🌸ALL THE WRONG REASONS🌸
🌹EPISODE TWENTY-FIVE🌹
The next Friday afternoon, when Adrienne got back from
work, she found Justin sitting on his balcony. He had his
back to her. He seemed lost in his thoughts. He was taking
de-ep breaths and she realized that he was silently crying.
As she watched him, she saw his pain. The pain that
he refused to let her see. And her heart broke just a little bit
more for him. She realized more than ever how selfish she
had been. Justin had to make the tough choice because she
refused to let him go. Because she had given him a choice.
She fought for him. She could have made it easier for him,
but she held on to her claim on him. He chose her. But it
bec@m£ evident that he wasn’t going to be the same man
she loved. His happiness would never be complete.
Tears rolled down her cheeks. She wiped them and
then she went and knelt in front of him. She took his hands
in hers.
His face was tear-stricken, his eyes were red.
“Justin…” she whispered.
He held her cheek and looked into her eyes. “My
mother is in the hospital, Adrienne,” he said.
She blinked back at him. “What?”
“She had a car accident yesterday. Apparently, she
had been drinking, since the day my father asked me to
move out of the house.” Justin spoke in a low voice. “She’d
fallen into depression. She wasn’t drun!kwhen she rammed
the car into a tree. But her depression led her there. My
Mom is not as tough as you are, Adrienne,” he said. “She
was a sheltered, rich girl who didn’t go throu-gh so much in
her life. After my grandfather’s death, this was probably the second instance she felt like someb©dy she loves
abandoned her. She took this worse than I thought.”
“Justin…you have to go home,” she said, not knowing
how she found the courage to tell him this.
He blinked back at her. He shook his head. “I’m not
going to leave you, Adrienne.”
“Justin…” she whispered softly. “Fix this. Your parents
loved you and took care of you all your life. You can’t just
walk out on them for a girl you met less than a year ago. If
they are ma-king you marry some other girl, then make them
un-derstand why you don’t want to, why you can’t. But don’t
just walk out on them.
“Just because you’re rich enough by your own right,
you’ll show them that you don’t nee-d them anymore. They
have been there for you when you were a kid and weren’t
strong enough to handle life. Now it’s time you pay them
back.”
“Even if they’re asking me to give up my own
happiness? My own life?”
“Even if it hurts to be unselfish,” she whispered in a
weak voice.
She stared up at him, tears rolling down her cheeks.
“They’re your family, Justin,” she said. “I would give
everything to have parents who loved me the same way
your parents loved you.”
“Adrienne, when I go back to them, they might not let
me return to you anymore. You see this… this is emotional
blackmail.”
“But she’s still your mother. Do you really want to risk
not knowing whether she’s just doing this to make you feel
bad about your choice?”
He closed his eyes and they both knew what the right
answer to that question was, no matter how badly it hurt.
Then he stared at her again. He took a de-ep breath. “I
love you, Adrienne.”
“And I love you, too, Justin.”
“You know I would fight for you…until the end, right?”
She nodded. “I know. But this time…I don’t want you
to.”
“Aren’t you going to fight for me, too?” he asked
weakly.
“I did,” she replied. “But I love you too much to do this
to you. I love you too much to deprive you of who you were
born to be…who you really are. Maybe fate is telling us that
I’m not the girl for you.”
“I don’t believe in fate, Adrienne.”
“But I do. And I think fighting it will only make us hurt
the people around us.”
He cu-mpped her face in his hands.
“I don’t want to let you go. I don’t want to go back to
them.” His voiced sounded broken. Tears welled up in his
eyes.
Tears spilled from her eyes, too. “But you have to,
Justin. For your family’s sake.”
“I won’t accept this fate, Adrienne. I can’t.”
She stared up at him and gave him a bitter smile. She
took a de-ep breath and mustered all the courage she could
to finally do what was right. “But I am letting you go, Justin.
So you would be free to take your destiny in your hands.”
“Honey, don’t do this,” he whispered. “You said you
love me.”
