Destiny Keeps Getting in the Way

[Melinda’s Point of View]

I waited patiently for Nathan to show up. Things were looking up for me. I was able to get away without anyone getting shot or hurt. Finally, a car pulled up and the first person I saw was Nathan and he was the first to come out of the car and hug me.

I hugged him back as tightly as I could because I never wanted to let go. I did cry. I was so damn happy to see him again. I pulled away from the hug and kissed him. He kissed me back and I relaxed into his arms. When we were done I noticed that my dad was with him and so I hugged my dad.

“I’m so glad you’re okay, mi niña,” he said.

“I love you, daddy,” I said.

“Melinda,” a voice said and I stopped hugging my dad and saw Peter. He had a smile on his face. “I’m so happy you made it out.”

I looked to Nathan and back to Peter, “Thanks, I’m happy to see you too, Peter Pan.”

My parents didn’t know I wasn’t talking to Peter and how he tried to rape me so I’m going to keep that to myself for the rest of my life.

“Who knew you were that good?” Devlin’s voice froze my body.

What was he doing here? Ugh, Nathan must’ve asked him for help. I didn’t know what was worse to have, Peter my almost rapist or Devlin my black mailer.

“You helped?” I asked.

“Someone had to keep Nathan cool, right?” Devlin smiled so normally that anyone else wouldn’t be able to see his evil side but I knew his evil side.

I forced a smile, “Thanks, I guess.”

“We should go,” Nathan said. “We have to get you to a safe place.”

“What about Juan?” I asked.

“My men are on it,” Nathan said shortly.

My dad sat in the front with Nathan and I sat between Peter and Devlin. I didn’t feel very safe between those two but it beat being with Juan.

My dad started ranting about how the FBI screwed up and he was going to sue the government. I zoned out.

I was just glad to be out.

I was happier that it didn’t have to come down to shooting or anything else. Once at my old home my mom was ecstatic to see me. She hugged me and then told me how the flight was. She didn’t know I had been kidnapped and that was good.

Victor and Manuel knew though, I knew nothing could get past them. When I was settled in Nathan and I were in my old room. I smiled at the memories. This is where he sneaked in once and kissed me.

That was when I was with Jeff.

Nathan sneaked up behind me and kissed my neck.

“I was so worried about you,” he said.

I chuckled, “No need to, see? I got away all by myself. All it took was some flirting and some acting skills.”

“You’re not leaving my sight for a long time,” he said.

“I’m just glad to be home,” I said. “I can’t believe I had to get kidnapped to miss my home.”

“You miss LA?” he asked. “You’ve never mentioned it before.”

I shrugged, “I never really thought about. I was so caught up in work and…” Getting black mailed. “I just miss it here, don’t you?”

“I do enjoy the sun,” Nathan smiled. “But London is my home, too.”

“Um, yeah, and that’s where we’re stuck, aren’t we?” I said.

“Melinda, what are you saying?” he asked.

“That we should visit LA more often,” I lied.

If London was home to him and Los Angeles to me… how are we going to work it out? I want to move back to LA. London was incredible and wonderful experience but its Los Angeles where I belong. I had to find a better time to tell him. I just got back from getting kidnapped for the third time in my life. We needed to get back into the old routine.

We stayed in LA for about three days before leaving back to London. Peter and Devlin were coming back with us and I was clever enough to avoid any alone time with either men. All I wanted was to spend my time with Nathan.

Going back to my apartment in London was now weird. It didn’t feel like before. I wasn’t happy to be here. It is so weird how easily things could change.

Just a few months ago I was so excited about living in London, my ultimate dream and now I was regretting ever coming, well not really. I love that I found Nathan and though it hurt to find out his secret it was all worth it because he was so worth all the pain and suffering.

Nathan promised to take me shopping as soon as I wanted to because I had left a lot of my clothes at the motel. I asked Nathan what happened to Juan and he said not to worry about it… which did make me worry. I just didn’t like how he avoided eye contact when he told me that. I didn’t want the man dead, just rotting in prison.

One day after coming back from work Devlin sneaked up on me. I almost yelled but he told me he needed to talk to me.

“We’re going through with your black mail?” I asked.

He chuckled and told me to let him in. I did so. We sat down on the couches. He didn’t speak for a while. I was getting more and more worried.

“Just tell me what you came to say, Devlin,” I said.

“I’m not going through with the plan,” he said.

My eyes widened, “What?”

“I’ve… noticed something that I don’t want to talk about. You just need to know that you don’t need to sleep with me. I’m not going to hurt Nathan… I’m not going to hurt you.”

“What about the photos?” I asked.

He dug in his jacket and took out an USB and handed it to me.

“Everything is in there, I promise,”

“Why the sudden change of thought?” I asked.

“I’ve got better things to do with my life and you were right, Lucy isn’t worth everything I was doing. Nathan has shown he was sincere about his screw up, have a nice life,” he said and got up.

“Wait, wait, wait… you’re just giving me this and leaving? Just like that?”

He nodded.

“Why doesn’t that feel right?”

“Because you’re paranoid and with the people in your life I’m not surprised that you are,” he smiled at me.

“It’s hard to believe that you went through all this trouble of stalking Nathan and just doing nothing with this,” I lifted the USB.

Devlin chuckled, “I’ve already wasted seven years of my life. I don’t need to waste anymore. Just take this as a break from God, Melinda. You’re getting a free chance to be… free.”

“God hasn’t really done anything easy for me and this is easy… it’s hard to believe,” I said.

Devlin winked and walked out of the door and then opened it again, “Oh, those tulips you got? It was from me.”

Before I could say anything more Devlin closed the door. It took me about a minute to put things together about what he said and so when I did I jumped out of my seat and opened the door.

Peter and I were face to face.

“Hey,” he said.

I backed away from the door.

“What are you doing here?” I asked at once.

“I came… to see you,” he said.

“See me?” I looked around for something to hit him with.

“I’m not here to try to rape you, Melinda… I’m sorry about that.”

“Sorry doesn’t cut it, what do you want?” I asked.

“You forgiveness,” he said.

“You’re forgiven, now go!” I pointed out the door. I still couldn’t find anything to hit him with.

“I’m moving to Italy, Melinda, I truly need your forgiveness.”

I stood there dumbstruck by his words.

“Italy?” I asked.

“I am going to be head chef of a better restaurant there,” he said. “I was already going to come and ask for it but then you got kidnapped… again.”

I narrowed my eyes.

“Sorry, dry humor here,” he chuckled.

“You’re forgiven… for real,” I said.

“I wish we could go back to the old friendship we had,” he sighed.

“Maybe one day, but it’s not today, Peter.”

He nods. “I get it, I hurt you and Nathan.”

“Bye Peter,” I said.

“Bye, Melinda,” Peter said and walked away.