Leela's apartment a few hours later.

Leela quickly replaced the receiver of the phone she held back on its cradle and walked over to the untouched glass of wine she had poured on her arrival to her apartment. She reached for it but turned away and walked over to her handbag where she took out the small ring box and opened it with trembling fingers. She stared at the impressive diamond ring within.

Her life since that night in Lionel's mother's dressing room had taken turns she knew she was made to travel. Oftentimes she had prayed that she would end up where she wanted to be, but like Pilgrim, her progress was already mapped out by life and she walked a predestined path.

She took the rose gold ring with its square diamond enclosed in small circular diamonds going down halfway on either side of the wideband from the sponge cushion and stared at it.

This was just another path on her journey that she knew deep down was meant to be. She recoiled from having a bitter battle for Emma.
She slipped the ring on her finger and marvelled at the perfect fit.

She stood her frame ramrod, her heart beating as all her emotions wrapped themselves around her and her mind replayed all the circumstances that led her to Lionel and kept leading her to him.

With her hand held before her eyes, her mind locked itself on her true desires. It did not matter if she took the path of a compromise as it would keep her in the life of the man she loved and Emma would not be just a distant figure that she longed for as she watched in the shadows.

Lionel was her destiny. Her return to Dresdale was just the jigsaw puzzle of her life fitting into place. It all was meant to be, her returning to work in the very place that Lionel and Kylie were now owners of was no coincidence. The past had already set the stage for her future performance and it was time she took up her role.

She was Emma's mother but Lionel was her soulmate. There was no fighting the inevitable, this was how her life was meant to be and there was no point in looking into the what-ifs and focusing only on the must-be.

She caressed the ring on her finger just as the phone rang and she turned to look at it her heart beating wildly as the shrill filled the room with an all of a sudden loud piercing, she watched it like a bad omen but pushed all negative thoughts aside and walk over to it but as she made to answer it her doorbell sounded.

She moved away from the phone puzzled and walked over to the door. A curious look through the peephole showed Kylie standing there. Another series of knocks moved her to unlock the door, when she opened it Kylie threw herself against her crying.

In shock and confusion, she looked at the woman who held onto her. Had something happened to Emma or Lionel? She croaked out her query and felt her feet go weak as relief rushed through her when Kylie shook her head negatively.

"Go into the living room," Leela told her closing and locking the door before she followed behind her. "What's the matter Ky? Did something happen in Africa?"

Kylie looked at her with red-rimmed eyes swollen from crying and nodded no. She waited for her to speak and when she did tears started to spill down her cheek again as she sobbed.

"I need you to promise me you'll marry Lionel, that you'll be there for him as he was for me."

She followed Leela's eyes to the ring on her finger. "I failed him as a sister years ago as I failed you as a friend. I became locked away in my bitter world because of my parent's revulsion to my sexuality and all the other drama that came with it.

My mother's scorn of you being the hired help's daughter and bearing a child for Lionel only made me more ashamed of what I was doing yet I did nothing to put a stop to my vengeful designs because this was my whip to wield my punishment.

It only got better when Lionel stood up finally for what he wanted---you and your baby---decided he was going to leave his studies and do right by you and the baby. My father's anger at this stroke and my spite fueled my wretchedness.

Seeing Father and Lionel at odds because he refused to take the course our father had mapped out for him to charter in life brought about turmoil for me because I fashioned both your pain and hurt because he was too concerned with Lionel to defend and soothe my pain.

I thought I had the upper hand but my parents knew how to play just as hard. When Lionel stood up for what he desired they took everything away from us by sending you and your family away.

It filled me with self-loathing. I did everything to hurt myself because I saw how much you were in love with Lionel and I undermined you both by using this to get back at my parents for putting up a resistance to who I truly am.

I wanted them to be cornered by something that would rip their world apart and l saw it in the feelings that were developing between you and Lionel.

I never thought that I would rip my brother's heart out or that I would trample the world of my best friend. I watched as it escalated out of my control and when they took Emma away I lost it.

I became open with my sexuality having the most ruckus of affairs with one of my father's business partners who was running for Congressman's daughter in hopes to still my guilt and shame at being such a selfish person.

I started drugs, but when the numbing effect wore off and reality set in I started abusing myself. The drugs, the alcohol and the wild affairs could not diminish the self-hate that clung to me.

I wanted to blame everything on my parents, I wanted to hide away and not take the blame for sacrificing my best friend to spite my parents."

Emotions were raging on high as disclosures caused Leela to sit in silence.

"You remember when I brought you into Mother's dressing room," she asked looking at her but continued speaking as she knew she did. "I was going to seduce you. I was going to use you to get back at my parents for wanting to send me away like a bad piece of furniture that did not stand up to par in the opulent aesthetic panorama of their life.

However, I could not do it as I loved you dearly so I turned what you and Lionel had boiling inside you for each other into their disadvantage thinking that would be less cruel but sacrificing you was all I ended up doing and destroying so many people's happiness in the end.

I watch Bear turn into you every single day and with that further caused guilt to eat away at me. I started seeing you in every place we went, I started hearing your voice coming from strangers' mouths. You haunted me day and night.

The drugs and alcohol could not drive it away. I lived in hell finding the most run-down of places to reside as I told myself I did not deserve a good life as I took yours away.

I ended up hooking up with a few drug addicts over in West End and thanks to one of them I was taken to the clinic when I deliberately overdosed myself when I heard that my parents' plane crash killed them last year.

Her act saved my life as that was where I met Sammy Destiny an African exchange student nurse who helped me to turn my life around. It was going well until one day I could have sworn I saw a nurse that looked like you and then my anxiety came flooding back.

I thought my punishment had started all over because I found love and happiness with my fiancè and I robbed you of your chance at love and happiness. I asked Destiny to find out if it was you. When I got the confirmation I secretly put together taking over the clinic. I did everything but I just could not tell Lionel that you were here all along. I was still a coward going to all the lengths to right my wrongs but guilt would not let me off so easily and then life started cornering me in ways I saw as more punishment.

My parents had put in place an arranged marriage for me to a dear friend of mine Deacon Ffrench as their way of putting things into the right perspective of how my life should be. I thought with my parents' death I was free of their planned marriage.

I was secretly planning on marrying Destiny and going to Africa when Deacon Ffrench Snr brought this revelation to Lionel a month after our parent's death as Deacon's father was all for it unlike his son, but that's another story.

I must, however, face my punishment for destroying your life but please I want you to marry Lionel and give both him and Emma the one thing I robbed them of, you."

Leela sat quietly and let everything wash over her. She turned to Kylie as she stood to leave but she stopped her and said softly as she held her hand gently.

"I think Ky, I'll accept Lionel's proposal."

There was no use holding grudges.

𖧷𖧷𖧷𖧷𖧷𖧷𖧷𖧷𖧷𖧷𖧷𖧷𖧷𖧷𖧷𖧷𖧷𖧷𖧷𖧷

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