Thank you to all you wonderful, lovely readers for reading, reviewing, and favoriting this story.

The credit for smoothening the flow of this chapter goes to my beta, Frannie (Fran S. Flower), and pre-reader, Angela (AngelaAbbot)


Chapter 39

'She buried her ears

into the calm of his heartbeat,

and in a matter of seconds,

fell terribly in love with the way

her loneliness fell softly and suddenly,

asleep, in his chest.'

-Christopher Poindexter

It was a losing battle against time.

And her body.

Weakened as she was by nearly seventeen years of severe abuse, improper rest, and poor nutrition, loving care could only do so much.

A concoction of medicines kept her going for five years, but eventually, her heart reached its limit, and other complications further compounded her problem.

Then a panic attack almost took her life.

There was a time she had craved death. There was a time she had herself tried to ensure her death.

But as she clawed at her chest in the throes of pain, she shook with the realization that she did not want to go.

She was not ready to lose what she had found … who she now had.

Her frantic eyes slipped past the panicked faces of the family she had gained, her sudden epiphany mounting her terror as he eluded her.

And when she found him frozen at the foot of the stairs in naked anguish and raw fear, she knew she had made the right choice.

"Edward," She gasped, with fleeing consciousness and desperate hope, "Turn me, please …"

So, Isabella chose life.

Love.

And eternity.


So, this was the last chapter and now just the epilogue remains, which will be posted on Thursday.

In case it wasn't clear, Bella suffered a stroke due to heart palpitations during her panic attack.

Please leave me your thoughts on this chapter.

Until next time!

Love,

Ansha