LOVE IN PARIS: Married To My Brother-in-law-Chapter 24: Revelations
Yvette could barely contain her excitement as a bright smile played on her lips . She had just hung up on the phone after talking to Zeke who told her he would be arriving in the evening of the following day .
She couldn’t contain her happiness of getting to see him after a week of being away.
She started humming mindlessly as she moved through the quiet house, her busy hands straightening cushion and dusting shelves.
Mr Lawrence had taken a week off work to tend to her sick grandchild and leaving her with the rare chance of preparing the home herself and also enjoy her quiet time.
As she continued with the chores, she heared the doorbell and ran to answer even though she wasn’t expecting any guests.
She accepted the box and thanked the security man . It was the mail that had arrived.
She place the box on the table and opened it, among the few letters and bills, one envelope stood out bearing a familiar handwriting and she immediately reached for it, her heart leaping as she opened the letter and she smiled upon reading the contents.
She felt her heart fluttering with excitement, she had often wondered what her penpal would really look like, what it would feel like to speak in person after all the years of exchanging letter.
She was finally going to meet the mysterious friend who had shared her fears and dream,who had been with her through letter during the hardest and happiest moment of her life.
She had always imagined what meeting him would be like and now that it was she could barely contain her excitement.
She placed the letter in the drawer of the writing desk with a wide smile and then dashed upstairs to continue her chores.
She moved into the bedroom, gliding her hands over the soft cotton sheets as she smoothened then out. Next , she opened the wardrobe arranging the clothes and making sure everything was neat enough.
As she worked, her hands brushed against an old wooden box she hadn’t noticed at the bottom. Her curiousity got the best of her and she tugged it open to reveal what was inside.
In it sat several stacks of papers, slightly yellowed with time bound together neatly. Curiously, she flipped through the stacks of papers, her brows furrowing in confusion as she realized those weren’t just ordinary papers, they were letters.
And not just any letters, it was something she hadn’t expected to find. Not at the place she found it.
Her heart began to hammer in her chest as she quickly retrieved the recent letters she’d received from her penpal.
Holding one of her penpal letters side by side with the first five letters she’d found, she scanned the familiar words and felt her word tilt as the realization dawned on her.
The handwriting was identical, not just identical but the same handwriting, the same careful strokes, phrases and even the same floral paper.
"No, this can’t be". Yvette mumbled as she sank onto the edge of the bed , her breath catching in her throat as she reached for the other letters in the wooden boxes.
True enough, the letters were those she had supposedly written to her penpal, others were written by him. Those he had sent out but kept a copy of and those he never managed to.
Yvette fanned herself with the letters, gasping for breath. "These letters . . My penpal letters had actually been written by . . By Zeke?".
She sat there stunned, her mind reeling with the revelation she had just uncovered.
A wave of emotions swept over her and she clutched one of the letters to her chest.
"How could I not have known, how could he have hidden this from me for so long?". She muttered, more to herself than a question and then she realized it.
He had known her, loved her long before she could even realize it. For seven years, he had been writing to her , sharing in her private world, thought and feeling, being with her during the highs and lows of her life.
He’s loved her much deeply before she could realize and she eventually couldn’t help the smile tugging at her lips, a mix of amazement and affection flooding her heart. This was indeed was it was to feel cherished and loved.
Years ago, he began to love her but didn’t dare to confess afraid he’ll ruin her relationship with Manuel bit instead protected her, being in the shadow, being her confidant then she realized how lucky she was to have a man like him .
After a while, she stood up and continued arranging the wardrobe placing the letters and wooden box back in it’s place and her heart couldn’t help but skip a beat at the thoughts of tomorrow, of his arrival.
Tomorrow, everything would be so different and yet everything would be the same.
Yvette spent the rest of her day and following afternoon thinking, she moved around the house on tippy toes,her mind buzzing with questions only zeke could answer.
At exactly FIVE - THIRTY, she decide to start preparing dinner to keep her thoughts from running and hopefully by the time she’ll be done, Zeke flight would have landed.
She returned to the living room an hour later , grinning with satisfaction after setting the dishes on the dinning table.
Just as she grabbed the remote to switch the TV to her favourite game show, to pass away time while waiting for his arrival, a breaking news flashed across the screen.
The news anchor appeared on the screen looking as somber as ever as she reported the day’s news.
"We’ve just received the breaking news of a plane crash. Flight 526 en route from City P to our city has reportedly gone down just few minutes before it’s expected landing . . ."
Yvette heart skipped a beat , her smile fading as the remote control slipped out of her hands, crashing onto the floor.
"That was Zeke’s flight . . . No, it can be, this can’t be". She breathed and immediately sat up, her breath catching in her throat.
The news anchor continued to speak but the words blurred together and she couldn’t make anything out of it .
Without thinking, Yvette jumped to her feets bolting out if the door and towards the garage. Her heart thumped erratically in her chest as she desperately wished the news wasn’t true as she sped through the busy streets, the world around her becoming a blur.
The airport was in chaos when she arrived, the terminal was filled with distraught relatives, their face twisted with fears and desperation much like her’s, their cries drowning out any other sounds.
People clenched their phones anxiously waiting for updates, some stood frozen in disbelief, hoping for any scrap of information no matter how small it was , some even started phoning their relatives who were supposed to be on the plane hoping they were delayed and thus weren’t in the plane.
Yvette pushed her way anxiously through the weaves of crowd, her hands trembling and vision blurry from unshed tears that crested her eyes as she scanned the surrounding for any official, for words while clinging onto the hope that there are survivors ,that maybe the plane hadn’t gone down as assumed, just maybe . . .
She had just pushed her way to the front of the crowd when the announcement came. "All passengers onboard flight 526 have been confirmed dead with no single survivors, the rescue team was unable to reach them in time".
The words crashed over her like a tidal wave, her knees buckled and she collapsed onto the cold floor of the terminal, her hands gripping at the cold marble tile as the sobs tore through her chest.
The sounds of her sobs was deafening enough but they were lost in the cacophony of grief that surrounded her.
She cried until there were no more tears left to shed, her body trembling uncontrollably.
"How could this happens . . Oh heavens, why and how . . I had just started to accept him . . To grow to love him .. . To accept him and now he’s gone just like that".
She curled up into a ball on the cold floor, trembling as the grief consumed her , her mind numb and heart shattered.
Hours passed by Ina blur of pain and grief and she wasn’t even sure how long and eventually the crowds around her thinned as families began to leave but she stayed wrapped in her sorrow, to broken to move , unwilling to accept that she’ll never see him again, unwilling to accept that this was reality.
It wasn’t until a female official clad in uniform gently approached her , repeating the earlier announcement that everyone had to leave and that the remains of the victims would be sent to the morgue the following day.
The lady even ushured her outside into a cab promising to send her car over as she wasn’t in the proper state of mind to drive.
