Vindicated

I had just come out of the elevator of the music studio that I was just working at when a strange feeling hits me. A feeling that seems overly familiar, but hasn't been present in some time. I shrug it off and continue out of the building. The breeze from the late summer air hits my face and tussles my hair around into a world wind of a mess. "Same haircut from seven years ago? Some things never go out of style huh, William?" My heart, body, and hands freeze as I tried to tame the mess my hair had formed. I look up with my hands still in my hair like an idiot and there she is, Stella, the only love of my life that I had let go…

"Are you just gonna stand there looking crazed at me, or at least give me a hand shake or awkward hug or something?" She laughed at her own lame joke and I couldn't help but smile at it.

She stood there with a white lace floral dress, cream stilettos and matching hand bag. Her hair was long again; down to her mid-back and brown with blond highlights. Her make-up, as always, was flawless and light; it seemed to give the illusion of an angel from heaven. The thought brought be back from the momentary shock of seeing her and my hands fell to my side as I smiled at her. "Stella, it's been way to long. How have you been? You look well." My hand gestures to her whole body as I say the last line. "Thanks William" her hands drifted up to play with her hair. I can tell she missed the length. The last time I saw her, her hair was black, at shoulders length which framed her face and had pink streaks. "You look well too!" I knew she was being polite; I wore the same type of clothes I met her in. Black skinny pants, black tank top, and spiked leather jacket. "Regular gothic uniform". I smiled a response back.

"Did you just come out of this building?" She looked up as she was talking; I joined her and looked up as well so I didn't look like a creep staring at her when she looked back at me for an answer. "Yeah, I just finished my second album today. Had to come here and finish my last two songs before my agent bit my head off about having to push the release date." I looked back down at her and was taken aback for a moment. The passion in her eyes was still there, making her green eyes look like emeralds on fire. I knew that look; she always had it talking about music. "Second album, huh? You must be famous by now." I knew she was just stroking my ego; our band had been out for a over year and has now produced its second album. There was no way she didn't hear of us, and didn't see my picture somewhere.

"So you've been so busy that you completely missed the first album debut and single releases, the multiple news interviews and three music videos." I hung my head and shook it, showing her my pretend disappointment. She giggled and hung her head as well.

"No William I would have never missed that. I have a signed copy of the album. My head shot up and eyes bulged in amazement that I could have missed her face at one of the signings.

"How could I have missed you?! Did you have someone go for you?" She nodded in embarrassment, her head still hung. "I couldn't bear to go and see you; my heart still ached from our horrible breakup."

I understood what she meant at that moment, after we had broken up I worked so hard on my music that in six months' time my band was signed and producing its first album. I don't think that in less than a year I could have looked her in the face over that signing table and not have taken her right there, or at least not make some kind of scene in front of everyone without a care in the world. Our breakup was horrible, but I also didn't give her a real reason as to why, I don't think I could have told her what made me think that I would never be good enough for her or give her the type of life I thought she deserved, it would have broken her relationship with him and her father meant the world to her!

"What was so wrong with me William?" The words slipped out of her mouth before she had time to let her ego get in the way. I could tell from the horror expression that she didn't mean to say it out loud, more like a thought that for some reason bubbled out into words. Her face said that she wanted to be any place but here after that mistaken comment, and for a moment I thought she was going to turn and run, but to my amazement she stood there steadfast, now waiting for her answer that had to have been plaguing her is whole time.

I was now put on the spot, stuck between a rock and a hard place. My hand flew to my hair, fingers racing through in a mad attempt to think of a good lie that she would believe…none came to mind. "Shit!" I whispered. "Do we really want to do this now?" it was a defensive line, we both knew it but her face still softened into a hurt expression. Her eyes shinned in the slowly dipping sunlight. She took a deep breath and gathered herself before speaking.

"Your right William, what's done is done! No point in thinking of what could have been."

The words hit me hard as she said them, like a knife carving a fresh hole in my chest where the last one never fully healed. Her words were cold, stone cold. Her hand went to hair and tucked it behind her ear, a motion she always did when she was in pain. Almost like she was trying to push the pain behind her with this small action; and once the glint of light reflected off her hand that's when I saw it, that's when I knew she did this little motion on purpose just so I could see the large diamond engagement ring on her hand. As her hand quickly dropped back down to her side my eyes traveled with it. Rage, pure rage bubbled to the surface and it took all my energy to keep myself from finding this asshole that wanted, "My Stella"! My breathing got heavy as my thought drifted to more intimate thoughts of her and this nameless, faceless asshole.

"William?" My eyes shot back up to hers like daggers, still in a fit of rage I realized that I needed to calm down before speaking back to her. "You're getting married" was all that I could say calmly, and yet still, it sounded more like an accusation then a general question. She nodded slowly, almost like a child that got caught and was now admitting the truth to a parent, and seeing my reaction to her little vengeful tactic she lowered her eyes from mine before speaking again. "It's Charles Devaoux."

"THAT ASSHOLE STELLA?!" I was gonna kill him and kidnap her for the pure stupidity she was now showing. I couldn't even keep still anymore! I stared to walk up and down the sidewalk; rage wasn't even the right word to use anymore. I felt like hellfire just engulfed my entire body, like I was a walking torch at that point.

"He's changed William! He's not the way he used to be! We are getting married next week." She finished; her voice was getting louder now but she still couldn't look at me, she looked everywhere but at me while she pled a case for this piece of shit.

"So I guess he will just wait until after the wedding to beat you, huh?! Don't want to mess that pretty face up before all the wedding pictures I guess!" "WILLIAM DOUGLAS GRIFFIN!" Her yelling my full name jolted me to a holt for a moment; I stopped talking, but continued pacing the sidewalk staring her straight in the eyes. I couldn't believe she would even thinking about dating him again, let-a-lone marriage. Then it hit me and I stopped right in front of her face.

