The end: a perfect distraction

Karolia's POV:

Flowers!

The fresh fragrance of flowers entered my nostrils as I inhaled deeply. A beeping sound of some machine was heard nearby and also I could detect a faint smell of disinfectant, but it was very faint when compared to the fragrance of the flowers. Even with my eyes still closed, I can bet the flowers are roses, well the majority of them must be. Let's just say my absolute favorite flower is Rose and I can get the smell of it even from a 10-meter distance away.

Memories of what happened rushed to my head like a slideshow and I heaved a blissful sigh, a sigh of complete relief. Everything is over. Justice is served for my parents and to those lives that suffered under Micah and his men's cruelty. I'm no longer caught up in the past and I can finally move on from it.

A hand caressed my cheeks gently and a soft yet deep voice whispered in my ears. "Wake up, love."

My eyes slowly fluttered open to see a pair of bright blue eyes looking back at me. A smile immediately formed on my lips.

"Hello, handsome." I rasped out, my voice breaking slightly at the end. I noticed Logan was sitting on a chair beside the hospital bed that I'm lying on and was leaning towards me, almost hovering right in front of my face. He quickly inclined back to take a glass of water from the bedside table. I took this chance to look around the surroundings and to say I was shocked would be an understatement.

Roses, just as I predicted. But what made me awestruck was the multiple bouquets of roses surrounding us. Also, they are in a variety of colors.

"Woah!" I breathed out in a daze as Logan pressed the button on the handle of the bed to raise the adjustable bed and handed me the glass of water while taking a seat on the bed beside me. With my eyes still studying my surroundings, I drank the water greedily.

"So guessing from your expression, I think you liked it." Logan asked with an amused expression. I grin at him, nodding my head. But my grin again formed into a smile when Logan extended another bouquet of different colors of roses towards me.

"This is just so beautiful, Log." I say, hugging the bouquet close to my chest. I noticed an IV tube attached to my hand and also could feel a bandage wrapped around my head.

"Not as beautiful as you," Logan says and interlocks my hand with his before bringing it to his lips to place a chaste kiss on the back of my palm. Redness crept into my cheeks and I looked away shyly, which obviously made Logan chuckle.

"Yeah, yeah. You would say that even when I look like a zombie." I roll my eyes. "I'm sure I look like one right now" I muttered under my breath, wincing slightly at the thought, but Logan caught it. His grip on my hand tightened a bit before he forced me to look into his eyes.

"You're beautiful, both in and out. Never doubt that Lia." he says seriously. I suppressed my tendency to roll my eyes again and instead nod my head. It's no use saying otherwise to him.

"So," I say, changing the topic "Where are we? Worcester or NYC?" I asked. I now understand and have even experienced that it's possible to move a person from one country to another, traveling several miles, without that person's knowledge.

"Still in Worcester," Logan said and I nodded my head.

"How long was I out?" I asked curiously.

"For a day now. You honestly scared me when you fainted like that in my arms. The doctor said it was the exhaustion taking over you. You needed a good rest." I pursed my lips and nodded my head. Looking down at my hand I noticed the small cuts and scratches on my fingers and that's when something struck me.

"Log, I was forced to sign a few documents when I -"

"Don't worry. That's handled love. The agency informed us as soon as they found those papers in Micah's suitcase and they burned all of it under my instruction. There is nothing you have to be worried about anymore." Logan informed, cutting me off. I nod my head and again sighed in relief. Silently our eyes held each other's gaze, expressing our emotions through it.

"You have no idea how scared I was when I woke up and found out that you were gone," Logan said, his jaws clenching tightly. "It completely wrecked me, Lia." He shakes his head, a pained expression on his face. I bit my lips and blinked away my tears, not wanting to cry and making it more emotional than it is now.

"Even I was petrified, Log. I couldn't even help you and just had to w-watch you getting beaten up and... that tore m-me apart," I said honestly, shutting my eyes tightly. A lump formed on my throat and my eyes again started to burn up. "I lost all my h-hope when they said I was in Worcester already and y-you died." I sobbed as hot tears streamed down my cheeks. Logan shushed me by placing a finger on my lip.

"Shh, now I'm here, love." He said and hugged me close to his chest. "Everything is over now, Lia. It's past now." He said while patting my head, his fingers weaved through my hair which made me relax under his touch. I nod my head, agreeing with him.

"All this just made me realize one thing, Log. I don't think I will be able to live without you. I honestly felt like dying then and there. Please don't ever leave me. I don't think I can go through that again." I clutched his shirt in my hands, afraid to let go. Logan pulled back to look at me, his big and warm hands cupped my jaw to wipe away the tears that escaped.