“And I do. That’s why I’m doing this. Because I don’t
want you to hurt anymore. I don’t want to make things
difficult for you anymore. I don’t want you to lose the family
you have before I even c@m£ into your life. I know it’s a
tough choice you made. And now…you don’t have to make
it anymore. I will make it for you.” She took a de-ep breath. A
whimper escaped from herl-ips. “Go back to them, Justin. I
am no longer claiming you. Because this is the right thing to
do.”
Justin shook his head. “If this is right, then why does it
feel wrong?
“Hey.” She smiled at him apologetically. “It’s time you
start believing in destiny, Justin. Some things are beyond
your control. Don’t pu-ll against gravity. You will only end up
hurting yourself and the ones around you. Let’s not be
selfish anymore.”
“Adrienne…I don’t think I can love anyb©dy the way I
love you now.”
She smiled at him. “I will always love you, Justin.” She
whispered the words that bec@mÂŁ the most painful things
she ever said. “You are Justin Adams. You cannot escape
that. de-ep inside you’re still the same guy I fell in love with.
And I know you will always be. But it’s time to embr@ce your
destiny. Even if I cannot be a p@rt of your future.”
He shook his head slightly. “Don’t say that. You are my
life. I will never st©p loving you. I can’t!” He leaned forward
and crushed herl-ips into his. Adrienne savored that k!ss.
She knew…they may not have that many k!sses left to
share.
“But you cannot change who you are. You can’t
change who you were born to be. At least…not without
hurting the ones you love. And you don’t want that in your
future, Justin. If something bad happens to your Mom, do
you want to carry the burden of guilt all your life?” Adrienne
shook her head slightly. “You don’t. It will change you. It will
break you. And I love you way too much to make you suffer
for this, Justin. I want you to be happy for the rest of your
life.”
“Then don’t let me go,” he pleaded.
“No. The only way you will be happy is if you’re free,”
she said and reached forward and wiped his cheeks with her
thumbs. “Give this a chance, Justin. Maybe…maybe this is
your true happiness, and you’re just repelling it. Maybe she
could make you happier than I could. And if she can’t, then
at least you tried. And you would still make your parents
happy that at least you gave it a chance. If it works, then good for you. If it doesn’t work, then your parents would still
have been thankful that you chose them over me.”
“You’re asking me to make a choice that would
destroy us both!” His voice bec@m£ almost angry.
“I’m asking you to make a choice where you have a
sh0t of winning both ways,” she said. Those words are like
knives stabbing her heart.
“And if in the end, it still didn’t work?” he asked.
She smiled at him ruefully and then she reached
forward and k!$$£d hisl-ips. “Then you come back to me,
okay?”
Justin stared back at her for a while. “Are you going to
wait for me?”
She nodded. “Yes.”
Justin sighed. “Adrienne, why? Why can’t you just be
stubborn and possessive and ask me to go with you to
Veg@s now and marry me so my parents couldn’t do
anything about it anymore? Why do you have to do this?”
She cu-mpped his face in her hands. “Because I don’t
want to make things difficult for you. I have nothing to offer
you in return, Justin. The only thing that I can do… is make
things easy for you. So now, you have two choices. Each
gives you a chance to win. I think I just made this less
difficult for you.” She tried to smile at him brightly.
Justin shook his head. “No. You just made me realize
how right I was about you. You know there’s ninety-nine
percent chance I choose the option that I come back to you,
right?”
“But you can only do that after you’ve tried the other
options that you have,” she said.
Justin sighed in defeat. He took her hands in his and
k!$$ÂŁd her f!ngers.
“Adrienne…” he whispered. “You know I love you.
Forever…always…you are the only woman who owns this,”
he said, bringing her hand to his che-st, to where his heart is.
Tears were welling up in his eyes again.
He stood up and pu-ll-ed her up on her feet as well.
Then he said, “Let’s…pretend that my parents didn’t take
away my free will.”
She nodded.
“I will ask you a question. And I want your honest
answer. No conditions, no buts. Just answer me yes or no.”
She nodded again.
