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Summer was drawing to a close and that morning she woke up as the sun peaked through her curtains, and realized that she and Dominic had made plans for him to come over for lunch at around eleven. Looking over at the clock she discovered it was currently ten, and so, Mood significantly brightened, Bella got out of bed and headed into her closet to get ready.

As she glanced about her closet her eyes fell on a white, empire waisted, vintage chic, mini dress with a bold red pattern. It had spaghetti straps and a showed a little more skin than she would generally like, but she pulled it out anyways. After slipping out of her lavender chemise she put on the dress, and adjusted the straps in front of the full length mirror that stood in the corner.

After selecting a pair of red strappy heals she wandered over to her bathroom, and went through her morning routine and then returned once again to her closet. Sitting down at her vanity Bella, began to apply her make-up. Nothing too fancy, just a touch of bronze eyeshadow, black mascara, and some light pink lip gloss.

Ten-thirty, Since she was already fully dressed and made up, Bella returned to her room and sat down on the love seat in her sitting area and began reading Pride and Prejudice. It was her favorite novel,she'd read it thousands of times, but somehow she never tired of it.

She was only a few pages in when she was startled out of her reverie by the ringing of her cell phone. Leaping up gracefully she ran to answer it. According to caller id, it was Angela. Bella smiled, Angela was one of her close friends, she hadn't talked to her since the start of summer.

"Hey Ang!" Bella answered enthusiastically. "Bella... hey..." Angela's reply was tired and nervous. Bella frowned "What's wrong Ang?" "I'm so sorry Bella, I have to tell you, I wish I didn't have to, but I do. You deserve to know. You don't deserve to have something like this happen to you. But you deserve to know. And I'm so, so sorry," Angela rambled, her tone bleak and distraught. "Ang, you're scaring me. What do you have to tell me?" Bella replied nervously.

There was along pause in which Angela breathed deeply and exhaled slowly. "Do you remember Charlie's party a couple weeks ago? The one you missed because of your cousin's funeral?" "Yeah..." Bella affirmed slowly. "Okay, so every one was drinking, as usual, and Dominic and Kit were totally smashed, laughing like maniacs, when suddenly Kit leaned over and kissed Dom. They then stumbled off into one of Charlie's extra rooms. About 10 minutes later they came out looking extremely disheveled, and then Dom left."

Bella's heart stopped, she had ceased breathing at the point when Angela said they'd kissed. She felt as though her heart had been suddenly ripped from her chest, leaving behind a massive hole. "Thank you, Angela, for telling me,"she said voice empty and then she hung up.

Bella then collapsed to the ground where she had stood. Her arms grasped tightly around herself as sobs wracked her petite frame. Thoughts raced through her mind too quickly to process, this wasn't supposed to happen, he was supposed to love her, he wasn't supposed to cheat on her with one of her best friends. This wasn't supposed to happen.

Making no effort to control her breakdown Bella lay on the floor weeping, as her heart shattered.

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This wasn’t happening right? This could not be happening. He had said he loved her! Had those just been meaningless words to him? Was he just another guy who would say anything to get what he wanted out of a girl? Bella lay on the ground, sobbing into her hands as thought after thought spun through her mind. The mental image of Dominic, her boyfriend, the guy she loved above anything else in this world, kissing Kit flashed into her head, and the pain that tore through her chest was unbearable. How could this have happened, just yesterday she would’ve bet everything she owned on the fact that he loved her, and today she was finding out that he had cheated on her.

Isabella felt as though she was having an out of body experience, it didn’t feel like this was happening to her, it felt like she was watching herself laying on the floor as her heart ripped to shreds. Things like this just didn’t happen with them, Charlie and Avalon yes, they had these kinds of problems, but this wasn’t a situation that Bella had ever considered of being in with Dominic. Bella was the kind of girl who expected a certain level of commitment in a relationship, and after dating him for three years, she was pretty certain that he’d been the same way. Sure, Bella had never liked the way Dom had flirted with Kit, and she had occasionally let her jealousy get the best of her, but she never dreamed he would actually cheat on her. He wasn’t that kind of guy, or at least that’s what she had thought.

Then it suddenly struck her, she was her mother. She flashed back to the many nights she had spent comforting her mother, and realized that she was her now. She had done the one thing she had sworn, since she was old enough to understand what fuelled her mother’s tears, she would never do; she had let Dominic get close enough to hurt her… and he had. How had she been so stupid… so naive?

Another memory flashed through her mind, it was the night after their first fight, and she was lying in Dominic’s room with his arms wrapped tightly around her watching the rain pound on his windows; it was the night she had realized she loved him. And though the memory caused her sobs to worsen, she couldn’t bring herself to regret it.

She tried to remember what their fight had been about… Oh, Kit. What a surprise, she thought sarcastically. Her fears had been warranted after all, despite all his assurances that they were ‘just friends’, they weren’t just friends, she thought harshly, you don’t sleep with your friends, at least not when you had a girlfriend.

