Dearest Noelle,

     Today I went to the bridge. Our bridge. Do you remember the time when you followed me there, my sweet Noelle? You almost got yourself killed then. Your childhood adoration and hero-worship, I realized, was going to be our biggest downfall then. I had found you following me, and you have this habit of running away when you are caught. You were running away and didn't realize when you slipped off the end, but I caught you.

    I'll always catch you. That is, if you want to be caught.

    But now, you don't want to be caught. That's why you liquidated all your assets which your mother had left for you, and are gone somewhere far. Maybe the time we spent apart taught you that you can always save yourself.

    But who's going to save me, Noelle? Please, come back and save me. For only you can catch me.

    Ever yours,

    Aiden

― Aiden Summers to Noelle Montcliff after six weeks of her disappearance.

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    "Mr. Summers? Really, Noelle?" Aiden chuckled, trudging forward to catch hold of her hand. He still couldn't believe it was Noelle. His Noelle. "I should have guessed when Aunt Jane told me about a pretty girl buying this girl―it could only be you."

    Noelle took a step back, her face calm and composed as if it not had been eight years since she had not been here. The indifference on her face, Aiden found, was unnerving and taxing. The man accompanying her stood by her side, faithfully. Aiden rose his eyebrows as the man asked Noelle, "Is he troubling you, miss?"

    "No, Mr. Gerald. He is just an old acquaintance. Why don't you go and start a fire in the house? I'll see you inside." The man nodded, silently following her command like a servant.

    "Where have you been? We've tried so hard to find you but couldn't find any paper trail. The Montcliffs would be so happy to see you back, you should come with me now. Your grandmother-"

    "The Montcliffs I knew are dead, Mr. Summers. Gabriel Montcliff and Lindsie Montcliff."

    "Noelle, I know you are mad-"

    "–Mr. Summers. I–"

    "–Aiden, dammit. I'm Aiden. Always Aiden. Like you are Noelle, Noelle Montcliff. Little Noelle. Sweet Noelle. Clever Noelle."

    "You see, that's where you have got it all wrong. I'm Noelle Frostine now. Thank you for the lovely chat, Mr. Summers. I'll see you and the famous Montcliffs in the society functions. Cherry Hills always seem to be so full of them." Noelle gave him a polite nod.

    Aiden's face blanched, almost as if someone pour over him a bucket of ice-cold water. He took a step back for the sake of self-preservation. She got married? There was always a part of him who always believed that she was his; that she would always adore him, no matter what. He hated that part so much because it was the reason why he had taken her for so granted. "Noelle, I know you are punishing us for what happened eight years ago, but you have to believe-"

    "–are you really saying you don't want to let go off the past, Mr. Summers? Okay, fine." Noelle answered for him, grimly. "After I was ostracized by my family at the age of sixteen for killing... Juliet–"

      Aiden flinched at her words. "I know you didn't kill her, Noelle." he whispered lowly, guilt in his voice.

     Noelle gasped in shock, animatedly. "Oh, but that's not what you said the last time now, was it? You asked me, if I had killed your wife, Aiden. I never expected the mighty Montcliffs to trust me. For them I was always the black sheep, the wild child who could kill her cousin out of jealousy. I never expected them to believe, but you―you knew me, Aiden―for you, I was little Noelle, sweet Noelle, clever Noelle, wasn't I?" She massaged her temples with her fingers, fluttering her eyes closed. "Even you abandoned me." It hurt too much to remember that night. When she had begun her penance for her biggest crime: loving Aiden Summers.

    Maybe she was still paying for that crime.

    Aiden blinked back her tears. "It was a momentary lapse of anger, Noelle. You have to believe I never meant those words. Your grandmother was very upset with Juliet's death. She was her granddaughter. She didn't even realize what was happening around her, and then you confessed to the police about killing Juliet. There was nothing we could do, we tried so hard." He wanted to add that she had also been so stubborn, not letting them reach her, so they could save her; but the only reason was because they were too late. She didn't want to be saved.

    "I'm ready to be acquainted with grandmother once again because I got to know about her deteriorating health. But it will only be formal meetings, which she would be attending like she always does. I don't give a fig about my cousins and aunts and uncles. They are as good as dead to me. And I'm staying in this cottage, as long as I'm in Cherry Hills."

    Aiden felt a lightness from the stones lodged in his chest. She has come back. He threaded his fingers through hers, and kissed her knuckles. She grabbed her hands back, and took a step away from him. "Aiden, you cannot do this now." I have tried so hard to piece back my life, and I will not, I cannot, allow you to render me brittle once again. "You have been my weakness since my childhood, Aiden. I'm not the Noelle you knew. She has been long dead."

   He gave her a smile, "You'll come back, Noelle. You always do."

   "Not this time. I'm already here, and this is who I am." He could read in her eyes: cold, distant.

   "It is an illusion."

   "Then, you choose to live in a world of comforting illusions, Mr. Summers. You and everyone else are deceived by false realities, and I'm glad because it is the only way I can hide my true intentions." Noelle could never lie to Aiden Summers, not even if her life depended on it. But she could always hide the truth.

    "And what are your true intentions, Noe?"

    Noelle struggled to breathe, and turned on her heels so that he was facing her back. He was her Achilles heel, always the gnawing weakness which she couldn't afford in this battle. "You'll know soon." He couldn't see the biting smile on her face, but he could feel it. He didn't like what Noelle had done to herself. Except, it was not her. He had done it to her. Everyone who loved her had done this to her.