"This is your father's doing, isn't it?!" I shouted with the malice I was feeling. Her eyes stayed to the ground, "You don't know what you're talking about." Her voice was low, almost a whisper. "Oh I don't do I? I know he was the only thing keeping you and I apart! I know that he couldn't stand me being with you and I know I was stupid enough to listen to him when he told me to walk away from you! Now he's controlling your life again by making you marry this asshole that almost beat you half to death if I hadn't walked down that street that night. You remember?" I was right in her face. Forcing her to look me in the eyes while I said what needed to be said. What she needed to hear. "Does your father know that he use to beat you Stella? Did you mention that part when he told you to marry him?" My words left like venom as they escaped my lips in a rush. I stared at her waiting for an answer and then realized she was breathing so heavy that her shoulders were involved. "My father had nothing to do with our engagement! Charles asked me and I agreed, it's as simple as that William, so don't talk about things you don't understand and things you were not there for!" tears were flying down her face as she spoke making streaks in her make-up. I couldn't believe after seven years apart we would still be fighting like we never left each other. I wanted to ask her why, why would she be that stupid to marry someone like that. Why didn't she try to reach back out to me? Then the thought slapped me in the face…why didn't I ever try and reach back out to her? But my pride got the better of me and I said something so ruthless, so unbelievable it shocked me after the fact.

"Well Stella I guess I will see you again…at your funeral!" I turned and left her there in the middle of the sidewalk crying all of her perfect make-up off of her face. I just wanted to disappear, vanish, like smoke in the wind. I just kept walking. First the two miles to my apartment and then because I was still so pissed I walked the four flights of stairs to my front door and just stood there. I placed my head on the door and just let the tears form and fall on the welcome mat. I never felt so lost, so hurt that the woman I loved would be willing to marry a man that would beat her and call it love; to make love to a man that enjoyed crushing her soul. All I wanted to do was run back to her and hold her and kiss her, but now I was to hurt to even want to be around her. I crumpled to the floor, to tired and hollow to even go inside.

"William?" A voice said out of seemingly nowhere. I jumped to my feet in a panic expecting to have to defend myself from a deranged fan, and was equally shocked when I saw it was Stella's mother in front of me. I wiped the tears that now embarrassed me from my face and stuck out my hand to greet her.

"Mrs. Cunningham, I'm guessing you're not here for and autographed CD are you?" She smiled back at me, an almost pity like smile "I'm guessing you seen my daughter not too long ago."

"How did you know? I'm sorry Mrs. Cunningham; would you like to come inside for some coffee?" She smiled, but declined. "I have to say that it shouldn't surprise me that we traveled here for the preparations for the wedding. I had a feeling that you had to live somewhere close by to this Chapel that she insisted on. I came here to talk to you about Stella. William, you have always been good to my baby, you saved her life for Christ sakes, so I will always owe you for that. Yes William, she tells me everything." She said when she saw my eyebrows raise. "She told me somewhat of how you met. The parts she can remember anyway, so I don't understand how you could have just let her go for the second time in your life. No offence, but are you a moron?!" I was amazed at what she was saying and how she was speaking to me, and for a moment…I did feel like a moron. "Your Husband said…and now she's marrying this asshole…I…I don't know what to do anymore."

"My husband can persuade a millionaire out of his money, so don't feel guilty for believing his bullshit lies! But did you even bother to ask her why she would go back to him? Why would she agree to such a decision in the first place, I can assure you it was nothing her father said and he had a lot of praises for the marriage to Charles." I shook my head and lowered my eyes knowing that I should have asked her, I should have tried a bit harder to control my rage.

"Well I will tell you what she told me, but I must remind you that girls don't always think with logic. Our world revolves around our feelings and we tend to feed into those emotions more then we should; and now that the concussion she suffered has changed how she handles stressful situation it is even more so for my daughter. She said to me, '"Mom, I think that William and I are just meant to be. I mean that night Charles almost killed me he was there, almost like fate put him on that street at the right time just for me. It has to be fate that he would be my dark knight in shining armor. I mean mom, come on! He didn't even know me and he stayed at the hospital for two days until I came out of my coma. He will save me again when I'm at my darkest moment, I just know it!"' She believed that having Charles in her life would set you two on a path to meet up again in the future and you would rescue her like a love movie, but I'm here to tell you that you need to do something before she is killed. She is thinking that just like in every dramatic romance movie the couple always gets back together in the end. Somehow in her head she got this idea that if she accepted this proposal it would lead you two to being back together before this wedding! Her brain has lost sense of reality through planning this wedding. She has been searching for you for a while now. Being famous has almost made that impossible, but doesn't it surprise you that she found you when you least expected it, only a week before her wedding, almost like a…"

" …Movie!" I finished the sentence with her, and now my heart was hammering in my chest and I couldn't catch my breath. How could I not have noticed that of all the fans I have crazy enough to stock me, Stella found me just by chance coming out of the recording studio? My head was spinning; I couldn't believe I had missed this when she was talking to me. As if the love of my life and I would magically cross paths after all these years. That was a definite scene from some love movie she forced me to watch. The coma from that night had changed the way her mind processed information. She sometimes got confused that love movies were real life stories. How could I forget something like that so quickly? How could I not see that the way she looked at me when we started talking at first was with so much longing? No normal happily engaged girl would look at her Ex like that a week before the wedding. She just wanted me to save her again, to love her and be with her again like I never lost her. She spent all this time searching for me to pick the perfect moment to bump into me by "accident". She took action when I did not, and now it was my turn. I smiled at Stella's mom and said, "Where is she staying?"