She took a shaky breath through her tears and tried to concentrate her thoughts… She couldn’t be certain he had actually slept with Kit. The only thing she could be certain of was that he had kissed her… and then gone into a room with her. But what good could have possibly come from them heading into that room? They were both completely smashed, and had obviously deemed that whatever their drunken minds had been planning was too sensitive for the rest of the party to see. But still… she couldn’t be sure…Unless she asked him. That was it; she would have to ask him when he got here. Because Bella could get over him kissing Kit, but she wasn’t sure she could ever live with it if they had had sex.

In the back of her mind Isabella registered the fact that someone was knocking at the door, but she couldn’t bring herself to move, so she let them knock and prayed that they would just go away. When she heard the door open she was slightly confused, why would they come in if they thought no one was home? She pondered this until she heard him, “Bella?” It was Dominic; Bella’s sobs intensified as she listened to him make his way through the house up to her sitting area.

Bella sat up slowly, pushing her curls out of her face. For a few moments she just stared at the ground, she was afraid to meet his eyes, afraid of what she would see there. After she had managed to gather herself at least enough to silence her sobs, but not enough to stem the tears that continued to flow freely down her checks, she looked up into his eyes. Meeting his gaze she saw worry, sadness, and maybe… regret?

Bella breathed deeply before standing up, and turning away from him to walk back to the loveseat. She looked back over at him as she sat down and decided to ask him first; she’d let him try to explain himself before she totally flipped out. Who knows, with luck, maybe after he explained himself she wouldn’t have to flip out. She blew the air from her lungs slowly before she finally managed to get the words past her lips, “So do you want to tell me what happened?” Bella motioned her head to the seat still opened next to her indicating that he could sit with her, if he wanted.

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As Dominic spoke, his voice so raw and vulnerable, Bella’s heart continued to tear. He sounded so sincere, but then again, he always had, what was she supposed to believe? What was she supposed to do? All she wanted was for him to hold her, the way he used to, it seemed so long ago, before this, before Kit. That was what her heart yearned for, but sensible, rational Bella screamed at her to run away, fast, that letting him back in would only be a recipe for more pain and tears. She had trusted him, hadn’t she? And look where it had gotten her.

“Dominic,” she murmured softly her voice broken and full of tears. She didn’t know what to say, there were no words that could possibly describe how she felt right now, the range and intensity of emotions was far too broad. She stared down at her shaking hands, still clasped in his, thinking, struggling to come up with the words this moment called for. Still in her concentrated trance she unthinkingly turned their hands over, slowly rubbing small circles over with her thumbs over his palms. “Dominic,” she repeated again her voice trembling as renewed tears spilled over her eyes. Looking up into his eyes she brought his hands up to her mouth and kissed his fingertips, before she finally continued, “I love you. I love you more than I can ever possibly express, most days, you’re the only thing that keeps me going, my only reason to get up in the morning and persevere through life. But…”

Bella hesitated, unsure if she should continue where her thought led. “But, I love you so much that, against my better judgment, I let myself trust you.” Bella stopped again, and breathed deeply trying to remain calm, “You know the night I realized I loved you? It was that night, after our first fight, when you held me and we just lay there, in perfect silence, watching the rain pound your window. The thing was, the moment I realized I loved you, the first thing I felt was… fear. Paralyzing, uncontrollable fear. I was afraid because I realized that, without my knowledge, you’d slowly broken through all the walls I’d carefully constructed to protect myself, and that I’d unknowingly let you into a position where you could hurt me.”

“But just as quickly as the fear came, it vanished. I decided it was okay to love you, to trust you, because you were different, than my father, than most guys I’ve met. You were different, and you would never intentionally hurt me, because… you loved me too.” Bella paused again, but only momentarily, she was afraid to stop and think, she was afraid of over thinking it, because that would mean disaster. But she did pause, trying to find a balance between what her heart sought and what her head instructed her to do. “Dom, I trusted you, and you hurt me. You’ve done more damage with that one night, than the sum of all the damage my father has dealt to me by cheating on my mother. And the destruction is so terrible because I trusted you, because I love you. And it’s causing me to rethink everything, to second guess every word you’ve ever said to me. If you are capable of cheating on me, who’s to say everything you’ve said, are saying, isn’t a lie? I love you, I love you beyond what words can express, I want to be with you, conceivably, for forever but….”

Bella’s composure finally broke and stable, rational Bella vanished, her emotions getting the best of her tone became hysterical, “Dominic, my head is screaming at me, yelling for me to run away, fast. Telling me it’s the only way to guarantee that this won’t happen again, that I won’t ever be hurt by you in this way again. But at the same time all I want is to be with you, to be able to trust you again, but I don’t know! I don’t know what to think, and I don’t know what to do!” Her sobs fully renewed Bella suddenly slid off the love seat and into Dominic’s lap, and flung her arms around his neck sobbing into his shoulder.

