Gazing out the window, and seeing the first hint of light on the eastern sky, was something I was falling in love with. I followed the lines of the newly whitewashed fence that surrounded the garden Pope and Viv had been working so hard to create. I smiled, knowing that even thought it was Vivian who wanted the rose bushes for the wedding, Pope had taken the time to do this for Viv, his momma, because it was something she had always wanted growing up. His little addition, done out of respect and care for his mother, made me feel more connected to him than I already did. He loved his mother, and I loved seeing that side of him. He was a momma’s boy, but in the best way possible. Kind, giving, loving, and so protective.

Softer.

Normal.

And when Viv was Viv, and Vivian was locked away in the depths of her mind—even temporarily—I loved the sweet, kind-hearted woman as well. I did. God help me, I did. I wasn’t going to think about Vivian’s letter I had read last night until next week came. The only way I would survive my sick prison was by taking each day one hour at a time. One minute at a time. And right now, this minute, I was content.

Looking out onto the land where Pope worked so hard to build a home filled me with such gratification. I cherished everything about this place, the silence, the peace and the sense of... home. Yes, it was a dark abyss at times. But when it was just Pope and me sitting out on his deck, or Viv and me chatting about nothing in particular, I was able to trick myself into believing I wasn’t a captive, forced to submit to a man by his crazy mother. The normal was so very pleasant, even though the madness was pure agony.

I hummed to myself as I rolled out several piecrusts—a couple for now and the rest to freeze for later. Vivian had lectured me over and over that a dutiful wife plans ahead and is always efficient. With damp and gentle hands, I placed them in the pie tins, excited to surprise my new fucked up family with my culinary skills. Carefully trimming around the edges with a knife, I nearly sliced my finger when something odd caught the corner of my eye.

Pope’s workshop had black smoke billowing out from it. My heart plummeted as I tried to figure out what to do next.

“Fire!” My scream was nearly suffocated with terror. “Pope, wake up! Your shop is on fire!”

I ran to the bedroom to find that he wasn’t there, and I could see he wasn’t on the deck either.

There was no sign of Pope anywhere. He must have gotten up shortly after I had. Or dear God… what if he was in the fire? “Viv! Viv!” What if she was too? “Viv!” My voice quaked in panic.

Where were they? Where were they!

Quicker than I thought possible for my legs to move, I ran out of the house toward the burning building.

The door to the workshop was closed. I couldn’t hear anything coming from inside. No screams for help. Nothing. “Pope! Are you in there?”

I yanked open the door of the workshop with all my strength. The smoke and the fumes hit me with a force that obstructed my vision and made my eyes tear. I coughed and wheezed as I tried to make my way inside. I could see the flames engulfing the furniture that Pope had worked so hard on crafting, the wood, and very soon the entire room. Smoke clouded my eyes and made it close to impossible to breathe, and I wasn’t even all the way inside. Should I go in? Common sense screamed no, but the thought of Pope burning alive inside compelled me to charge against any better judgment.

“Pope! Pope, are you in here? Please answer me! Pope! Vivian? Vivian!” Fuck! Please don’t either one be in here, I prayed.

Each beat of my heart pounded against my chest. Fear almost paralyzed me as I scanned the inferno. I continued deeper inside, trying not to breathe in the toxic air. Each gulp of the smoke threatened to consume my consciousness. My head spun, my chest heaved, and my body grew weak. I wondered if I could go on any further, and if I too would die in this blaze.

The air was getting worse and the wooden beams above me were beginning to burn and break loose. I knew I didn’t have much time left. Taking a deep breath and holding it, I reached the workbench that Pope used on a daily basis. Desperate to make my own escape, I scanned the area one last time. With cinders flying through the air and beams crashing all around me, I could only hope that Pope or Viv were not trapped anywhere inside.

Mistakenly, I turned around again to make sure I hadn’t missed anything. The haze had grown so thick that I could no longer tell which way was out. My lungs demanded air that I couldn’t give. The realization that I could possibly die by being burned alive besieged me with fear.

