Confrontation

"Do you love her enough?"

Stella's questions stunned Regan. His heart knew him better and it answered before he could comprehend her questions. The answer to all of them was a simple 'yes' but then there was something that was stopping him, blocking him to follow what he wanted. Stella could sense his bewilderment. She simply wished him to make a decision about what he felt following his heart atleast for once so that he may not regret his hasty decisions in future. He was indeed a dear friend of her and so as Anna. Although she met her only for a few times, she couldn't deny her pure and alluring personality that even made her caring and protective towards her. She gently held his hand in hers and looked at him intently.

"What's stopping you Reg? Why are you being so hard on yourself? I can see that your own decisions are hurting you. I can clearly see how deeply you have fallen for her. Don't let yourself be so fragile in love or let your love be fragile."

He looked at her intensely waiting for her to continue. May be to hear the things that his heart wanted to but was scared to accept the grief of rejection that could break it into thousands of pieces.

"Reg.... Love is a reverence that is worshipped by everyone in their invocation and when that invocation is accomplished, life becomes easier as every matter and emotion of one soul sweeps in another. Don't detach the strings of your ardour. Refute or believe but don't block the course of communication with her. You haven't talked to her since you left New York, have you?" When he didn't answer, she shook her head. "Reg if love is reverence then communication is faith. Talk to her. Trust me, you would feel better. May be after hearing her, the tiniest of doubt about your feelings for her may get cleared. Atleast you wouldn't be like this."

"I don't think I have left anything to talk to her. I don't even know after avoiding her for so long, she would be willing to talk to me. What if she doesn't trust me anymore?"

She smiled on hearing him. The Regan standing in front of her wasn't a ruthless businessman who everyone feared, he was a simple man who was lost and she was ready to pave some light in the darkness that clouded his mind for no reason.

"She trusts you... more than you can imagine."

He looked at her incredulously.

"Before returning to Seattle, I went to meet Anna to apologize. I was expecting an outburst from her accusing me for my actions. You know what she said? She said that it was her fault to consume a wrong drink so there wasn't any reason for me to apologize. I couldn't believe what I heard from her but then she said something that took me off guard. She believed me because of you. She told me how you mentioned it in your letter and how she trusted you with every word. I had seen it in her eyes. Knowingly or knowingly you have made a place in her heart. You just need to see it first and then make her realize. Open your heart for her. Tell her what you feel before its too late to regret. Show her your love. Trust me..... she won't reject."

He hastily pulled his hand from her grip and walked past her.

"Really?" He scoffed. "I can't believe you said that. I want you to leave right now before you get out of your mind more than you have already been."

"What?" She couldn't understand what triggered him again to go back to his freaking attitude.

"Yes. I am already suffering because of the stunt you pulled that night. I am not going to change my mind with your rubbish anymore. No matter how much I love her, we are not meant for each other. The earlier I accept the truth, things would be better and easier for both of us."

"Reg please...."

He held his hand up to cut her. "Just leave Stella."

"You know what.... you are right. I should leave. But in case you change your mind, Anna is in Seattle. You wouldn't be knowing that cause you are too busy to cut off all your ties with her. But why am I telling you this? You really don't need to know about it. I know I sound you like a crazy. But I just can't walk from here without saying you this. Don't do anything reckless that could ruin your relation with Anna. She needs you as much as you need her Reg. Get back to her before its too late." She said and marched outside furiously.

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Anna was sitting at the huge shining black instrument that looked like the dark sky of a cool gloomy night coaxing soothing and amazing melodies from it. She seemed lost as her fingers kept flowing over the keys like a caress. The melody complimented the sound of the rain.

She was nostalgic. She had her eyes closed, her mind scanning over the memories of her playing the beautiful instrument for the first time with her father and mother sitting beside her, a hint of pride on their smiling faces for their little angel. The memories of their happy time, the tragic mishap, her world falling apart for the first time, her loneliness thereafter....did not only flood her heart with indescribable agony but also her eyes with waterworks. Her fingers stopped abruptly and she leaned down her head to block every memory, pain and fear that had clogged her heart in those years.

She was only sixteen when her parents died. Her life took a massive turn thenafter from being a little princess of her dotting parents to a teenager who was bound to grow and mature with no-one to look around. It was her little home where she was forced to live in isolation for months with no one to look after her until one day when Richard arrived at her doorstep and took her custody. She was always kept secured from the cruelty and harshness of the world believing that good things happen to those who were good by heart but one day everything changed. Her world turned topsy turvy when she got the news of her parents demise in an accident. It was a rainy night and she was waiting for them playing the soft music at her favorite spot. She remembered how some people who claimed to be close to her parents tried to approach and manipulate her for her wealth and she was left alone to think if she could trust any of them. Somehow, she held her guard high and protected herself alone breaking her will and little heart inch by inch from sorrow and isolation that depressed her.

When Richard had approached her for the first time and kept his hand on her head while patting it with utmost affection in his eyes, she had immediately embraced his fatherly warmth with innumerable tears in her eyes. Back then, it was not easy for her to leave her home in Seattle but Richard's love and support had coaxed her to move on and she went to New York with him. The initial years of her life were hard without her parents but with Richard and Emily around her, she grew up to believe and consider them her family. Life had given her another chance to be happy and to create a new family of her own with Ashton. She was afraid to dream and believe but he promised her to be by her side always, taught her to dream once again, made her to believe on herself and filled the hollow places of her heart with his selfless love and affection. But her dreams were shattered by every bit ruining her heart and happiness again with his death. The damage this time was beyond anyone's imagination but she gathered herself up for his sake, for his dreams and for the people he loved and called his family which was hers too. In all those years, she had learnt to pull off a smile on her face by burying the excruciating pain in her heart.

It was her parents' death anniversary and she had come to Seattle to greet them after three long years after Ashton's death. In all those years, no matter how much she willed to, she was unable to muster the courage to return to the place which time and again snatched away the every precious thing that she loved dearly. However this time, something got changed. A change which she couldn't pinpoint what exactly was, but it gave her the courage to face her fear and grief. And here she was at her real home where she spent the happiest years of her life.

Richard was unwilling to let her go to Seattle on her own knowing that it would be hard for her without anyone. He had wanted to accompany her on this day like he used to do before Ashton's death but she had refused stating that she was willing to go on her own to compensate for all those years that she had lived away from her parents without greeting them for even once.

She had landed in Seattle the same morning and had directly went to her parents' graveyard. She had decided that she would not bawl over their absence in her life and would happily spend some quality time with them to compensate for the lost years but her resolve crumpled down as soon as she had stepped on their burial ground.

When she had left the place, her face was blotchy with puffy eyes. Emily had returned back from her babymoon with Jack to Seattle and she had wanted her to stay with them for a couple of days before leaving. But Anna had assured her to be alright on her own disclosing her wish to stay at her parents' home to which she had reluctantly agreed.

It was now that she realized that it was easier said than done. She wasn't alright as her heart was a mess with all the emotions that were getting haywired as she was unable to hold them.

"Why did you leave me Mom and Dad? Sometimes I wonder if my life would have been the same if you were there to hold me in my lows. I miss you so much. Forgive your baby to ignore you in all these years. I promise you today that I will be the best daughter for you, someone on whom you will be proud Mom Dad. I know you still are but I wish you would have been here...with me.... to tell me that, to tell me that I am not alone."

She had already went to bed by then and closed her teary eyes not having a single clue about the upcoming day which was about to change her life once again with something bad and good at the same time.