*Author's Note: How'd you guys like the first chapter? I always thought the whole development site story-line was so terribly ironic, so I had to say something about that. This is the last chapter of this little story. Thanks so much for reading!
Belle P.O.V.
No
No, this can't be happening.
He's here. He's actually here.
Why is he here?
He can't be here!
I do not deserve for him to be here.
He does not deserve to be here.
Why is he here?
Dearest universe, haven't you put me through enough?
He wasn't supposed to be here.
I was going to swallow my tears, march up to my guests, and tell them that there was not going to be a wedding today. But now I can't do that.
He's here.
And that makes this so much harder.
He was supposed to be crushed. He was supposed to be beside himself. He was supposed to realize that he couldn't go through with it. He was supposed to never want to see me again.
But he's here. He's here and that means that he is every bit of the wonderful man I fell in love with. That means he was able to justify my reasons even though I cannot justify them myself. That means he saw past the horrible tragedy looming on top of this day and the rest of our lives together and he saw the silver lining. That means he is willing to sacrifice his time he could spend living his life in order to wipe away my tears and hold me close when I just can't take it anymore.
That means I have to break his heart.
Aden P.O.V.
I was just about to find Irene or Amanda and see if either of them knew where Belle was when I saw her. She was absolutely stunning. Her hair, her dress—everything was perfect. She was perfect.
Except for the look on her face.
She met my eyes and, even though I expected her to be excited to see me, she looked as if she had just seen the saddest movie ever made. She turned away from me as soon as we made contact and she leaned against the nearest tree. I started to wonder if maybe she wasn't feeling well. From what I could tell, she looked like she was breathing pretty heavily. No one else seemed to notice her, so I decided that I should go check on her and see what was going on. As I got closer to her, I realized that she was breathing heavily because she was crying. She must have been so distressed that she didn't even hear me coming up behind her.
I placed my hand on her bare shoulder and asked, "Babe, what's wrong?"
She turned rigid under my touch.
"Belle? What's going—"
"Why are you here, Aden?" she asked me so quietly that I almost didn't hear her.
"What?"
She then whipped around to face me and I no longer saw sadness in her eyes.
I saw rage.
"You heard me. Why are you here, Aden?"
"What are you talking about, Belle? It's our wedding day!" I tell her in a calm voice, trying and failing to calm her down.
It clearly didn't work. All it did was cause her dainty little fists to begin punching me in the stomach. Something was seriously wrong. "Babe, what are you doing?"
"You can't be here!" she kept screaming at me. People were starting to notice us now. "You weren't supposed to be here! I can't do this with you here!"
"You can't do what, Belle? Talk to me," I told her as I eventually caught her fists in my hands, holding back the pressure she was attempting to release into my stomach once again. "Babe, you should really stop that. You're going to tire yourself out," I suggested with concern as she tried to release herself from my grasp.
I could see something register in her when I said those words. At those words, her eyes went back from rage to sadness. Tears began to pool into her eyes. She took in a heavy, shaky breath, and she finally let it out. I let go of her fists and she wrapped her arms around me. I held her tightly as I rubbed her back and soothed her the best I could. When she eventually pulled away, her makeup was running down her face and her eyes were bloodshot; but it didn't make a difference to me. She was still beautiful. She was still my beautiful Belle and I had to figure out what was wrong with her.
"That's exactly my point, Aden," she told me.
"What is? Belle, you're not making sense."
"I can't do this to you. It's not fair."
Realization hit me like a ton of bricks. "Belle? Were you going to call off the wedding?" I asked her. I tried to move a piece of hair behind her ear, but she gently moved my hand away. "Why?"
"Because, Aden! This is supposed to be your wedding day and here I am punching you in the stomach. You should be furious with me but instead you're concerned that I am going to get too tired and lose my energy!"
"Belle, that's because I care about you! You are the most important thing in my entire world and I love you so much!" I exclaimed, my voice beginning to crack at the possibility of what could happen.
"I know you do. And I love you too, Aden. You have no idea how much. That's why I can't let you do this."
"What are you talking about?"
"I deceived you, Aden. I was prepared to let you marry me today without having any knowledge of what was going to happen to me. If Nicole hadn't said anything, that's exactly what would have happened."
"Baby, I forgive you for all of that! I understand why you did it."
"How can you understand something that I don't even understand myself?"
"You did it so that we could just get married and be happy."
"But you don't deserve that, Aden! Don't you get it? You don't deserve to have a wife who has to keep something from you in order to keep your heart from breaking. You don't deserve to have a wife who can't go to your footy games or go on a romantic walk along the beach with you because she can barely get out of bed. You don't deserve to have a wife who is just going to leave you. You don't deserve to be the husband of the sick girl. You don't deserve to be the widow of the sick girl. You're willing to sacrifice so much for me, but I can't let you do it! I won't!"
All the pieces are slowly beginning to fall into place. "What exactly do you think I'm sacrificing here? What is it that you won't let me do? You won't let me marry the most beautiful, kind, passionate, feisty, incredible person I know? You won't let me be with you every step of the way, holding your hand and lying by your side? You won't let me hold you close and tell you I love you more than the amount of times saying the words is even humanly possible? Babe, I don't need to be on the beach with you. I just need to be with you. I know you think I'm sacrificing a lot to be here for you, but I promise you I'm not sacrificing anything. You are where I want to be. Losing you is going to hurt more than anything I can possibly imagine, but I can assure you that nothing will hurt worse than you leaving here today without a ring on your finger."
"But I don't have that much time left, Aden. What kind of a marriage will it be?"
I smile and say to her, "It's gonna be love, babe. Yes, we won't be able to get out and do a whole lot. Yes, I am going to spend every moment by your side and giving you whatever you need. Yes, I'm going to have to watch you deteriorate in front of my eyes. Yes, that is going to be so hard and yes it will take every bit of willpower I have not to just cry and ask why. And yes, we aren't going to have nearly as much time as we would have liked. But it's time, babe. It's enough time for me to shower you with so much love that it's going to feel like we've been married for 50 years! Time is something that I've wasted a lot of," I tell her as I grab her hands, her actually letting me this time. "And I don't want to waste one more second of it. This marriage is going to be a lot of things, but the most important thing it will be is love. I love you so much, Belle Taylor. Will you please marry me?"
Belle hasn't said a thing since I began answering her last question. She looks speechless. Just when I think she might still run away, she says, "Well at least we can say we had a fulfilling marriage. I'm pretty sure three proposals for one couple has got to be a record or something," she cracks a smile.
I couldn't help it. I burst into the biggest smile, picked her up, and twirled her in the air as we both started laughing.
"Can I get your answer?" I asked her once I put her down and we stopped laughing.
"Babe, I'd be a fool not to marry you."
*Well, that's the finished product! I hope you guys liked it! That final line is the line that Aden says to Belle in the actual show and I just thought it was the cutest thing ever, so I had to include it. This story was super fun to write! Feel free to drop me a comment and tell me what you thought! Thanks so much, guys!
~You'veGotMeandJesus