I charged forward, hoping I was heading in the right direction when I stumbled on something, tumbling me to the ground. It was Viv! Viv’s unconscious body was lying on the wooden floor. I scrambled to her, lifting her head as I shook her frail frame in an attempt to wake her up.

“Viv! Vivian! Wake up! We have to get you out of here. Wake up!” Was she already dead?

I tried to pick her up, but realized quickly there was no way I would be able to do so. Reaching under her lifeless arms, I struggled to drag her out. It was the only way to save her from being consumed by the flames.

“Demi! Where are you?” I could hear Pope’s voice amongst the popping and crackling of the blaze. He was in the workshop! Was he hurt?

“Pope! Pope!” The smoke burned the back of my throat as I screamed. “Your mother is with me. She needs help!”

I felt his hands wrap around my body, and in one swift move, he picked me up and started to charge past the embers and the roar of the flames.

“Your mother,” I said, pointing to the lifeless body crumpled on the ground, but Pope didn’t even pause. He only stormed ahead with full force.

Behind us, a splintering beam came crashing down, causing a chain reaction of others to follow. I couldn’t tell for sure through all the smoke and flames, but it appeared that one could have fallen where Viv laid. Pope dove toward the exit, spilling us down to the ground. The red and orange flames were all around as Pope pushed me fully towards the escape, rolling both of us toward safety.

Mere seconds from death, we crawled our way to safety and fresh air. Gasping for breath, choking against the pungent vapors still burning the back of my throat, I allowed the tears to escape my body as I realized I had just escaped my death. I had survived. Pope had survived. Relief washed over me as I felt Pope lift me up and carry me further away from the crumbling barn, but then, just as fast—absolute terror rained down.

“Viv! Your mother! She’s in there, Pope. She’s in there.” I struggled to get out of his arms to help him rescue her from the burning building, but he held me tight.

He shook his head, dark ash all over his face. “No.”

“Pope!” I screamed, writhing my body against his hold to no avail. “Viv’s still in there! You can’t let her die. Help her!

Holding me tight, he repeated, “No.”

“She doesn’t deserve to die. No matter what! She is still a human being. She is still your mother!”

“She asked to die. My momma asked to die.” The sadness in his eyes told me he had given up all hope of saving Viv’s life.

Realization kicked in. The conversation on the porch. Oh dear God, this was Pope doing as she had asked of us. He was allowing Viv her wish. Her wish to die so Vivian would no longer exist.

“No!” I screamed, no longer trying to break free from his grip, but not willing to accept his words. “We can’t just let her die in there.”

“She asked for this. This was her wish. She begged me, Demi. She pleaded. My momma wanted to be put out of her misery. This was her doing. She started the fire. It was all her.”

I shook my head in disbelief and wailed as the burning building collapsed behind me. “No, no, no, no, no…”

I clung to his neck, sobbing as he walked toward the house. He then placed me down gently, and ran to the garden hose. Pulling it from its tightly coiled housing, he turned it on full blast and ran toward the burning structure. The absolute destruction of the workshop by the large pieces of wood smothering itself out helped aid Pope in his extinguishing of the flames. Even if he had changed his mind and wanted to run in and rescue Viv, there was nothing left to run into.

She was dead.

Burned.

Turned to nothing but ash.

I closed my burning, irritated eyes long enough to try to cope with the new level of madness. Chaos was all around. Death. Destruction.

Sacrifice.

I wheezed, every breath I took burned my lungs. I coughed and swiped at my streaming tears with the back of my hand. I needed to help him. I had to help put out the flames so they wouldn’t spread to our home… our home.

Running to the kitchen, I filled large pots of water and ran them to the fire, pouring them onto the flames as Pope doused the fire with the garden hose. Repeating the steps over and over until I nearly collapsed from exhaustion, not stopping until the fire was gone. Nothing was left but a pile of charred wood, simmering embers, and gray smoke sifting out in small and curly billows.

Eventually, Pope dropped the hose, took my hand, and led me back toward the house. “Christ! I’m so mad at you!” Taking me into his arms, he placed soft kisses in my soot-covered hair. “I’m furious!” He pulled away and glared into my eyes. “I could have lost you. You could have died! Do you get that? Why the fuck did you run into a burning building? What if I had lost you too?” He placed a soft kiss on my lips, stealing whatever breath I had managed to reclaim.

