11 The End

The arm that was holding me disappeared along with the gunman. At first I'm frozen in place, deaf and in shock. It only took a few seconds before I stumbled over to him, falling a couple times before I collapsed by his side. Blood covered his stomach, seeping out onto his clothes. I pulled his body onto my lap, trying to scream for help. Nothing came out, I couldn't hear myself scream over the ringing. I tried and tried again, each attempt louder than the one before as I pressed my hand against the wound, trying to get it to stop bleeding. It had to stop bleeding. This couldn't be happening, why was this happening?

Mikey mouthed something but I couldn't hear what he said. The ringing slowly faded away, I could start to hear the mumbles of my screams. My shouts of despair must have drawn attention because the next thing I knew I was being pulled away from him. I struggled, screamed, cried, but in the end it was pointless. Mikey was already dead.

Mikey never got to learn the gender of our kids, he missed every ultrasound showing our babies grow, he never got to witness their birth, and wasn't able to spoil his grandchildren. He didn't get to do a lot of things. After the murder, I inherited Mikey's phone company and the murderer was caught. After the investigation they gave me the one thing in the basket that was still alive. A fake rose with blood splattered over it.

So, you see, my love story has no happily ever after like you would expect. We didn't grow old together and he didn't get to walk his daughters down the aisle. What we had were a happy beginning and a happy middle. Now, as I lay dying with my two darling kids and grandchildren surrounding my bed, I can say, while it isn't the happily ever after of my dreams, it is, nonetheless, a beautiful ending to my story.