A/N: For those of you who were confused...I like the idea of having a story end in a similar fashion as its beginning. I am not very good at long stories, I don't fancy myself as having enough imagination and finesse to think on and beyond.
Anyway, on to the explaining.
It is made to resemble the beginning, so that you think it's a dream, or what lies for Stephanie beyond the white tunnel (if you believe she had died )
But she didn't, because, even though the title is called Cruel, I couldn't be the one to write that.
"The card she had found was written by him, he felt in a moment of weakness, but couldn't bring himself to send it."
Ranger denied sending the card. I don't think he like the idea of displaying his emotions in that fashion, or that she would halt her wedding for him. He felt it was a moment of weakness, and Ranger doesn't like that, so deny deny deny.
"Thankfully for them, there were others that understood what the blindest fools in love couldn't see."
A.k.a the merry men sent it anyway. Someone is always meddling. Hoping one or the other would come to their senses.
"He was right. As she grasped his cool fingers in hers and took a step towards her freedom she could finally understand why he had compared the sound of her voice and her subsequent awakening to a moment of pure Heaven. He, next to her, was a Heaven on its own."
The voice that spoke stating that she was in Heaven was Ranger. She was not dead, most likely in a hospital, or still sitting in the truck. With physics and all that, a truck (unless in a drop off ) would settle into the sand and not go very far into the water.
Therefore, when she kept mentioning if she was in Heaven or Hell, she was talking out loud, and he said it was Heaven. To him, it was Heaven she was alive/talking/aware.
Then she says now she understands what he meant about being in Heaven.
I hope that had cleared things up. Hard to explain without dialogue, or other character insights. If you don't like the ending, let me know, and with enough please pretty please, I can try to work on something else.
Maybe she should make a deal with the devil....