Ghost of a Chance

Chapter 8 Judgment

Drew had found herself in complete darkness. She felt all around her but could find no way out. It was cold where she was. She couldn’t breathe and luckily she realized very quickly that she couldn’t smell either. When she tried pushing she realized that her hands kept going through whatever it was that was holding her in. She pushed up with the rest of her body and found herself sitting in Lezetta LeBlanc’s tomb. She grabbed something underneath her and pulled up. It was a rotted hand. She screamed and that was when she heard him laugh.

“Who’s there?” Drew asked shakily. That was when she saw him.

“Brendan? Oh, thank God it’s you!” She saw him sitting on top of his own tomb and ran to him. His hair was tied back only it was hanging crazily from the sides. He wore a dark purple suit with a lace collar and black tie. She went to embrace him and stopped. His eyes told her that it wasn’t Brendan. His eyes were the craziest eyes she had ever seen.

“Aye, my darlin’?” He laughed again. “Doan ye be afraid o’ me! Ye just come on o’er and give ye o’daddy some lovin’ now!” His Irish was much more dominant than Brendan’s had been. In fact she kept waiting for him to say arrr like a pirate would. She didn’t know how but she knew that she had to find a way to get away from him. He could have been the devil himself for all that she knew.

She slowly started to back away when someone grabbed her arm. “They be callin’ fer me now. You go in my place and I will stay with him.” A young beautiful girl said pointing at a light next to her. She recognized the girl from her painting. Mary Ann.

“Go now, and be quick about it!” She pushed Drew into the light then. She barely heard the two of them; it was like a whisper now. “Danny! What in Haiti’s have ye gone and done now?” She barely heard the hair rising growl that must have come from the man who posed as Brendan. Ah, yes, Danny, the twin. She remembered Brendan telling her about him before.

That was when she saw Liza and Brendan, the real Brendan. Her heart warmed when she saw his eyes. They were always so serious, she smiled. She realized then what they were doing, they were summoning Mary Ann with an Ouija board, and she was answering their call. Dear God! She was a spirit!

Drew reached down and tried to grab the pointer. Of course her hand went right through it. She knew there was a way but how? She suddenly remembered the movie “Ghost” and how Patrick Swayze had to put everything that he had into what he was moving. She would try it. She closed her eyes and pushed as hard as she could with her mind and her soul. Nothing still.

“Move damn it!” She yelled as she tried to grab the pointer again. This time it moved in a circle.

“Yes!” she cried and the pointer went to yes.

“Oh, oops!” She said calming herself down.

She reached down again and this time she was able to take control of the pointer with her hand. “Ok, Drew” she said to herself, “this is serious.”

They watched as the pointer circled the board and then stopped on the H. It circled the board again…E…L…P…M…E.

“Mary Ann!” Brendan yelled.

“Keep your hands on the pointer, Brendan. We have to concentrate.” She said quietly and calmly. “Mary Ann? What is wrong, honey? Why do you need help?”

The pointer circled around and around then touching the letters one by one. Liza had started writing with one hand as she kept the other hand on the pointer. N…O…T…M…A…R…Y…A…N…N…H…E…L…P…M …E. The spirit spelled out.

“If you aren’t Mary Ann, then who are you, dear one?” Liza asked trying to be as polite as possible.

The pointer circled again…D…R… just then the “physical” Drew grabbed up the Ouija board out from under their hands and threw it against the wall.

“Drew?” Brendan stood up and grabbed her shoulders. “You should be lying down. How are you feeling, love?”

Liza didn’t like the look on Drew’s face one bit. Her eyes were lit as if she could rip Liza’s eyes out in a heartbeat.

“Drew, Sweetheart?” Liza said, something was seriously wrong with her friend. “Why don’t you sit down and let me get you a glass of wine.” Liza smiled at her then trying to calm her down.

“What are you two doing playing with that silly thing?” She said trying to calm herself. The girl that spoke to her was obviously her friend, physically anyway. “Have you no idea what trouble you can get yourselves into? Do you not know what kind of spirits you could awaken?”

“Well, Honey,” Liza said calmly taking Drew’s hand and leading her to the couch, “that was the point.”

Drew looked up at Brendan then and as if she hadn’t seen him for years smiled and felt tears well up in her eyes. “My darling!” She said. “How I have missed you!” She flung herself into his arms then and kissed him madly.