"I promise you, Lia. I will never let anything like that happen to you again. You have me now and will have forever. And I'm set on keeping this promise until my very last breath. As long as I am alive you will never go through that again." As soon as he finished the last sentence my hands went up to close his mouth.

"I'll slap you if you talk about death anymore. We just came back from that." I pouted with an angry frown on my face. I heard a deep chuckle escape from Logan and he looked at me with so much adoration.

"Alright, just know that you are stuck with me forever." He bumped his forehead on mine and I saw the twinkle in his eyes.

"Right back at ya," I winked and laughed loudly. Smiling, we started leaning towards each other, our gaze trained on each other's lips. Logan rubbed the bottom of my lip with his thumb, emitting sparks on my skin. Just as we were a breath away, the door opened making us jump back in surprise. Logan cleared his throat and leaned back into his chair, a scowl etched on his lips for interrupting us whereas I was blushing tomato red.

"Finally you're awake." Tyler exclaimed dramatically as he peeked his head inside the room before coming in, ignoring the previous scene. A big smile formed on my lips and placing the bouquet aside, I extended my arms. Tyler rushed towards me and hugged me tightly, swaying us to and fro. I laughed loudly when Logan pulled him back by the collar of his shirt, scolding him saying he's hurting me.

"I missed you, kitten." he patted my head with a sad smile and I pouted.

"Same!!" I replied. "I missed all of you guys. Hey, Pat" I waved at Patrick who was just watching me with his arms crossed. He smiled at me and came forward to hug me.

"Good to have you back," he replies.

"Pfft...I'm not going to leave you guys alone anytime soon," I say cheesily, eyeing Logan while saying so. "But Thank you so much, guys. I mean it. Without you all, I honestly don't even want to think about what would have happened." I say sincerely, looking at three of them. Logan stiffened slightly at my last statement but didn't comment on it.

"Especially you Tyler. I didn't expect you to be here honestly." I said. I'm still curious to know how he found out about my past and I made a mental note to ask him about it later.

"Oh Come on, you're my best friend. If I didn't help you now, when can I. If I hadn't come now then I don't have a right to say I'm your best friend."

"You all will make me cry," I say, chuckling sadly. The boys laughed at my sensitiveness.

A knock interpreted us and I heard a very familiar voice. "Can I join?"

Grecia was standing near the threshold of the door with a sweet motherly smile on her face. My mouth opened in shock and my eyes lightened up like a Christmas tree.

"Grecia!" I exclaimed happily but my voice wavered as overwhelming emotions took over me. She walked towards me and straight away pulled me into a hug. Her contact immediately made me feel like home.

"W-What? How're you here?" I exclaimed in shock, pulling back from the hug.

"She came to know today early morning. I couldn't lie anymore and had to tell her the truth once she asked me to hand over the phone to you when she called to check up on us." Logan says, shrugging his shoulder. Grecia gave him a hard look.

"I still don't get why you hid it from me. You both were seriously hurt and I didn't even know about it." Grecia says with worry and disappointment clear in her voice and we look away in guilt.

"We're sorry, Grecia," I say to her and takes her hand in mine. "I know you might have been hurt to know we hid this from you. But we didn't want to worry you as we thought we could handle everything from NYC itself. But we didn't expect things to turn out like this." I say seriously, biting my lip. Grecia sighed heavily.

"It's alright dear. I'm just relieved you all are doing fine now." She says, looking at every one of us. "And they deserved what they got," she says in pure hatred, her fist clenching beside her.

"I wish I could have gotten a chance to kick Micah in his balls for hurting my children. But it's alright, I've already done that thousand times in my imagination," she says, making all of us chuckle.

We all chatted for a few more minutes before Patrick approached me with a phone in his hand.

"She was ringing me nonstop the whole night. I guess she just woke up." Patrick said before handing me the phone. Scarlet was sitting on our living room couch and I could see her red and sore eyes even through the phone screen.

"Karrie," Her voice broke as she saw me through Facetime. Her hands went up to cover her mouth.

"Hey Scar," I smile at her and rest my head on the bed rest.

"I'm so sorry I couldn't be there. I feel so bad right now. Trust me, I tried to convince Pat and Grecia to let me fly but they didn't allow me to. You have no idea how much I want to be there and hug you tightly." Scarlet explains and her eyes brimming with tears. Great, now she is crying. I blame a half part on her hormones for making her more emotional than usual.

"Ohh, the tantrum she threw once she heard about what happened," Grecia muttered and chuckled lightly beside me.

