"There comes a certain point in life when you have to stop blaming other people for how you feel or the misfortunes in your life. You can't go through life obsessing about what might have been." - Hugh Jackman

Friday, November 19, 2010

Chapter 23 - Heart Over Matter


Wedding Preparations



“It has gone too far Nicole!” Nova told Nicole over the phone. It was a month after the reunion and the wedding preparation began.
“I know, Nova what should I do?” Nicole was so nervous.
“You should’ve thought twice before saying yes,” Nova said. “We’ll I guess your only chance is Lance.”
“How?” Nicole asked. “Oh wait, I think I know the answer. That’s awful!”
“It’s the only thing I know, you should runaway with him,” Nova said.
“Okay, be here tomorrow morning at 9. You should pick up your gown.”
Nova said goodbye as Nicole hang up the phone. She can’t forget the expression Lance had in his face when she said yes to Charles’ wedding proposal. It’s the combination of pain, sadness and lost. Just believe in me, she remembered. But she’s loosing her faith to him, especially now that her wedding day is three days away.


*     *     *


Lance opened the wedding invitation of Charles and Nicole. It was the typical white linen with a blue ribbon. On the list of principal sponsors, he found their high school teachers and some family friends and relatives.
He saw the names of his cousins and some of their classmates. He found the names of his closest friends, but the name that made his heart ache again is Nicole. She is the bride, but he’s not the groom. But just above the name of the groom is the name of the best man – Lance Vallejo.
He doesn’t know what or how to feel about this. Marching on the aisle in the wedding of the girl she loves but not as the groom, but as the best man. This is the most stupid idea Charles, so stupid.
Lance is wondering if Nicole even knows about this thing. He wants to call Nicole right now; in fact he wants to call her for almost three months. He had this hidden desire to know all the things that happened to her.
Everything for him and Nicole was too late now, in the battle field of love he has fallen.


*     *     *


Lance and Greg were eating their dinner. Sandra and Charles went to claim the coat for Charles at the mall. Both of them were silent. Lance doesn’t want to talk to his father while Greg was so ashamed of what he did before, of what he did to Lance.
“Your brother is so excited about his wedding,” Greg broke the silence.
Lance just nodded and Greg realized that maybe he made a mistake talking about the wedding.
“Thank you Lance, thank you for letting go for your brother,” Greg said.
“Don’t thank me Dad, don’t thank me for the things that I regret,” Lance said. It’s the longest sentence Greg heard from him since that awful night.
“You’ll get over it,” Greg said. “Believe me or not, I went into that stage like you. I experienced it.”
“That’s why you want me to experience it just like you,” Lance said with a hint of anger in his voice.
“No, I did what I should do for the sake of this family,
“For the sake of this family again, your family not mine,” Lance stood up and turned his back.
“Don’t you turn your back on me,” Greg said angrily.
“Why should I face a person who turned my world upside down? You said that I owe everything to this family, that you’ve given me everything. But I can’t believe that in the end you will take everything away from me, that you will take Nicole away from me.”
“What are you saying?”
“You said ‘Lance please give the slot for CA to Charles,’ ‘Lance please for Charles, all for him. But what can I do? I don’t belong here. But do you know which part is the hardest? It’s when you asked me to let go of Nicole.”
Greg didn’t answer. He doesn’t know what to say nor if there’s something left to say.
“I know you adopted me because your family left you before, now they’re back and I don’t know why I’m still here. Maybe I don’t have the right to say these things to you, but I just can’t face another day with these things inside me left unspoken.”
Lance went to his room with tears in his eyes leaving Greg in the dinning table.
This is the time when Greg regrets that he didn’t tell Lance before about his past, and Lance’s. Now his past – his and Elena’s – is repeated. His son had let go of his true love just like him.


*     *     *


“You’re done!” Aimee said cheerfully. “You’re so beautiful; you’re like an angel today.”
Nicole smiled at Aimee and looked at herself at the mirror while wearing her wedding gown. She’s so beautiful and you’d be stunned by her beauty, she’s an angel, no a goddess.
This is the day she feared the most, the day of her wedding day, and she had lost her hope. Lance won’t come to rescue me.
“Nicole,” Cheska said. “You don’t have to do this.”
“I have to,” she said. “My Dad will be there, and he is a major stock holder in the Vallejo’s business. My Dad and the Vallejo’s are good friends. I can’t destroy that friendship.”
“You sound like Lance,” Cheska said.
“What do you mean?”
“He broke up with you because his family asked him to, and because he’s afraid that if he doesn’t Charles might suicide or something.”
Nicole smiled at herself, Lance still loves me. But it’s too late. It will not change the fact that she’s not going to marry him.

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