Brendan pushed her away from him leaving her with a look of fake hurt on her face. “What is wrong, my love? Don’t you still love me?”

Liza was just standing there with her mouth dropped to the floor. She knew then that Brendan felt that something was wrong as well. She finally came to her senses and gently touched Drew’s arm. “Drew, you have had a crazy night. Why don’t you sit down? Of course Brendan still loves you, honey!” She gave Brendan a look that said “Shut the hell up” then guided Drew to the couch. “You just sit right here while Brendan and I fix you up something to eat. Okay?”

“Mmm. Food does sound delightful, and I am a bit fatigued. Yes, that will be alright I suppose.”

They walked towards the kitchen then. Liza smiling a fake smile and Brendan looking like someone had knocked the wind out of him. They passed through the dining room and as soon as the swinging door of the kitchen was closed he grabbed Liza’s arm.

“What the hell is going on? That is not my Drew! That woman makes me want to wretch.”

“I believe, Sir, that that woman would be Miss Lezetta LeBlanc posing as your Drew. Drew was trying to reach us through the Ouija board just before your doting ex threw it against the wall.”

“For once since she has come back to this house I have feeling and it is the weakness in my knees. I need to sit down.” He said shakily. “If that is Lezetta then where is Drew?”

“I don’t know. Somewhere she shouldn’t be I am afraid. We need to get back to the Ouija board. We left it open. There is no telling what spirits may try coming through.” Liza said trying to think.

“Lezetta came through that thing?” Brendan asked eyes wide now.

“No, I’m afraid Lezetta came in through the front door in Drew’s body. I found her lying on top of her tomb with candles burning around her. The ground shook and the stone cracked open. Lezetta’s spirit must have traded places with Drew’s.”

Brendan jumped up then. “Are you saying that Drew is out there all alone in the cemetery?”

“No, I didn’t say that she was alone.” Liza said walking towards the refrigerator to get Drew/Lezetta something to eat.

“Mary Ann is with her then?” Brendan said a little more reassured. “She will take care of her then while we figure out what to do.”

“Yep. Mary Ann is there t oo, and whoever is buried in your tomb as well.” She said looking worried then. “I heard him laugh, must have been Drew screaming, as I was dragging Drew’s body up to the house.”

“Who would be buried in my place?” Brendan said angrily.

“That is something that we need to figure out quickly.” Liza said. “You take this to the crazy lady in the living room.” Liza said handing Brendan a tray of fruit. “I’ve got something that will take care of her for a little bit.”

Brendan didn’t ask what her plan was. He knew that they had spent too much time away from Lezetta as it was. When he walked back into the living room Drew/Lezetta was standing in front of the mirror with a frown on her brow.

“What is it darling?” Brendan asked.

“Do you really find me attractive?” She asked him staring at herself obviously not too pleased with what she was seeing. “I’m so pale and scrawny. Except for these,” She said squeezing her breasts. “Yes, these will do nicely.”

She turned to face him them. “So, are you falling in love with me, sweetheart?”

“Why don’t you come sit down and eat a little. Liza cut up some fruit for you.”

“Alright then.” She said obeying.

“Why is it that you are so worried about my love for you all of a sudden, woman?” Brendan asked curiously.

“Oh, well, because I love you so much!” She said and reached in to kiss him again. He turned his head. He knew that he should be playing along but the thought of kissing someone besides Drew made him ill, even if it was his Lezetta. Something told him though that the Lezetta that he once thought that he loved wasn’t who he thought she was at all.

“Why do you turn from me, Love?” He saw the tears in her eyes and thought for a moment that they were real tears. He knew that they were not Drew’s though. He couldn’t lie and tell her that he loved her. He couldn’t do that to Drew. It made no sense he knew, but he would know the lie in his heart.

Liza came in just in the nick of time. “I’m so sorry it took so long, Drew. I know how much you love wine and you were out up here so I went down to the wine cellar and found some really old strawberry wine. This shit was bottled in 1850. It is either going to be freaking stout or taste like vinegar. Here you go.” She said handing her a glass off of the tray. She handed one to Brendan as well and then set the tray down on the table. She grabbed one for herself as well then raised her glass for a toast. “Here is to friends, old and new.” She said.

Lezetta looked a little annoyed but drank anyway. She closed her eyes then. “Oh my, that tastes wonderful.” She said smiling. She drank the rest in one big gulp. “Now, Liza, dear,” She said between her teeth. “Could Brendan and I please have some time to…to…what have you given me?” Lezetta realized when her tongue started sticking to the roof of her mouth and her eyes wanted to roll to the back of her head that something was wrong.

