Here is the next sections. I hope you enjoy it.
Note: I do not own Skip Beat!.
Kyoko had a hard time find sleep that night. She lay awake pressed into Ren's warm chest. She tried to sleep, but she was just too nervous about what they were going to do the next day. She kept wondering if it would really stop her mother from trying to kill her. She also worried about what Ren was giving up for her. Yes, he had claimed that he loved her and would do anything for her, but there were still places in her heart that were not fully healed. 'Do I really deserve him? What if he decides I am not good enough and changes his mind? What if I can't make him happy? What if…? What if…?' A million questions popped into her mind as she listened to his heartbeat. All the negative thoughts running through her head pushed a tear from the corner of her eye. Her chest heaved in a silent sob as more tears ran to join the first. Ren felt her movements and pulled her closer to him. He was also having trouble sleeping. He was having the same thoughts she was. His attempts to comfort her drew the tears from her harder and she clutched at him as she cried her fears into his chest. Her tears finally ended and Ren loosened his grip on her. He leaned back so he could look into her red rimmed eyes in the dark.
"Kyoko." Ren started his voice just barely above a whisper. "I know that we have all agreed that this is the best course of action, but I will not force you into something that you don't want to do." Ren looked at her seriously. "I love you very much, but if you are afraid, we don't have to go through with this." Amazement filled Kyoko's face. She could see how much it was breaking Ren's heart to offer her a way out, and it made her love him even more. She smiled and moved so she could press her lips to his in answer. Once they parted, Kyoko settled back down into Ren's warm embrace and sleep took them both.
Early the next morning, the two couples checked out of the ryokan and headed to the municipal government office and waited for the official that could fill out and sign their paperwork to make their marriage legal and binding. Yashiro did not even try to contain his excitement as the two actors signed their names to the license. Catherine smiled as she put her signature down and the giddy male manager placed his seal on the page. Catherine had four copies of the paper made and the official wished the newly married couple good fortune. Catherine placed three copies of the "Certificate of Acceptance of Notification of Marriage" in an envelope with a letter and the three friends hoped on the Shinkansen back to Tokyo. They needed to let Lory know as soon as possible that everything was done.
The frightened bike courier cowered in the intimidating presence of the NASA astronaut looming over him. He had been paid handsomely to make sure that the large envelope has been delivered directly to the hands of the president of LME, but he was not sure the money was worth it. Lory slid the golden visor up so he could see the man more clearly through the clear glass of his helmet. The intercom on his suit buzzed so that the young man could hear him.
"Tell me where you got these papers again." Lory insisted. The bike courier had already give Lory the story four times, but the president wanted to make sure that they were real.
"A foreign woman with shoulder length red hair asked me to bring them here. She also said to give them to Takarada Lory himself." The courier answered again, he was not going to go against someone that was crazy enough to drive a small moon rover at breakneck speeds around in the building. Especially with the way Lory had come screeching up initially. The young man took the opportunity to escape as Lory turned his attention to the pages inside the package. The heavy gloves he wore made it had to separate them, but it was clear what they were. Lory returned to his moon rover and tore off through the building to the little moon base that he had constructed inside his office. There he could take off his space suit and read the entirety of Catherine's letter in safety.
Lory poured over the letter again as he processed the plan that Catherine had conceived. It was a great idea, he just wished that she had consulted him before doing something so drastic. Now that he had the entirety of her plan laid out in front of him in black and white, he understood her caution and the reasons for her actions. Catherine had sent him everything he needed to inform both Mogami Saena and the insurance company that the young woman was now married. Lory also laughed at the written apology that Catherine had sent him. She claimed all of the blame and begged him not to punish the actors or Yashiro for anything that had happened. Lory pulled out his computer and proceeded to type two letters on LME letterhead to be sent out by special delivery tomorrow.
Saena pondered over the official looking letter that had been delivered to her. She had been very nervous since the police had stopped by to enquire with her about her wayward daughter. Saena had played the role of concerned parent when they informed her about the multiple attacks on the girl, but they had asked some very serious questions. She cursed silently at them as they brought up the extreme life insurance policy that had been taken out on the girl. She did not know who had informed them of it, but she claimed that it was just good parenting that had made her pick it up. Truthfully, it had been Saena's late mother that had taking the life insurance policy out on the young child as an 'investment in the child future'. The grandmother had planned for the girl to be able to use it for collateral for college later in life, but it had been Saena that has pushed the limit up to the maximum amount that she could. She figured that if the need ever arose, no one would miss one insignificant girl. Now that she was growing into a star, Saena decided that she should cash in on her plans before it became too hard to get to the girl. She had not acted before now because the policy had not matured enough to get a full return on her investments.
Saena slipped her finger into the letter and tore it open. She pulled the paper from the envelope and a smaller sheet fluttered to her floor. She flipped open the letter and read it as she squatted down to pick up the document that had fallen. She froze as her eyes slid across the paper. She could not believe what she was reading. She flipped over the letter on LME letter head expecting to see some punch line to a joke written on the back, but there was none. There was only Lory's request that the woman stop trying to kill his favorite employee now that there was no way that she would benefit from it. Saena's fingers grasped the paper that had fallen to the floor and pulled it up for her eyes to look over. The scream that issued from her was enough to disturb the neighbors. How could a man ruin her carefully laid plans! Saena read over the marriage document a second time. She did not know who Hizuri Kuon was, but she was sure that he had been saddled with the raw end of a deal.
In her furry, Saena tore up the letter and the marriage document and threw them into the fire burning in her hearth, as if their destruction could change the facts that the letter outlined. She seethed as she remembered the words being consumed by the fire. Lory had made it very clear that he had sent a copy of this document to the insurance company and that she would not be getting anything even if they were both killed. He had also informed her that he had given all of the information about the life insurance policy to the police and that he was sure that it was only a matter of time before they were able to trace the money that was paid to the failed assassin back to her. Saena had taken great care in collecting the money into cash and giving it to him through a secure location, but he knew who she was, and if the ruffian was as ruthless as she suspected, there was nothing that guaranteed he would not give her up if the police offered him a plea bargain. Saena went into her room and packed as much as she could into two suit cases and headed out to her car. She would need to make a stop at the bank to drain as much as she could from her accounts, but she should be able to relocate before the police could catch her. As she drove away, she vowed that she would make those two pay for her having to abandon her current life. This was only a minor setback in her life though. She could easily call on that handsome client that had invited her to come to France with him. It was true that she could just barely stand him, but he was rich and that would go a long way to setting her up with a new life where this error could not affect her.
Author's note: Here is your chance to help with the story. As many of you have guesses, Catherine is pregnant. I have not quite figured out how to bring her and Yashiro's part of the story to a good close. I have written several possible ending, but I want to know what you think I should do. I will take into consideration any suggestions that I get. This is really the only part I have left to work out. Please let me know so that I can get to work on the end of the story. Thank you for your suggestions.