After many speeches and prayers, everyone was heading over to the cemetery. I tried my best not to cry, I didnt want anyone to pay me any attention and thankfully Marianna wasn’t crying.
“Melissa,” I heard someone whisper as they sat next to me. I jerked my attention to the voice and saw Shawn sitting next to me.
“Shawn!” I said and hugged him.
“How you doing?” he asked.
“I dont know, I mean, I know why AJ would do something like this, but I wish he wouldn’t have,” I said.
“I know, I understand,” he said putting his arm around me. I leaned my head on his shoulder and sighed.
After everyone left the funeral home, I got up and walked up to the casket, with Marianna in my arms.
“I wrote you a letter,” I said, “I know you’ll be able to read it, but I dont know if you’ll want to. I am so sorry this happened Anthony,” I cried and opened the casket slightly and slipped the letter inside.
“Ma’am,” someone said. I turned and looked to see, “Yes?”
“We need to carry the casket out now, everyone is waiting outside,” he said.
“Ok, sorry,” I said and looked back at the casket.
I wiped away a final tear and went back to where Shawn was still sitting.
“I think we should wait a little bit. I dont want anyone to know I was here,” I said.
“We can go out over there,” he said, pointing to another exit.
“Ok,” I nodded and gathered my things and we walked out into the city.
Marianna looked around curiously.
“The apartment’s this way,” I pointed. Shawn and I walked to the apartment.
“Melissa,” I heard from behind us as we were walking inside. I turned around and saw AJ walking up to me. I stopped and just looked at him. I missed him. He looked a mess. His hair was disheveled, his eyes no longer shined, and he had grown a rugged beard. His skin was pale and he looked like he hadn’t slept in days.
I stopped and looked at Shawn who had took Marianna.
“I’ll wait inside,” he whispered and walked inside and shut the door. AJ handed me some flowers.
“Thank you,” I said.
“Melissa, I can’t live without you. I know what I did and I am so sorry, but I had to save you. You know Anthony would have killed you, if he was there with a gun, he was going to get the job done, whether he wanted to or not. You and I both know that, am I right?” he asked. I looked up, the sad thing was it was true. If AJ would’ve waited a few more minutes, Anthony would have killed me.
“I know,” I said, wiping away a tear.
“Baby, go to Florida with me. Let me, you, and Marianna have a life together, where we dont have to worry about anyone splitting us up. Marianna can grow up with a normal life. She can take dance, cheerlead, or whatever girls do and never have to know what it was like to walk down the street and know if she saw a girl she didnt like, that she would end up fighting her or be in a gang or worry about anything like that. I dont want my daughter to go through this,” he said.
“I dont either, but it’s so hard,” I said.
“I know, but we did it once, and we’ll do it again. We were doing fine when we were down there, weren’t we?” he asked. I nodded and smiled.
“So, let’s go down there,” he said.
“Ok, but Im taking all my stuff, so we’ll get a small U-Haul or something and take everything like that. And, this time, we’ll take your mother,” I said smiling.
“Yeah, good idea,” he smiled.
“Come on,” I said motioning for him to come inside.
“So, what’s the verdict?” Shawn asked as he stuck a bottle in Marianna’s mouth.
“We have a new nanny,” I laughed, looking at him.
“Hey, I dont mind,” he said smiling.
I raised my eyebrow, “Sounds good to me.”
“So, back to Florida?” he asked. AJ and I nodded.
“Good,” he said. I was surprised my other brothers or my sister hadn’t stopped by to give me the third degree or try to do something evil to me, but Im not complaining.
The next day and the day after we packed everything up and we left, leaving nothing but a bad memory behind. I was happy to start a new, gang-free life with AJ. Im glad I was able to forgive AJ and move on. I spent the worst and the best years of my life in New York, but I am not upset to leave it all behind. Im going to live a normal life, far away with the people I love and I know they honestly love me too.
Chapter Fifteen
Weak Index
AJ Fanfiction Index
BSB Fanfiction Index
Backstreet Island