“Dear, Grandma Lezetta, just because you are dead doesn’t mean that the magic died with you. I’ve got a few tricks of my own up my sleeve.”

Lezetta didn’t have time to respond. The sleeping potion that Liza had conjured up set in quickly as she had hoped.

Drew’s body went limp and she started to fall forward. Brendan caught her and laid her down on the couch, covering her up with an afghan. When he saw the look that Liza gave him he said, “It’s still Drew’s body. I would like to keep it in tactif you don’t mind. What did you give her? She isn’t dead is she?”

Liza rolled her eyes. “Of course not, can we get back to the Ouija board now? We don’t have much time before the crazy witch wakes up and she will be very angry!”

The look on Brendan and Liza’s face had been priceless when she saw herself get up off the couch and throw the Ouija board across the room. It might have been funny if she hadn’t been floating above them like a dead person. She was expecting to disappear then but she didn’t. They never said their good-byes. That was fine with her. She would rather be stuck there in the house than in that cemetery with that crazy “evil twin” of Brendan’s.

She tried to remember what all Brendan had told her about his brother, about his family. Her thoughts were interrupted though as she watched herself kiss Brendan. She felt a sudden pang of jealousy. It wasn’t her. It wasn’t fair. Who had taken over her body? Lezetta she realized. She had switched places with Lezetta and that evil bitch was making a move on her man.

He pushed her away. Drew no longer felt jealous. She wasn’t even relieved. Instead she was hurt. Why did he push her away? They were calling her Drew so they must not know. Didn’t he love her? She asked him, the Lezetta her asked him, and he wouldn’t reply.

She saw all that she cared to see. She couldn’t stand it anymore. She tried to scream but no one could hear her. She tried to hit Brendan but he couldn’t feel her. He was a ghost too. Why couldn’t he see her?

She floated up the stairs. She didn’t know where she was going she just had to get away without going away. She was wishing one last time that they could hear her. No one moved a muscle in her direction. “Fine!” She said through tears. “, and that is why you don’t fall in love, Drew Taylor. Men are just out to hurt you, dead or alive.”

When she reached the top of the stairs she felt a sudden urge to go inside the room that Brendan had asked her not to go to. She felt guilty for even thinking about it but then she pushed the guilt away quickly though as the need pulled her even more. She tried to turn on the light she just couldn’t do it.

She didn’t understand why Brendan could play the piano and put on a light show but she couldn’t budge a damn thing. She realized though as she looked towards the back of the room that the room wasn’t that big at all and that the light shown from the chandelier above the living room right into the room. It wasn’t really that dark after all.

She walked slowly around the desk and saw him then. He was lying there on the floor. He looked so alive! How could a body lay for one hundred and fifty years without decomposing? She wished that she could feel for a pulse. Maybe she could listen for a heartbeat. She laid her head down on his chest. Yes! She could hear a faint beating. It was very faint but it was there. He wasn’t dead! How was it possible!

“What did they do to you, my love? Who could be so cruel that they would just leave you here all alone?” She wanted to pick him up. She wished that she could hold him in her arms and shake him awake. She couldn’t even pick herself up though she realized. She was nothing but air.

As best as she could she kept her head down on his chest. She pretended for a moment that he was holding her and then all of the beautiful thoughts of a couple’s future came down on her in a torturing rush. She realized that she would never have the privilege of holding his hand and walking through the gardens. She would never meet him at the altar in a gorgeous white wedding gown which she could proudly wear with honesty.

None of these things had ever been important to Drew. She didn’t understand why they were so important to her now. It was a cruel joke! Never wanting, never needing, now her heart bled with it. It cried for it. This whole time his body had lain here waiting for her to find it, to save it with her love. It was just like the damned fairy tales. She had held the key the whole time. Now she was dead. Who was going to save her? Who would save them both?

“Drew?” She heard him calling her. It startled her and when she looked at his face and saw that he was actually a rotting corpse and that she was finally losing her mind for sure. She looked around and saw the light again and was relieved that it wasn’t her imagination. She was afraid to go to it this time though, afraid that it would lead her back to the cemetery. “Drew? Sweetheart, are you there?” He called to her again.