    All your fault, Aiden silently berated himself. He was the reason why she had become such a shell. And he was ready for any punishment, anything, to bring back the old Noelle.

    Aiden saw her, stalking towards the door, then entering the house, and slamming the door shut with a loud thud. A chilly wind blew, making Aiden realize how vulnerable he was left, and how impenetrable and hardened she had become.

    The mad scene kept on playing in his mind, as Aiden walked towards the Montcliff Manor morosely.

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    "It is her?" Aiden heard Mrs. Lucinda Montcliff whisper, inhaling a shallow breath. From the vantage point of the manor, they could see Noelle sitting on the wooden swing of the cottage. "I want to meet her, Aiden. I want to hug her, kiss her, and tell her how sorry I am."

    "She has hurt too much, grandmother." He told her, his eyes crinkling as he saw the forlorn woman she has become; so used to the loneliness and darkness around her. "But she has also become stronger, I must say. I could see it in her eyes."

    "Her eyes, Aiden―I always loved her eyes. Are they still green or is she hiding them too?" she asked in wonder.

    "Of course not, Grandmother, only the hair." he traipsed towards the bedside to draw a glass of water, then walked towards the window to give his grandmother the glass.

    "Tell me everything, Aiden. Don't keep anything from me; I may be a little sick but I want to know everything about my granddaughter. Even if there is bitterness."

    "Well, for one, your granddaughter told me she knows you're not keeping good health, and that's why she would be meeting you. Of course, she wouldn't be living here. She is mad at us all, which is understandable but when she talked―there was no temper in her voice. You know, Noelle? She never hid anything from us. But today, she talked with such solemnity and composure, it felt like she was preparing for that moment since years-to become so emotionless that is-in that shell." Aiden sighed. And then came the final part, something which took time to wrap his head around. "She's married to some Frostine now."

    Grandmother gasped, "Frostine? Who is he? When did this happen?"

    "You have to ask her; she introduced herself as Noelle Frostine."

    "I hope he is nice, Noelle deserves something good in life after whatever happened."

    Aiden nodded. Although, he had loved Noelle his entire life, he now understood how it feels when your heart breaks. But no matter how much he felt like strangling Mr. Frostine with his own hands, he couldn't bear to feel it, do this to his Noelle. "The only thing that matters is Noelle is back. She must have a lot of money, she managed to hide herself, and bought the cottage too. From what I have heard there were was quite a battle between Mrs. Grayson and the other buyers." Lucinda said, a hint of smile playing on her lips.

    Aiden felt elated at the sight. She hadn't smiled genuinely in so long. "Could be her husband," Aiden had analyzed it in the earlier years when she was relinquished from the juvie. "But it doesn't sound like Noelle, thriving on her husband's money. She has always been so independent. Maybe she invested the money in her trust by her mother. It was small but quite significant, and she does have great instincts."

    "Well, that, and also because she's my granddaughter. We always get what we want." Lucinda said proudly.

    Who could know that better than Aiden? His first lesson in his disastrous marriage to her elder granddaughter and Noelle's cousin, Juliet. Another mistake along with letting go Noelle.

    Noelle was now on the phone with some person. Aiden's heart constricted-probably the mysterious Mr. Frostine, asking about her whereabouts and declarations of love. He was jealous, he could admit it to himself. He had lost the best thing that ever happened to him, but he couldn't lose another: Noelle's friendship. The way she had called him Mr. Summers in that detached tone of hers; he was so used to her mooning over him.

    And he was sure, he was going to moon over her now, married or not. She looked so lovely. So regal in that red-black outfit and with that stiff posture. He hadn't expected her to be always so maddening and clumsy, he always knew one day she would grow up, and her face had changed too: her cheekbones had become more accentuated, her eyes bigger, and her lips looked... oh-so-kissable. He silently berated himself for lusting over a married woman, as if loving her for these eight long years wasn't enough. But her eyes, it felt as if she had grown too much. The zeal and light seemed to have been ripped off.

    Maybe, maybe it was because of coming back home. Or maybe because she had battled for so long, hurt too much, and lost so much. But he would make sure that she never lost him, no matter what. He wouldn't flirt, wouldn't lust over her for heaven's sake, and definitely not show his love abashedly.

    He saw Noelle hanging up the phone call, then she kept the phone beside her. Then she stood up, and walked towards the fences, and traced her hands on the intricacies of the woodwork. His mind bloomed with their memories of the cottage. They used to read books under the shade of cherry blossom trees, and doze off there itself. Both the Montcliff and Summers households used to be in uproar when they went missing, when they went on expedition in one of their hiding places. It was their secret, something which even Juliet didn't know. If only he had not married Juliet-

    Noelle's sudden movements broke his chain of thoughts, as she went inside the cottage after retrieving her phone. He saw the other man running on an errand now after five minutes. Probably to get dinner, it was growing dark now.

    It was then Lucinda declared with conviction, "We will have a masquerade party tomorrow; you will call on Noelle and ask her to attend personally, dear. The rest of my family can go to the devil, I must see my granddaughter tomorrow."

   It is the only way I can hide my true intentions, her words should've rung then. At least, he could've seen what was coming tomorrow.