BENEATH OLD DREAMS
Chapter Four
Laguna convinced Squall that he should see Julia alone. Squall agreed to wait for his father at McDonald's that was a few steps away from the house of the Caraways.
It was two in the afternoon. Laguna was very nervous. It was like the time that he first approached Julia during their high school days. He boarded a taxi and got off the address Ward gave him. It was a two-story house beside a grocery named 'Heartilly Minimart'.
The first thing that came into Laguna's mind were James and Renee Heartilly, Julia's parents. What blasphemes would these say to him now?
It's now or never, Laguna thought. They can tell him whatever they want to tell him. He will listen to them, head held up high. Even if James pointed a gun at him, he would not back down. Laguna was nearly fifty years old. He was not afraid to sacrifice his remaining years in exchange for a few years of love and happiness.
He first entered the grocery. He knew the familiar face of the woman who was sitting near the cashier. Time had not been kind to Edea. Her hair was a mixture of black and white, tightly held into a bun. She had deep lines on her face.
Edea glanced at the door when she heard it open. Her eyes widened as she recognized the man standing at the doorway. Her mouth slightly opened.
Laguna smiled. "How are you, Edea?" he asked.
Edea stood up. "Laguna?" she said unbelieving. "Laguna!" She strode towards him and held out her hands to her childhood friend. "Why did you come just now?" She asked, tears in her eyes.
Laguna felt as if his heart was stabbed. He did not know how to answer the question. "Where is she?" he asked instead.
"At the house," Edea replied. "Go to her."
"Your parents?" he asked again.
Edea shook her head. "They died a long time ago."
Laguna could only nod his head. He could not say that that piece of information saddened him. His wounded heart had not yet healed.
"Julia's a widower," she added. "She has a daughter. What about you?"
"I have a son," Laguna replied. "But I'm divorced."
Edea smiled sadly. "I did not marry. Did you know that Kiros died?"
Laguna was shocked. "No. W-when?"
"1972," she said. "He was only twenty-six. But he already had a wife and a daughter then."
Laguna discovered that Kiros and Edea did not have a beautiful ending to their love story. But he was too stunned to ask more. Instead, he said, "So much had happened."
"Go to Julia," Edea said. "She will surely be surprised. It just happened she's at the house now. Your timing is perfect. Usually, she always stays here at the grocery. This is our only pastime."
He nodded. "Okay. I'll go over there right now."
Laguna's hands were cold and shaking as he knocked on the front door. He expected that a maid would open the door.
But Julia was the one who opened the door.
Laguna couldn't speak. He just stood there and gazed lovingly at the woman he had loved and continued loving for so many years.
Julia, on the other hand, looked like as if she saw a ghost. All the blood drained from her face.
They just stood there in silence, staring at each other.
Laguna broke the silence. "How are you, Jules?"
"L-laguna?" she asked in a whisper.
"Forgive me. It took me so long," he said. "But now I am here, ready to fulfill my promise."
Julia's eyes widened. A few seconds later, she remembered to invite him in the house.
"C-come in," she said in a weak voice.
They sat in the living room, at the sofa. Julia was almost a foot away from him. Julia set the distance. He did not want to rush her. He looked at her and saw the questioning look in her eyes.
"Why did you come just now?" Exactly what Edea had asked him a while ago.
But Julia did not have the strength to ask that question. Maybe she did not want to blame him.
He answered the silent question. "I came back for you," he said. "Just like I promised, five years after I left."
Julia knitted her eyebrows. "In Balamb?" she asked.
Laguna nodded. "I talked to your Uncle Edward. Through him, I was able to get a message to your father that I came back. Your father went to the pension house I lived in."
"Dad talked to you?" Julia asked in surprise. "I did not know that."
He smiled sadly. "He would not tell that to you." And Laguna told Julia everything that happened when James came to talk to him.
"Please forgive me, Jules," he asked afterwards. "I was not able to fight for our love. I did not have the strength to look for you after that talk. I immediately went back to Esthar."
Tears ran down on Julia's face. "They were cruel," she whispered. "All of them."
And she told Laguna everything in between sobs. From the time James and Edward decided to exile Edea and her to Deling. How they remained sane for four years of studying. When Edea went back to Balamb after their graduation. Kiros' marriage and death.
"I was the only one who knew and felt Edea's pain," she continued. "They were like rocks without feelings, cold-hearted. They thought that Edea and I will forget about Kiros and you. They thought they triumphed to get you out of our minds and hearts."
"What happened to you?" Laguna asked. "How was your life?"
Again, Julia recounted everything. From the moment she tried to be strong and patient for waiting for Laguna, up to the moment she felt when she knew Kiros had died. She also told him how and when she married Vincent, and her devotion to her family at that time.
"Vincent's gone. He died thirteen years ago. But if by chance you came back when he was still alive, I wouldn't even look at you, Laguna," she said as her voice shook with emotion.
Laguna nodded. "I understand," he said. "And if that happened, I would respect your commitment."
"I did not regret the time I spent with Vincent," she said. "I'd be lying if I'll say that we did not love each other and we were not happy. And I love our daughter Rinoa very much."
Laguna's heart ached from the words Julia had said. Yet, he smiled.
"I'm happy for you," he told her. "You're lucky, you loved again. I was unfair to the woman he attempted to love me."
And he told her of his marriage to Raine, and when she divorced him.