Instead of going through the light she chose to take the stairs. She stood over her own body, wishing there was some way she could just jump into herself. She knew that it was useless though and that even if it did work, she wouldn’t be alone in there.

“Drew?” Brendan asked again, this time through tears. “Damn it! Why isn’t she answering me?” He took his hands off of the pointer then and ran his hands through his hair.

She watched him stand up and pace the room. “Where could she be, Liza? We have to find her! Why isn’t she answering? Are you sure it was her? This bloody thing doesn’t work!”

They must have figured it out somehow! They knew that Drew wasn’t Drew after all. Somehow she heard her own heart pounding though she didn’t know how that was possible.

He was trying to be strong but every second that went by he felt more and more like a child. He was supposed to be the man, the hero, why did he feel so foolish and helpless!

She banged the pointer on the board to get their attention. Liza jumped and Brendan swung around nearly jumping on top of the thing. He grabbed the pointer again shaking.

“Drew?” He said through a tear filled throat. “Please come backto me!”

The pointer spun around and around… W…H…Y? Drew asked.

She heard the breath come out of him like a tornado across the Kansas plains. Liza laughed through tears as well. “Oh, Drew! This is no time to be stubborn.” She said.

She watched as Brendan wiped the tears from his face and gathered himself. He looked around the room. “Please look into my eyes if you can. Because I love you! Because I have loved you since the first moment you talked back to me when I told you to get out of my house! I waited my whole life for someone like you and then I waited one hundred and fifty years beyond that! I love you! I want to spend eternity with you. I don’t know if it is possible for us or not but I know that I feel when I am with you. I was alive when I was with you. I can’t live or be dead without you!” He chuckled at that.

“Like I said,” He said seriously again. “I don’t know if it is possible for us or not but as long as I am here, for as long as I can be with you, that is where I want to be, with you and only with you.”

They heard Drew’s body stirring on the couch and knew that they had to hurry.

“Drew?” Liza said. “I’m sorry to break your sweetheart’s ballad here but we have to hurry the hell up. You have to tell me what you can while you can. We can’t save you if we don’t know what is going on.”

Drew reached for the pointer again. She felt the tears falling but knew that no one would see them. He loved her. He really, really loved her, and his love for her was bringing him life. She could see it in his eyes and she could see it in his flesh.

The pointer circled…

T…H…E…C…E…M…E…T…E…R…Y…

“What about the cemetery, Drew? Is that where you are?”

W…A…S she responded.

H…E…R…E…N…O…W

“Of course you are, Sweety.” Liza said. “Who is at the cemetery?”

M…A…R…Y…A…N…N there was a long pause. Drew didn’t know how to tell Brendan that it must be his brother that was buried in his tomb.

T…W…I…N…E…V…I…L

“Twinevil? Who is Twinevil?” Liza asked Brendan.

Brendan shook his head. “I couldn’t say.”

The pointer pointed to NO on the Ouija board. Drew’s body stirred again and Lezetta tried to open her eyes.

E…V…I…L Drew pounded on the board then to let them know that she was done with that word.

“Evil?” Brendan asked.

YES Drew pointed. T…W…I…N

Brendan’s hand flew to his mouth then. Drew felt something tugging on her. She knew that if she didn’t leave soon someone else could come through. She had been there long enough. She had to leave.

S…A…Y Drew Spelled out then pointed at GOODBYE on the board.

“No!” Brendan screamed. “You can’t leave. You can’t go back there.”

Liza took his hand then. “We have to say good -bye, Brendan. She is right. We have to close the connection or someone else could get in. Someone not so nice.”

“Let them come in then!” He yelled. “I can’t let you go back there!” Just then he felt her hands on his cheeks and then her lips on his. He sighed. He wanted that feeling forever.

She pulled away and tapped on the board again. P…L…E…A…S…E

Brendan didn’t care how m uch of a man he was supposed to be then. He couldn’t stop the tears. S…A…Y GOODBYE Drew wrote again.

“NO!” Brendan yelled. He couldn’t bear to let her go back. He was afraid that he would never get her back again. Just then Lezetta awoke. She sat up quickly then rubbed her head. “What is going on here? You poisoned me you bitch!” She said pointing at Liza.

Lezetta tried to stand but the potion was still in her blood and she couldn’t feel her legs. Liza heard the Ouija board knocking again and looked down. T…K…O Drew spelled out. Liza smiled, said “Good-bye, Drew, we will see you soon.” And grabbed the Ouija board and smashed it over Lezetta’s head.