"I'm so glad that you listened to them, Scar. If you were here, that would make me angry and sad." I say to her. "I don't want anything to happen to you and the baby. All I want is for you all to stay safe." I say to her seriously. Scarlet sobs loudly and nodded her head.

"Are you hurt badly? Is everyone okay now?" She asked worriedly.

"I'm all fine. Everything is completely alright, Scar. Did you sleep well? Had your food?" I asked back. Pat said she stayed up at night. She must be tired.

"I couldn't sleep properly without knowing how you are doing and no I haven't had breakfast yet." I was about to open my mouth to scold her but she shut me. "But don't lash out, I will do everything now. I'm relieved that you are all well and so I can do everything peacefully." She smiled at me.

"Are you alone there?" I asked curiously.

"Nope. Daniella is here with me." Scarlet looked afar, most probably to spot Daniella in the kitchen. We chatted for a bit more time."The last two days without Pat were surprisingly pretty nice. I didn't have his annoying self hanging around me, controlling me and stopping me from doing things." she says dramatically and this time Patrick rolled his eyes before he snatched the phone away from me to give Scar an earful.

I chuckled, shaking my head. My heart burst with happiness to see all my dear ones together. They all came for me. All the people present in this room and Scarlet care for me just as much as I care for them. My life was a rollercoaster in the past year and I can say, I understood what life actually is in this time. People come in our lives and at one point they will all leave, our loved ones, or even acquaintances, it's pretty inevitable. What we can do is hold on to the best memories we created with them and always cherish it throughout our life.

I smiled in content as I watched my new family laugh and talk with each other. This day forever will remain in my heart. Logan looked at me and smiled with so much adoration and love. Our eyes held each other for a long time, forgetting about others present in the room. Just him and me.

"I love you." he mouthed. His hand came forward and he interlocked our fingers before squeezing it lightly.

"I love you too." I mouthed back. This is perfect. Finally, everything has fallen back into its place. Just as I wanted it to be.

Just as it is supposed to be.

********

(A few months later)

I stared at the mahogany door of this two-story house and then to the two adorable kids who were holding each of my hands in their little grip. Elijah, five-year-old, and Elle, three years old. Olivier's children.

"Are you both ready?" I asked them sweetly. Elijah nodded his head energetically while Elle gave me an adorable toothy smile. I smiled and awed at their cuteness before taking a deep breath and ringing the doorbell.

"Coming!" A feminine voice yells and I heard the footsteps from inside the house. The door flies open to reveal Alexandra, a gorgeous lady with midnight black hair and almond-like eyes, wearing a knee-length black dress. Even though she is in her late 30s, her face held a young look and it widened as soon as she smiled upon seeing us.

"Welcome!!" She announced excitedly. Behind her was her husband, Luther. He was wearing a formal suit and he is in his early 40's with brown hair. Both of them had olive skin, dark hair, and good height.

"Alexa," Yes, that's what I call her. I hugged her as soon as she stepped out of the threshold. Her gaze landed on the two kids and her expression changed into an otherly gaze as she smiled at them fondly. Elle ran into her arms as soon as she opened it for them.

"You guys look so beautiful. Is that the dress that I gifted you last week." she gushed and sat on her knees to look at the children more closely.

"Yes!", "Yes, Alexa." Both the kids replied excitedly while jumping up and down.

"Hey, Kiddos." Luther stepped out and Elijah went to him immediately to give him a fist pump.

"Come on in, Karolia," Luther said with a warm smile as he picked Elijah in his arms. We all got in and spent time in their living room. I watched Alexandra talk with the kids and make them laugh.

I know some of you might be wondering what the heck am I doing with Olivier, my enemy's, children. The first time I met Oliver in New York, I remember him telling me about the death of his wife, his children losing their mother. And with Olivier's death, now his children are orphans and I couldn't sleep properly knowing we had played a small role in killing Olivier and making those innocent lives parentless. Logan and I did a little background search about Elijah and Elle once we came back from Worcester. We were sad to hear that the children were being taken care of by Olivier's relative who was cruel and harassing them in his house. So with a little power, we took the custody of Elijah and Elle from that relative. Both the kids are still young, only Elijah remembers his mother and used to cry remembering her. Elle was clueless about her real parents' identity, unlike Elijah. It was a tough ride to get them to loosen up to me and Logan but we eventually did it. Now the kids are out of their shell, very lively and full of happiness. It was just last month that we decided to find them good foster parents.

And that's when we found Luther Parker and Alexandra Parker, a couple who weren't blessed with children but were open for adoption. They both met the kids a few weeks back and have been spending a tremendous amount of time with the kids so that they like them as well as earn their trust. Once Logan and I were satisfied with their personalities and background we decided to give them these adorable kids as we were sure they would take care of the kids like their own and also provided them with good financial support.