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Bella’s sobs quieted as Dominic held her close, and she found herself relaxing, if only slightly. Something about being back in his arms, even now, in this horrible situation… it felt right, this was the only place in the world Isabella had ever felt truly safe; and she was relieved that at least this hadn’t changed. As he whispered in her ear Bella tightened her arms around his neck, her eyes still shut tight, as if she were trying to hide from the world. “Don’t leave me," Dominic pleaded in her ear.

It was the first time he’d actually said it since their conversation began. The first time he’d actually said that he didn’t want her to walk away. He didn’t want her to give up on him, on their relationship, and with these words, the faintest ray of hope was restored in Bella’s heart. Because her greatest fear hadn’t been that she’d never be able to trust him again because she knew she could, it might take time and a bit of effort, but she knew she would be able to trust him fully again. No, Bella’s greatest fear was that he wouldn’t want her too. She was downright terrified that Dominic didn’t want her anymore, and that he what he wanted was for her to just give up and walk away.

And that would kill her, what she was experiencing now was the greatest pain she’d ever known, but the knowledge that Dominic didn’t love her anymore, would be the felling blow for Bella. As Dominic pulled away from her slightly and looked into her eyes, she stared back into his. As he continued to speak, and describe his view of life with out her, Bella found it impossible not to believe him. His beautiful eyes were full of tears, and his lip quivered as he spoke, and despite everything, it broke her heart to see him this way. “Are you sure?” She asked automatically, even if she couldn’t help believing him, she wanted to give him an out, the chance to take it all back. “Dominic, are you sure I’m what you want? Because I love you and I need you with every fiber of my being, but if that’s not what you want, I won’t force you.”

Bella pulled further back from him just slightly, her arms draped loosely around his shoulders. Running her lightly through the hair at the nape of his neck she looked into his face, trying to detect any sign that he was unsure before continuing, “Because I can’t give up on you, on us, now. Unless you want me to. I’m too far-gone, I love you too much to let this destroy us.”

She breathed in deeply, trying to order her thoughts into speech that was at least somewhat comprehensible. “Dominic, you have to want this, because if you don’t, it won’t work. For what it’s worth, I forgive you, for what happened with Kit. You we’re drunk, and you didn’t think, and while it’s not an excuse, it’s the truth, and I forgive you. And I still love you.”

Bella exhaled sharply before continuing, “But it’s going to take some time and effort for me to be able to fully trust you again. I still trust you, to an extent, the same way I trust our other friends. But it’s going to take a bit of time for you to earn back the unconditional trust you’ve always had before.”


She stared at him in silence for a moment, letting him take in her words and consider them fully before finally voicing her question, “So, are you sure this is what you want? Do you want us to work on it, to get back to where we were? Because when I look to my future, all I see is you, you’ve always been the only constant. But if that’s not what you want, if this, if I’m, not what is going to make you happy… Then I’ll walk away.”

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As Dominic tried desperately to assuage her fears Bella relaxed further in his arms. She slowly let out the breath she hadn’t even realized she’d been holding since she’d given him the chance to ask her to let go. As Dominic pulled her in to kiss her she softly closed her eyes. As their lips touched and moved against each other electricity shot through Bella’s body, she loved this. She loved that even after three years of being with him she still felt the fireworks every time he kissed her, Bella would happily spend the rest of her days kissing Dominic. As long as he wanted her, she’d be there.

As they broke apart she smiled lightly up at him. “So long as you’re sure,” she reiterated. “I know I keep saying that but I’m just terrified that you’ll wake up tomorrow, or in a week, and realize that you don’t love me. And that’s why you did what you did. And I couldn’t take that Dominic. I wouldn’t survive. The thought of life without you is the most terrifying thing in the world to me.”

Bella reached up and ran her hand softly down his jaw as she gazed up into his eyes. She loved him, and that was all that mattered. They could survive this, because as cheesy as it sounded, love could conquer all obstacles, even Katherine Yorke, it had to be a cliché for a reason, right? There was still so much Isabella didn’t understand, so much that she probably never would. But despite the fact that her rational self was screaming for her to run away, Bella was staying put, and she was going to fight like hell to ensure that she and Dom made it through all of this and came out stronger for it.

“Okay, so lets just put this behind us, okay?” Bella began. “I’m not saying I want to forget it happened, because it did, and I’m not sure I can forget about it. What I mean is let’s just not talk about it any more, because frankly it doesn’t matter. You can’t change the past, and while it hurt me more than you can possibly ever understand, it doesn’t change how I feel about you. So let’s just put the past in the past, and work on getting back to where we were. Because all I want is to be with you, forever, and its going to take some rebuilding trust wise but we’ll get there eventually. Okay?” Bella rambled on nervously.

As she closed her drawn out speech Bella wrapped her arms back around Dominic’s neck and closed her eyes as she leaned forward to press her lips to his. As she depend the kiss she ran her fingers up through Dominic’s cropped curls and pressed her chest flush against his. As they slowly pulled apart Bella rested her forehead against his and stared into his eyes, “I love you Dominic.”