“NO!” Brendan screamed. “What have ye done?”

“Listen to me, Brendan, very carefully. We have t o get Drew’s body back to the cemetery. Drew was trying to protect us or she wouldn’t have told us to say good-bye, someone else must have been trying to get in.”

“Crazy woman! You just sent yer best friend out in to a world of nothing! Do you have any clue as to what she may be going through right now? We may never see her again!” He was frantic. He didn’t remember feeling this sick when Lezetta was killed. He felt emptier than he had ever felt his whole life and in the one hundred and fifty years that he had been dead, alone.

“Brendan, what did you want, huh, for her to stay in limbo with you? What kind of life could that be for either one of you?” Liza said taking his hand.

Brendan stood up then and paced the floor. “I can never have a life again. I had my chance and it’s too late for me.” He sighed then and ran his hands through his long hair. “I love her. So much it hurts but I don’t want her life to end now. She is young and beautiful and even though we may never be able to be together, she still has a chance to feel love like she has never allowed herself before. Don’t you understand how special that is? We have to get her back somehow. When we do, I will disappear forever. She has to be able to make a life for herself.”

Liza smiled u p at him. “Ok. That is all very sweet and fine but have you seen yourself lately? I don’t imagine that you are going to be disappearing anywhere. Haven’t you wondered why all of a sudden you are so human like?”

Brendan looked at his hands then. He walked over to where Drew’s body lay unconscious on the couch and put his hand against her cheek. “This is where I belong in another life. Why would God be so cruel as to show me now what could have been the best thing for me? Why would he wait until it was too late?”

“You aren’t listening to me.” Liza said softly, watching him made her want to cry. He was so strong, yet so frail under Drew’s spell. “Brendan, before Lezetta died she left a curse on you, on this house. The “sisters” were supposed to makesure that the curse was never broken.”

Brendan looked up at her. “Explain, woman!”

“Well, when you and your sister came here you gave her what she had been searching for. She finally found a way to be someone. She was tired of pinching pennies and working for you was just the start. She had side jobs telling people’s fortunes and helping people fall in love supposedly, but the real money was in making a man of wealth fall in love with her and then marrying her.” Liza watched as Brendan’s face grew red with anger.

“I loved that woman! I would have given her anything in the world. How could she have used me so?” He said pacing back and forth now.

“I don’t know, Brendan. After you died it’s said that she gathered the sisters in a secret meeting. She told them of the curse that she had put on your soul and this house. She is the reason that your spirit can’t leave this house, Brendan. It was nothing that you did.”

“Why? Why would she wish that misery upon me?” “I don’t know. The reasoning was never said.” Liza felt terrible. She didn’t like being the bearer of bad news after one hundred and fifty years. It wasn’t fair. It wasn’t her fault that her great-great-great grandmother had been a crazy witch. It wasn’t her fault that it was in her blood and that she had taken an oath when she was too young to know the difference.

She had known though the day that Drew stood up for her that they had been tied together somehow. She hadn’t had a clue about the rest of the story until her grandmother had called her mother recently.

“What is the answer?” Brendan screamed at her. “How is this curse of Lezetta’s broken?”

“You have to love and be loved in return, full heartedly, no fears, no uncertainties. Lezetta believed that it would be impossible with you being “dead” and all. She even killed your only family member that you had left, Mary Ann, so that there wouldn’t be any cracks in the system. Every curse is just like a promise though. If one is made there has to be a way to break it eventually.”

“ Promises should never be broken, Liza. Why else would they be a promise? Why bond yourself if you have no intentions of holding to it?”

“I agree to a point. I made a promise when I was 13 years old and thought that I knew everything to always uphold to the laws of the sisterhood and to stand by them as if they were my only family. I broke that promise the night that I put that flyer on Drew’s door. I knew that she would be perfect for you, before I even met you.

She has a way about her that I’ve neve r seen with anyone else. She isn’t afraid of anything in the world except herself, and men, living ones anyway. She has been through hell and back and the worst I hoped would happen was that she would get frightened and leave. My Nana knew what would happen though. She saw it somehow a very long time ago and never told anyone. My grandmother has a very special gift you see. She envisions things. Not just anything but special things.”

“Why is it that your family would break this bond to Lezetta? Whyshould I even trust you?” Brendan asked her feeling skeptical about the whole situation now.