Some might ask why can't we adopt Elijah and Elle by ourselves and bring them up. There's only one answer to that question. Olivier. We are sure at some point the thought about Olivier and what he did to my family will come to our minds. Even if we are sure we won't show that to the kids, our thoughts can't be helped. So we wanted to find a couple that knows nothing about these kid's biological family backgrounds, their father's profession, and how many souls he killed for a living.

After two hours, I left the house with content. The papers were all signed and the custody of the kids was transferred to Mr. and Mrs. Parker. The children are happy with them just as they are happy with the kids. Now they are a perfect family. Once the Parker's noticed my sadness while leaving the kids they have offered for me and Logan to visit the kids whenever we feel like. And that reassured me.

Standing near the bus stop, I looked at the watch on my wrist and huffed when I realized Logan was twenty minutes late. I contemplated whether to take the bus that's almost arriving at the stop, or give Logan a call. But that's when I saw the familiar black range rover racing down the streets and skid to a stop in front of me.

The windows rolled down and Logan's face appeared and he had a cheeky grin. Rolling my eyes, I walked to the passenger door and got inside the car, buckling up immediately.

"You're late." was the first thing I said to him with an emotionless face. Logan heaved a loud sigh.

"I'm sorry, love. The meeting was longer than expected." Logan said, looking at me for a second before turning his gaze to the road. "I promise I'll make it up to you," he says quickly. His free hand reached over the center console and placed it on my thigh before squeezing it lightly.

"You better." I say to him with a smirk, all my anger disappearing into thin air. Logan smirked back and winked at me. I shake my head at my boyfriend.

"So, how did it go?" he asked me. The signal went red and Logan slowed down the car to a stop before turning to look at me.

"It went so well. Since the kids liked them from the beginning itself it was easier to explain it to them, Log." I said to him with a happy smile. "You should have seen the look on their eyes when the kids ran around the house with their new toys. Alexa even prepared all their favorite food. I'm very sure they are going to take good care of them."

"I wish I was there too," Logan says disappointedly. "But I couldn't cancel this meeting."

"It's alright. I understand." I smiled at him and squeezed his hand. "Just give them a call as soon as we reach home. Elijah was pretty upset with your absence and he only cheered up after I told him that you would call him later today." Logan nodded his head with a smile and leaned forward to take my lips in his. My eyes closed right away and I enjoyed the spark and electricity running through my body at his touch. Gosh, I would never get old to this feeling.

Our relationship isn't perfect as the ones in a reality show or a movie, it's far from it. As there is a saying, where there is a fight there is love. We love each other deeply but we fight a lot too. Logan now gives me extra care and a lot more protection after the incident at Worcester. He hasn't still loosened up. I get that he's just looking after my safety but sometimes it goes overboard that always ends up in a fight. But the best thing is we always make it up, either later that day or the next day. It doesn't go beyond that because we just cannot ignore each other and keep the tension for a long time.

Sometimes Log says I'm such a distraction to him and I wouldn't disagree with him. But the situation I'm in defines whether that distraction is a bad one or a perfect one.

I would call him endlessly until he picks up just to ask him where he kept my hairbrush or what I should cook for dinner or something unnecessary that could wait till he arrives. If he didn't pick up, I would call his secretary or anyone till I got him, not caring if he's in a million-dollar meeting. Also, there are times when we get distracted by each other and we couldn't concentrate on the important matters in our hands. That's when we say it's a bad distraction.

There are times when we need a good break, to relax and forget everything else, only just the two of us, whenever we call each other or be with each other. Our life is always on a constant run, especially when Logan is handling a powerful business and amidst my studies, I'm trying to start a small company in New York. A company that I dedicate to my parents and started with the help of the money my father had transferred to my account. But even through all this, Logan and I always find time and space for each other and can calm and relax each other. We love each other unconditionally and will always cherish the sparks and electricity that we still don't fail to create with our contact. And that's when we call it a perfect distraction.

Speaking of it, a honk from behind brought us back to reality and we jumped. Logan spits out profanities when he saw the light turned green and he shot the car forward. I laughed loudly and blushed at the same time. With a smile still on my face, I lean my head into the window and stare ahead in thought.

After all, A distraction can be bad and good. It just depends on how we see it.

I look at Logan with a smile on my face. He looked back at me and raised his eyebrows, asking me what's the matter. I shake my head with a pleasing smile.

"I love you," I uttered. Logan's lips curled up and he interlocked our fingers before bringing it to his lips and pressing a lingering kiss to my knuckles.

"I love you more, love."