Lover (Court University 4)

And again.

The rage slowly changed then, anger and fury twisting into something else. Something more deadly. That malice quickly transferred to fear, and it wasn’t until he dropped the gun, falling to his knees, it turned into something else.

Vacancy.

His soul lost behind his gaze, his face hitting the floor, and I blinded completely at the sight before me. At what happened and didn’t need to. My ex-husband didn’t have to die. It didn’t have to be this way.

“Brielle…”

It took me a second, a long second, to realize I was on the floor, sobbing and rocking with arms around me.

Ramses’s arms, his strong body hugging me close. He held my bleeding hands, my arms shaking in his. “I know,” he said. “I know.”

Apparently, I’d been saying it out loud. That this didn’t have to happen, over and over, I kept saying it, and each time Ramses kept saying he knew. He kept saying he understood. He told me it would be okay, and it took so long to believe him. That this nightmare would finally be over. That I could move on.

That I could heal.

I started to do that in his arms while we waited for the cops to arrive later that night. He’d taken the time to call them, but then, he was back with me. He was back to this, on the floor with me and holding me so tight.

I’d never felt so safe in my life.

Chapter Thirty-Five

Ramses

There was this thing my mom had told me a few years ago. After my dad’s trial, then again once they’d finalized their divorce. She’d said, “After the ashes fall, things will be okay. After the ashes fall, we’ll be all right, but only after the ashes fall, Ramses.”

After the ashes fall.

Her words hit me in a new way that day Brielle’s husband went after her. Because it wasn’t my own trauma or even my family’s this time. It was the woman I loved, her own rebirth as I stood by her. We had a sea of cops and noise we had to deal with that night. Her ex had died.

He was gone.

He’d succumbed to clearly his own insecurities and made Bri have to deal with those, too. I stood by Brielle during the thickness of it, and Mom came over too, doing the same. We were both there for her while this new reality manifested itself before her. Her own ashes were falling around her, and I found my mother’s words surfacing again after the night concluded. I told Brielle these ashes would fall. They’d rest, and after, she’d be okay.

We’d be okay.

Back when my mom had shared the words, I honestly hadn’t believed her, but going through everything with Bri, meeting Bri, told me what kind of place I was in, as well as what kind of man I’d become. I was living for the day and completely feeling it. I sunk into it with no life raft. I was alive for the good, but also for the bad. But one better, I was strong enough for both. I was brave enough to let in the good and not worry about it being taken away. But I also came equipped to handle whatever life decided to toss out along the way. That was how life was. One couldn’t have one without the other. One couldn’t truly appreciate love until they endured pain. I had endured pain. I had endured love, and Brielle had as well.

She later told me she’d been about to come see me, when her husband had intercepted her. That she’d planned to fight for us and ended up fighting for herself that night. What happened to her husband was truly horrible, but on the other side, she came out stronger. She was brave enough for the good and bad too. She was ready to live and take on whatever life gave her. We’d do that together.

After the ashes.

The next couple of weeks prior to commence were truly deplorable. Brielle had to deal with a lot of stuff she shouldn’t have had to deal with. Press and the media alike surrounding her and her ex-husband’s confrontation. He obviously hadn’t left her condo alive that day, and once the media found out, they’d had a frenzy. The man was a beloved sports icon, there for his fans on the outside, but clearly, not for the woman who had probably trusted him most. I felt for the guy in the only way I could that didn’t involve me punching a hole through a wall. He’d experienced trauma too, but in no way did that justify the way he’d treated Bri, then gone after her.

I gave Brielle everything she needed, of course, people to help her wrangle the sea of paparazzi that followed, and even Mom worked out things on campus. University staff were in the middle of final grading, but Mom made sure Brielle didn’t have to worry about that. Mom even offered to let Brielle stay at her place while all this blew over.

Of course, Brielle couldn’t stay at her own house or even my properties. People, the media, were well aware we were both together and that I’d been there the day of the confrontation. TMZ was after us both, had a field day, but we didn’t split up. I set us up in a private place upstate, a place where we both took some time. We stayed there together until the day of the commencement ceremony.

I had no desire to even walk that day, didn’t care, but Bri wanted that for me. In fact, it was the one normal thing she said we both should have. She wanted to be there for me that day, to support me, and she also didn’t want me to miss the experience with my friends. Knight, Royal, and December were also graduating with me. We’d all passed our final classes, with flying colors even.

I did walk with the rest of my friends that day, did experience that time, but after, it was just Brielle and me again. It stayed that way until nearly a month later.

And that was only because my mother begged me to surface.

My graduation party couldn’t very well happen without me. My mother’s words, not mine. She’d waited to throw the whole thing until after Bri and I felt comfortable, and I made completely sure Bri was before telling my mom yes. I didn’t push Brielle, but ironically enough, she’d been the one to push me. She said she wanted to party, party with me, and hell, if I’d turn down a moment to actually show her off to my world.

That was exactly what I did, my girlfriend not far from me that whole day in the manor I’d grown up in and around the people I cared about the most. Even my grandparents and some of my extended family had come out from Syria, and my mom’s family too, who were normally sprinkled across the country. I introduced my girlfriend to everyone, mine, and even Brielle’s parents showed up from Jersey. She said she’d invited them because she wanted them to meet me.