A Beautiful Fate

  ****

  Since many of our guests had come from out of town, we planned to host a goodbye dinner at a restaurant in Laguna. The dinner would be a nice way to say our thanks before our guests left for home. When Ari and I finally did decide to get out of bed, he announced that he was going to take a shower and start to get ready. I decided that, if I needed to be able to function around all of the guests and family members, I should probably get a run in.

  “Ok, Baby, I love you. Remember, you hold my heart in here,” he pointed to my chest, “I can’t live without it, so please be careful and don’t be gone for too long.”

  I swooned and seriously contemplated staying behind and giving up on the run for the day. But I shook my head and tried to focus, knowing a decent run would be the only way to clear the fog from my brain.

  “I love you, too,” I said and stood up on my toes to kiss him. I looked at his lip again. I was fairly certain there would be a scar.

  Ari had spent the week before the wedding moving our clothes over from his parent’s house, so I found my things in the closet. I threw on my favorite Cub’s tee-shirt, one that I have had since I was fourteen, and a pair of running shorts. I found the Nikes that Rory had given me for Christmas and set out for a run, shoving my ear buds into my ears.

  I was stiff and sore from the night before and the lazy morning, but as I ran, I began to loosen up and stretch out. My mind kept wandering back to our wedding and our wedding night. I had a foolish, happy grin stretched across my face. I reached a secluded part of the beach about a mile and a half into my run. I turned around in the sand and began my jog home to Ari. I had music playing loudly in my ears when, out of nowhere, I felt a blinding, radiating pain across the back of my head. My legs gave out, and as I fell I caught a glimpse of Kakos brother No. 6 holding a baseball bat.

  No, no, no, not this. Not now.

  My eyes blinked closed and I succumbed to darkness.