“You should trust me because Drew saved me once a long time ago and I owe her for that. She has been my very best friend for a very long time and nothing will ever change that. I would do anything in the world for her as long as it was in my power.”

“You didn’t say why it is that your family has broken their bond with the witch.” Brendan was standing near the broken window now. He wished so badly that he could be with Drew. He needed to feel her in his arms. He needed her to speak to him and to let him know that she was ok.

“Lezetta had more power than she was ever worthy of. The original intention of every witch is good. No magic should ever be used to hurt anyone. Lezetta went too far when she sentenced you to an eternity in solitary confinement. The bond to the sisterhood isn’t nearly as important as the fact that we believe in decency and kindness. The so called sisterhood evidently forgot that back then or they didn’t realize what exactly Lezetta had talked them into.”

Brendan believed that he could trust her. She was either a very honest and loving person or she was a very good actor. Either way, he had no idea what to do so really he had no other choice but to believe her.

“What happens to me when I fall in love and am loved in return, Liza? Do I earn the privilege of moving on to heaven or hell, and why is my sister still here? She should have moved on before I was murdered!”

“I don’t know about your sister, Brendan. I don’t understand why she is still here unless Lezetta wasn’t her true killer. If that is the case then she probably stayed behind to set the record straight.”

“And Lezetta? Why is it that she would need to be staying behind? She got everything she wanted did she not?”

“You ask questions of me Brendan that I have no answers to. I don’t know all of the ways of the spirit world and up until now I really had no desire to know.”

“Then how in hell do you suppose we get Drew back? Have ye no idea about that either?” Brendan said, his Irish fading in and out again.

“I know that we need to get Drew’s body back to the grave where Lezetta traded places with her soul. Drew needs to get back into her body as soon as possible. I also know that I can’t carry her by myself and I need you to help me.

So, what is it Brendan? Do you love her or do you love her not?” Liza asked calmly. She knew that they needed to hurry but Brendan was the type of man that obviously needed to know all of the answers before making any major moves. Any other time she would have respected that but right now there wasn’t much time for all of the answers.

“Of course I love her, damn it!” He said walking back to Drew’s body now. He picked her up off of the couch then and carried her in his strong arms. “It does me no bloody good though if she doesn’t love me back. I tried to follow her before remember? I ended up right back in that bloody, God forsaken room upstairs.”

“Yes, this is true, but look at yourself, y ou are visible again Brendan. I think that Drew was just confused about her feelings. Maybe by now she has decided that she does love you. Maybe she just needed to hear you say it yourself first! We won’t know unless we try!”

“No, it’s a bad idea. Wha t if I walk out of this house with her and I am sent to the top floor and she is dropped to the ground? We have abused her poor body enough don’t you think?” Brendan said staring down at Drew’s bruised head where Liza had clocked her with the Ouija board.

“You are just afraid of finding out that she doesn’t love you. What if she does? Are you willing to let Lezetta live in her place? Brendan, I can’t do this without you!”

“What if she does love me, Liza, and then I am sent away without her?”

“I see. S o, this is all about you now. You are afraid to be alone again. Maybe you weren’t worth breaking the sisterhood bond after all. Give her to me, Brendan. I will drag her there myself if I have to!” Liza opened the door and held out her arms to him.

“’Tis not that! Blast it, woman! I don’t want to leave her here alone!” He said angrily. “You have no idea what it is like to roam these halls alone for so long! I can’t let her go through what I went through even if it is for half the time that I had to bear. I would spend another hundred and fifty years alone or burning in hell for that matter if it meant that she would be safe and happy!”

“Then you need to take all of that energy, all of that love, and please help me take her to the cemetery. I know that you can do it, Brendan. You have to at least try! If she loves you then the curse is broken. You will no longer be trapped inside of this Godforsaken house and no matter where you go you can at least go there knowing that you saved a life! That hasto account for something don’t you think, and wouldn’t you rather go away knowing that she has a chance for a life with someone than to stay in this house another one hundred and fifty years knowing that you could have saved her?

You haven’t been in hell, Brendan. You haven’t been in purgatory waiting for God’s judgment day. You have been waiting for Drew’s judgment. She had to decide if she really loved you or not. I think that we both know what she decided. I think that she has judged you as the man of her dreams, as the man that she chooses to spend the rest of her living life with.”

Brendan closed his eyes and held on as tight to Drew as he could without hurting her. He took in a deep breath and took a step towards the door.