Epilogue

10 months later

Claudia

 

 

 

 

My man. Liam Allistor. Rock God. Sex God. No longer Bachelor of the Year on any magazine covers because everyone in the world knew that even if we weren’t married or even engaged, he was taken.

He made it clear in every moment of our private life together and he had since he’d whisked me away from Savannah almost a year ago. As soon as we arrived, together, we’d shredded our Infidelity contract. Since he couldn’t buy it out, every month we wrote a donation to a different domestic violence shelter or a rape crisis center, all over the country. Then we began living as if it never existed in the first place. It wasn’t difficult. Our love was real. Our relationship was real.

I didn’t return to school and I didn’t get a job because Liam declared he wanted me to go on his next tour with him, which we were currently in the middle of. But it didn’t matter that I didn’t provide financially to our relationship, we were on equal footing with absolutely everything.

He made the fact he was off the market even clearer in every moment of his public life. It didn’t matter if he was on stage or on television promoting his album and his tour that most were saying was his best one yet.

It didn’t matter if he was doing a radio interview or we were caught walking the streets of New York or Los Angeles hand-in-hand by paparazzo.

We were together. No one doubted it.

It took weeks for the media attention after Sophie’s speech at the media conference to die down, but once it did and life settled for Liam and me as we continued to get to know each other and fall more in love every day, he was no longer regarded with suspicion, but adoration. My father’s life was re-displayed on the news, but this time it reached gossip sites and blogs.

I quit looking at them, and then I quit caring. People could say whatever they wanted about my father or me.

As for me and my past in Savannah, I didn’t know how and I never once asked, but approximately one month after we were living in New York at his place in Greenwich Village, a package arrived in the mail for me.

In it, was the contract my father had signed with Edward and in bright red letters stamped across the front of it was the word VOID.

I’d collapsed to my knees and cried. I had wanted to ignore and forget everything, but somehow, some way, Liam took care of it, making sure no one, neither Harrison nor his dad, paid retribution for either the agreement between Edward and my father, or for Liam beating the crap out of Harrison.

It’d thrown me into a tailspin, memories flying into my mind so hard and fast I called the only person I could think of who would understand. At Sophie’s urging once I told her what happened, I began seeing a therapist. My experience and that horrific day with Harrison hadn’t been as traumatic as hers had been, but it had taken me a full two months to open myself physically to Liam again.

I’d despised the fact every time we tried to move past kissing, I clammed up.

He kissed me and hugged me and waited until the moment I was sure we could move forward without that between us.

Now, I couldn’t get enough of him. I never wanted to get enough of him. Every day we learned things about each other that made us alternate between laughing so hard I cried, or so irritated I could spit nails. He hated when I left clothes on the floor and dishes in the sink. It drove me crazy the way he squeezed our toothpaste from the middle of the tube, crinkling it together.

None of that mattered. We’d been through real issues and we continued facing them together.

And tonight, all of it was coming to fruition as I met Liam backstage after he’d just accepted the award for Best Album of the Year.  It accompanied his award for Best Song of the Year that he’d accepted earlier for “Captivated By You”…the song he’d written for me in Anguilla that I never ended up hearing until he’d recorded it.

I cried every time it came on the radio.

I spied him across the crowded room backstage at the awards show and politely pushed my way toward him.

As soon as he saw me, he thanked the reporter he was talking to and pulled me into his arms, lifting me off my feet. “Your speech was beautiful. You absolutely nailed it, and I’m so proud of you!”

I hugged him fiercely, kissing him appropriately for the moment but filled with passion.

He stole my breath. He provided me solace and safety. We traveled constantly. We were rarely at one of his homes. But it didn’t matter where we were or where we were going. Being at Liam’s side gave me the life I always wanted. One filled with true, complete, unconditional love and acceptance. And it wasn’t just with Liam, but his family and Karen as well.

She had long since replaced me as her temporary assistant but we got together for dinner at least once a month. The more we got to know each other, the more she reminded me of my mom. It took awhile to push past her professionalism and aloof demeanor, but I loved her almost as much as I loved Liam and his family who had treated me like their daughter since shortly after we returned to New York.

“I couldn’t have done any of this without you,” he whispered in my ear and set me back on my feet. “Let’s hope this next performance goes as smoothly, shall we?”

“What?” I was smiling at him so hard my cheeks hurt. He wasn’t making sense. “What do you mean?”

Liam gestured to the reporters behind him and flashed me a sly grin. “I have something for you.”

What was he getting at? Earlier tonight, he’d draped a string of diamonds around my throat as I was getting dressed and I raised my hand to finger them. “You’ve already given me everything I could possibly want.”

That had nothing to do with the diamonds. Everything to do with him.

“I’m glad you think that, sweetheart, but there’s one more thing I think you need.”

At the strange declaration, he dropped to his knee in front of me.

My hands flew to my mouth and I gasped.  “Liam—”

He ignored me and reached up, taking one of my hands in his—my left hand—and pulled it toward him, kissing it before smiling at me.

“I love you, Claudia. Love you to the depths of my marrow and the bottom of my soul. There is not a single thing about you, the beautiful woman you are, that escapes my notice on any single given moment. Marry me. Will you?”

He was doing this. He was really doing this. I blinked rapidly, flashes from the crowd around us momentarily blinding me and I almost missed it as he reached into his tuxedo and pulled out a small black box.

“Marry me,” he repeated as tears built in my eyes and spilled down my cheeks. He popped open the box and blood drained from my face so quickly I was afraid I’d fall over. The ring was massive.

It also matched, exactly, the center stone on the necklace he’d given me earlier.

“Liam—”

I was too stunned to say anything but his name.

“What do you say, sweetheart. Be mine?”

He glanced around the room and I followed. Everyone was staring at us. Red little lights blinked on video cameras. Microphones were pointed in our direction. Camera flashes continued to light up the room.

I looked back down at him and found my voice. “Don’t you know?” My voice trembled as I spoke. “I’ve been yours since the first island trip. And it has nothing to do with my signing a name to a contract, but because I gave myself to you and since that day, you’ve always treasured it.”

“Damn straight. Are you going to answer me?” he asked, eyes flitting to cameras recording once more. “Because I feel like an asshole down here, waiting for you with reporters recording.”

I laughed and then nodded. “You idiot,” I whispered, lovingly teasing him. “Of course I’ll marry you. Yes. Absolutely yes.”

He stood and swept me into his arms. Our mouths fused together and cheers of joy echoed all over the room.

I didn’t care what one single person thought in that room besides the man kissing the life out of me.

The entire world watched our moves almost every day.

But we only saw each other. And he’d be the only person I ever saw, every day, for the rest of my life.