"Raine was a very kind woman," Laguna said. "But I lost the will to love anyone, except for our son Squall."
And then he told Julia how Squall convinced him to go to Deling.
"If it wasn't for your son, you would not be here," Julia said sadly.
"I lost hope looking for happiness, Jules," he confessed. "I was already used to living an incomplete life. I had already accepted that I'll die just the same."
"It was a good thing your son loves you very much," Julia said, teary-eyed. "You did not lose the capacity to love, Laguna. Because if you had not shown Squall how much you love him, he wouldn't have learned to love you that much. And, based on what you had told me, you also loved Raine. If not, you would not still be friends up to now."
"But you are still my only love, Jules," Laguna said.
Julia shook her head. "No, Laguna. Maybe I have a space in your heart. But Squall and Raine also have spaces in your heart. Just like Vincent's and Rinoa's spaces, they do not interfere with your permanent space in here," she said as she placed her hand over her chest.
Laguna's eyes glowed. "I still have a place in your heart?"
Julia smiled. "Always," she answered. I closed and locked the door on that place when I was with Vincent. But it never went away. You never left my heart, Laguna."
"We still have a chance, Jules," Laguna said. And he inched closer to the woman he loved. He held her hands and squeezed them warmly.
Julia squeezed back, smiling at him despite the tears on her face.
And again, after thirty-three years, their lips met.
~.*.~ ~.*.~ ~.*.~
"Mommy..." Rinoa called as she opened the door in the living room.
She saw two figures locked in a tight embrace. Kissing.
She was just starting to wonder when the two lovers were surprised and jumped apart.
Rinoa was surprised even more when she recognized her mother who was embracing and kissing a stranger in their own living room.
"R-rinoa..." Julia said.
But she did not wait for her mother's explanation. She could not understand what she was feeling. She just turned around and slammed the door. She ran towards the grocery.
"Aunt Edea..." she called out, breathing heavily.
"What's the matter?" Edea asked, concern showing on her face. "What happened to you?"
Rinoa pulled her aunt at the back of the grocery where they had a private room for eating and resting. She closed the door and faced Edea.
"There's a man at the house with Mommy," she said, her voice shaking. "I caught them embracing... and kissing in the living room."
Edea's eyes widened. "Really?" she asked with a wide smile on her face.
Rinoa raised her eyebrows. "And why do you look happy?" she accused.
"I really shoud be happy," Edea said, laughing. "And you should be happy, too, Rinoa. At last, your mother will be happy. Her love story with Laguna will have a happy ending!"
"Laguna? Who the hell is Laguna? What love story?" she asked irritably.
"Come," Edea said as she pulled Rinoa on the couch. "I have a story to tell you."
And Edea narrated what had happened during their high school days in complete detail, including her own tragedy.
"So you see, Rinoa," she finished. "This is a rare chance for your Mommy and Laguna to be together again. They are given another chance to finish what they had started. A chance to be happy after living a life full of pain and suffering. So we should be happy for them."
But Rinoa did not feel happy at that moment. She felt rebellious. She was angry.
"What do you mean, Auntie? That Mommy loved that Laguna more than my Daddy?" she asked, her eyes reduced to slits. "That my Daddy was just a stand in?"
Rinoa could not accept that idea because even if she was just nine years old when her father died, all the memories that he had left were memories of caring and loving for Julia and Rinoa.
Her Daddy gave her so much love. And that was the reason why he was still alive in her mind and heart.
She loved her father very much. And she could never accept that a stranger will just step in their lives.
"It's not like that, Rinoa," Edea said. "Your Mommy loved your Daddy very much. In fact, when they got married, Julia swore that she would forget Laguna. And she even told me that if Laguna came back on the time that she and your daddy were still married, she would not even glance at him. She committed herself to their marriage."
But Rinoa was still not convinced. The idea that her Mommy used her Daddy as a proxy still gnawed at her heart.
And another thing that she could not, and would not, accept was that her grandparents were the villains. Rinoa loved her grandparents.
Vincent was an only child and was an orphan when he got married to Julia. The only close relatives that Rinoa knew, aside from her grandparents, were Grandpa Edward and Grandma Lea, and her Aunt Edea.
Julia's parents spoiled Rinoa. She was given so much love. She could not picture in her head that her grandparents were cruel to her mother and her aunt.
And now, she felt betrayed by her Aunt Edea. It seems that Edea is on her Julia's side. She felt she was the only one who could defend her Daddy and her grandparents.
"Rinoa, your mother loves you very much." Edea said. "And I know that you love her very much, too. Give her the chance to be happy. I'm sure, the love that she feels for you will not lessen because of the love she has for Laguna. I know she would love you more if you would understand her."
"Yes, her love for me will not lessen," she said, bitterness evident in her voice. "The love she has for me will not lessen because that man came into her life first. She loved him first! The love she gave to me and my Daddy were just leftovers!"
"Rinoa!"
"Excuse me, Auntie," she said as she headed towards the door. "I need to be alone for a while."
She left the grocery without even looking back. She crossed the street and flagged the first taxi that she saw. She asked the driver to take her to the cemetery. She was crying as the driver sped through the streets.
The driver sympathized with her. He thought she had just lost someone dear to her.
A/N: Hi! I really appreciate Angelprinczess29's review. Thank you so much!
Hope you readers out there liked this chappy. Please read and review! Thanks in advance!
~bembem~