door and getting off. I hear her giggle as she helps me out.

"You have a huge house." I say.

"This one's our family house, my mom's house basically." She says simply as she takes my hand and pulls me in. That strange feeling going stronger as I go in further into that huge house and now my feet feels heavy. That wet cement weighing them down again and I'm so confused as to why. Elizabeth stops and turns to look at me.

"You okay?" She whispers with worry lace in her voice. To be honest, I don't know. I look around, marble floors by the entrance and up to a grand staircase. The living room has beige carpets and white walls with framed paintings on it. It was spacious and it measures the inside of my whole house. But I feel really different.

"Have I been here before?" I asked and she nods cautiously. Then I hear her say,

"Honey?"

"Yea?" I look back to her and she's staring at mewith confusion in her eyes. I raised my brows waiting for her to just say something. "You called?" I asked and she shakes her head. Hmm, what was that?

"Everything alright?" I turn to Trent and his face changed. I swore he had a mustache and a beard but now he's all cleaned up. I blinked a few times then it goes back. Fuck my head hurts.

"Shan?" I turn back to Elizabeth. "Baby, you okay?"

"Uhh, Yea, maybe I'm just tired. I'll book an Uber so I ca-"

"You're not staying?" I don't know how to respond to that really. I want to stay but something feels heavy in here.

"Do you- Do you want me to stay?" She tilts her head to the side and stares into my eyes.

"What's wrong?" She whispers.

"Did something happened here?" I asked. She looks so confused until her eyes snap back at me.

"Did you have flashbacks?" She asks immediately more with urgency, her eyes in panic. What the fuck happened here?

"I dont-" She breathes heavily as her freezing hands grips the back of my neck and I'm more getting worried of her than my thoughts circling in my head.

"Elizabeth, sweetheart. I need you to breathe, its okay." She shakes her head as her hand travels to my chest where my heart is pounding so hard but because her breathing is awfully concerning.

"We need to leave." She mutters and I was getting confused. "Stay here, I need my keys."

"Eliza-" She walks past me ignoring me and I stood there rooted on my spot trying to figure out what was happening. Then another one comes to me.

"Shan?" I snap my head to Mary Kate and raised my brows at her.

"Yea?" The twins exchanged looks before looking at me with worried eyes and I hate it.

"MK just asked how you are?" Ashley whispers and I was about to say something when I heard my name again so I look up and saw Trent walking towards me. The twins pulls away from me making way for Trent to hug me. To be honest, I'm all over the place right now with all the looks I'm getting from Jarnie and the twins. I feel so small. Its like someone just turned a switch in my mind.

I winced at the sharp pain that shoots through my head making me scrunch my eyes tight at the feeling. This is so strange and confusing. Why am I having these flashbacks all of a sudden.

"Hey bud, you alright?" I felt a hand on my shoulder making me turn to see Trent looking at me with concerned eyes.

"I'm fine, I-"

"Come on, let's go." Trent and I look up as Elizabeth. strides towards me with her keys in her hands. She immediately takes my hand and pulls me with her but Trent stops her blocking her way.

"Woah woah, where are you going?"

"We're going home. We need to leave." She says in an urgent tone. This is not normal, the way she's acting. What the fuck is happening?

"Its late you two can go home tomor-"

"No you don't understand. We need to leave!" She snaps before grabbing my hand her grip is becoming too tight on my wrist.

"Lizzie-" She storms out dragging me with her and my heart is getting louder in my chest,  its starting to hurt my ears. Trent follows us, as we go towards a black Toyota Prius.

"Babe stop." I say, but she's not listening as she struggles to fumble with her keys when she can just easily press on the remote. Clearly, there is something wrong. So to stop this I held on to her keys and pulled her in my arms and that's when I felt tears damping my shirt.

"Hey, its okay. I'm here." Even though I'm so lost as fuck as to what just happened. My heart still feels heavy at the sound of her cries on my chest. Its like daggers through my heart. I see Trent slows down his pace at the corner of my eye but I didn't mind him, my attention is currently being occupied by a crying Elizabeth in my arms.

"Hey, hey. Its okay sweetheart. Take a deep breath." I whispered sweet nothings to her holding her in my arms trying to calm her down as I stroke her back. "What's wrong?" I whispered as soon as she calmed down.

"You're- You're going to have an attack and- and I can't. I just can't-" I let out a breath as I pulled her in my arms again as she starts to breathe in panic again.

"Hey, hey baby. Please breathe. I'm here, I'm not going anywhere. " I glanced up to Trent and he looks at me sadly makes me so intrigued on what happened in there. Why Elizabeth is currently having a panic attack herself again.

"I want to go home." She sniffs on my chest. I glanced at Trent and gives him a nod. He immediately gets it walking back to the house. "We need to leave honey please."

"Alright baby, but I can't let you drive." She nods against my chest before pulling away to let me open the passenger door of her car for her to climb in. I closed the door as soon as she was settled in at the same time Trent comes back with our luggages so I opened the trunk helping him up to load them in the car.

"What happened in there?" I asked as soon as he closes the trunk. He sighs, obviously having second thoughts on whether he would spill it out. Why can't they just tell me and get this over with. "Trent, its okay. Tell me."

"Last time you were here was the time you had a black out and punched me in the face." Woah, really? What the fuck? Well, that just makes sense as to why Elizabeth is acting this way. "Did you have flashbacks?"

"Yea, but not the actual moment. Bits and pieces, yea." He hums and nods.

"Please stay with her tonight, she's still a bit shaken up and I want to know she's going to be alright." Well, I guess I'm going to spend the night at hers. I just hope there's not much to trigger my flashbacks back in her home.