“I thought you were in there.” I paused and looked over to what had now become Viv’s grave. “I thought Viv was in there. I wanted to save you both.”

He pulled away and started examining my body. “Are you hurt? Do you have any burns?”

I shook my head and attempted to assure him that everything was all right. But my breath came in shallow, rapid gasps. My mind fogged and my vision began to give way to darkness. I faintly heard Pope call out my name.

* * *

When my eyelids opened, I was aware that time had passed. The setting sun shining through the window cast shadows along the walls. I was lying in Pope’s soft bed, staring into the comforting, loving brown eyes I had grown to love.

“Hello, sleepyhead,” Pope whispered as he leaned down and kissed my forehead. “You nearly scared me half to death.”

I tried to talk, but the burn in the back of my throat radiated with pain.

“Don't try to speak right now,” Pope ordered.

I struggled upright, my muscles weak and my head still spinning.

Gently, Pope placed his hands on my chest preventing me from sitting up any further. “Just rest right now,” he soothed.

“Why? Why?” I started to cry, mourning the death of my captor, my friend, my enemy. I hated her. I loved her. And now my heart broke in two as I cried over her death. “Why?”

“You know why. She asked for this.”

“But you said no. You said no!”

“She kept begging me. She pleaded with me. My momma cried and asked for my help. You know she wanted it all to end. She needed me to understand. I had to understand.” Tears welled up in Pope’s eyes. “My momma was so sick, and the darkness that was Vivian was eating her alive. She begged me to allow her to die. I had to. I had no choice.”

I wiped at my tears. “She started the fire?”

He nodded.

“Were you in the workshop when she did?”

He nodded again.

“It was Viv who started the fire?”

A single tear escaped his eye. “I held her as the flames engulfed the room. I held my momma in my arms as the smoke suffocated her enough to cause her to pass out.”

“Then you left? Left her there to die?”

He nodded again. “Until I heard you calling out. I couldn’t see you, but I could hear you.”

“She’s gone…” I said the words out loud as if hearing them, saying them, would somehow make it more real. Everything seemed so surreal, as if I was floating in a fog. Like I was caught in an eerie afterworld. A world where Vivian Montgomery had no control over me. A world that I could no longer remember.

“And Richard?”

“My mother did as she said she would. Viv contacted him pretending to be Vivian. She stood in the workshop by my bench with the phone in hand. I watched her as she faked a southern accent and told Richard that it was all over. That Pope and Demi had married, and all was good. His mission was over. She ended it. She ended it all.”

“Maria and Luis are safe.”

Pope nodded as he sat on the bed and wrapped his arm around my shaking body, allowing me to place my head on his chest. “Right now I want you to get some sleep. Your body is in shock.”

“Stay here with me. Please.”

He kissed the top of my head. “I’ll never leave you.”

I smoothed my hand under his shirt, enjoying the feel of his skin against my palm. “Pope, I was really scared. I thought I was going to die. I thought you were going to die.”

He whispered into my smoke-filled hair, “I’ll never let anything happen to you like that again. I will always protect you, and I’ll make damn sure you never feel that fear again. You will never be the victim again.”

I stared up at Pope as he tucked the blankets tighter around my body. His face still dirty from the fire, his eyes shadowed with exhaustion. “Being here in your arms, with the entire nightmare of Vivian over, I’ve never felt so safe, but I have never felt so sad as well.”

I began to cry softly against his warmth. It was over. It was over…

He rested his cheek against the blonde and dirty curls of my head. “You’re safe. I’ll never let anything harm you again.” He whispered the soothing words as he placed soft kisses along my forehead. “You need to get some sleep. We’ll talk more when you wake up.”

Shivering, I closed my eyes and allowed myself to relax against the warmth of his body. I was so tired that I could no longer prevent my mind from shifting hazily between reality and the nightmare of the fire. I fought the weight of my eyelids to look up into Pope’s worried eyes.

He gazed down at me and whispered, “You’re safe. You’ll always be safe.”