Justin stared into her eyes and took a de-ep breath.
“Adrienne Miller…I love you so much. With all of my heart. I
want no one else in my life, in my future. I want to spend an
eternity with you. I want you to be the mother of all my
children.” He paused and with teary eyes, he asked, “Will
you marry me?”
Adrienne blinked back at him. If it was real, if they
were in the world that wasn’t crazy…that question would
have made her jump in joy. But now…it just broke her heart
a little bit more. She wanted so much to hear them from
Justin and answer them for real.
She stared up at him, tears streaming on her face.
“Yes, Justin. I would.”
He smiled at her. But that smile was sad, too. Because
they both knew that just might only happen in dreams now.
He had a duty to fulfill. And she set him free. But in this
hypothetical world, where he asked her a hypothetical
question, they allowed themselves to savor a few moments
of bliss.
He leaned forward and k!$$£d herl-ips. Thor0ûghly.
Pas-sionately. He swept her up on her feet and carried her to
be-d.
Adrienne lost herself in him. Justin lost himself in her.
He k!$$ÂŁd almost every inch of her skin. He drowned himself
in her scent. The room was filled with their m0@n s and their
screams. They let their pas-sion consume them and their
love to take them to oblivion. They savored these
moments…which might as well be their last.
Adrienne woke up early the next day, with a heavy
heart. She wrote a letter to Justin. It was the most painful
one she had to write. She felt like crying but she willed
herself to be strong.
Justin,
In the ideal world, first hour in the morning today, I
would pick up the phone, call my friends, and scream at the
t©p of my lungs, “I’m engaged! I’m engaged!”
Then, I would take a shower, hopefully with you. And
then I would go to all the magazine stands and purchase
every bridal magazine I could find. Then I would sit in
Starbucks and re-ad each and every one of them, and put
sticky neon flags on the pages I would find interesting.
But we’re not in the ideal world. We’re in this crazy,
parallel universe. And in this world, the first thing I did when
I woke up, is stare at your handsome face…memorize it
feature by feature. The second thing I did is k!ssyourl-ips.
Then I savored your scent and wished I could drown in it
forever. Then I put myl-ips close to your ear and I told you in
your sleep, “I love you very much. And it is because I love
you that I have to let you go. And if by some miracle you
find your way back to me… then I promise you. I will hold on
to you… and never let you go anymore.”
I want you to know that I will be okay, Justin. You don’t
have to worry about me not being able to get throu-gh this.
You’ve taught me how to love myself, you taught me how to
be stronger.
Don’t think about hurting me by embr@cing your
destiny. If destiny wills you to be happy with her, then know
this. I am the happiest person in the world for you. Because
I love you, I cannot be selfish with you. And whatever makes
you happy, makes me happy.
And now, if by some chance, it doesn’t work out for
you, then plea-se come and find me. And when you ask me
that question again, you know my answer will still be the same. And I promise I will try my best to make you the
happiest husband on Earth.
I will not pray for either of the options to happen. I will
leave it up to fate. To destiny. I will only pray for one thing,
Justin. Your happiness.
I love you very much, Mr. Adams. Know that you will
always be in my heart. I will never forget you. Now…
forever… always.
Love,
Adrienne
She left Justin’s ap@rtment with a very heavy heart
but somehow, the feeling that she did something right
prevented her from breaking down. She believed that the
only way they could both be happy is if they set each other
free, if Justin made peace with his family.
If someday, they find each other again and Justin is
free of his duties, she would take him back, no questions
asked. Because in her heart, she knew she could never love
anyb©dy as much as she loved him.
She meant every word she said to him. It wasn’t easy
for her to let him go just like that. She took a big risk.
There’s a great chance that Justin may not be able to
convince his family that the arrangement will not work out.
There’s also a possibility that the girl he was promised to
was really the right girl for him all along.
Whatever the case will be, she meant what she said.
She would not make Justin turn his back on his parents, on
his destiny as the heir of Adams Industries. And if he found
his happiness without her, then she would truly be happy for
him.
Tbc