This is my first chapter told from Dimitri's point of view, so you'll get to see a little bit from his perspective! It's a little treat before the plot really gets going (hehe). Thank you so much for giving this story a chance! I'm so happy I've passed the 100 view mark! 

Enjoy the chapter and please leave comments or "stars" if you like the book so far!

-VIVKELLER23

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Dimitri's POV

He could have wrung Sydney's neck! She'd followed him to Reignville, to Kaliah, despite all of his best efforts to keep this side of his life protected from the public. Eight years; he'd suffered through eight long years wanting nothing more than to come back home to where all his dreams had seemed possible. To where Kaliah had made him believe he could touch the sky if he wished to.

She thought he'd accomplished everything he'd ever wanted away from her? He could have laughed at the ridiculous notion. He'd discovered early on in his career that there was no way he could write a song from his soul if his soul ached for those he'd left behind. All the publicity, money, and devoted fans in the world couldn't change the fact that he knew he was a failure with mediocre music. He hadn't needed to hear it from Kaliah to understand that, but her words had pricked his pride.

Recently his concerts had consisted of only half of his original songs. The other half of the songs he performed had been covers he sang because they were familiar and safe. Sure, the crowd loved whatever he offered, but he didn't love it anymore.

Ridiculous feeling to have when everyone else thought he was on top of the world.

Dimitri shook his head, thinking back to the events that had finally brought him back. He'd been on his way to a talk show interview when he'd decided to call Jesse Baker. Jesse had been the first to let him know that Kaliah was too good, too pure, too special for him. Not that Dimitri hadn't already guessed that himself. Dimitri hadn't exactly made the best decisions in school or out of it. In fact, Kaliah had been a little intimidated by him the first few times she'd been exposed to his presence. But Kaliah had been intrigued. That curiosity of hers had been what ultimately brought them together.

He still smiled everytime he remembered his first glimpse of her. She'd been a freshman sneaking into the music building's hall. He'd thought she was cute even from a distance with that wild mane of sunkissed curls and those big honey toned eyes. Kaliah had reminded him of a ray of sunshine even before he'd learned her name.

He'd called Jesse to ask him about Kaliah. Dimitri hadn't ever stopped wondering about her. Who made her smile now that he wasn't there? Was she missing him the way she'd promised she would? Did she sing to another the way she'd sang for him? Was she happy? Did she still dream? Would she be able to forgive him when she realized he hadn't meant to return?

Had she loved him after all?

But Jesse hadn't answered. So Dimitri had phoned Sara, the woman Jesse had listed as his emergency contact if he failed to answer for one reason or another. And Sara had informed him through her sobs that Jesse had been in a wreck.

"What about Kaliah?"

"They don't know if she'll make it."

Those words had been all he'd needed to snap him out of the haze he'd been in. He'd ordered his driver to rush him to the airport and cancel his interview. That had been over a week and a half ago.

Kaliah had proved to everyone she still had fight left in her.

And she still had that little spark of quick wit that never failed to amuse him. She hadn't learned to curb her tongue in the eight years he'd been absent. Her almost brutal honesty was part of who she was. He wouldn't want her any other way.

Sydney hated Kaliah. Almost from the moment she'd laid eyes on her. Of course, Sydney hadn't planned on finding Kaliah in his arms with her mouth a breath away from his own. He hadn't planned on it either, but he wouldn't have stopped himself from kissing her if he hadn't been interrupted. She'd felt just right in his arms. And her inexperienced response to his nearness had been so unlike the calculated advances Sydney had always used to entice him. He'd wanted her mouth like he'd never wanted anything before.

Darned Sydney! Dimitri thought, chuckling at just how much that thought sounded like Ronan.

Then a more sobering thought came over him. What would he do now that Sydney knew about his life in Reignville? He knew trying to keep Sydney from spilling the information she'd gathered would be like trying to stop a tsunami by wading out to meet the massive wave. You couldn't stop it.

So what did he do? Kaliah wouldn't want to be at the center of every tabloid and front page magazine story with everyone watching the way she walked, breathed, talked. And she didn't deserve to be harassed after the ordeal she'd survived. She wouldn't want the world to know of her past connection to him. She wouldn't want to be hounded by questions about how she'd met Dimitri, how she'd felt when he'd achieved his fame, how she'd managed to get him to marry after all this time. And she wouldn't have the answers, because he wasn't even sure he had them.

If there was one thing Dimitri had envied Kaliah, it was her privacy. She hadn't needed to worry about keeping up an image. She hadn't had to struggle to keep as much of her private life hidden from the public eye as possible. He had. What he'd shared with Kaliah while in high school had been special, a memory that belonged to them alone and the few friends who'd cared to spend their time with them. He'd kept his past as vague as possible to keep the precious moments something to treasure when he was alone. The public had a way of distorting the truth so far from the facts that you had trouble knowing what was real anymore. He'd made sure that couldn't happen where Kaliah was concerned.

But he'd always known he couldn't hide the most important part of his life forever. If it hadn't been Sydney, it would have been someone else.

That did not mean he wasn't furious at the woman for following him. She'd raged and spit the entire time he'd had her wait in the living room for the taxi. She'd told him he'd be sorry. She'd said she'd make him regret putting her aside for as long as he could remember. He cursed his own stupidity now that he could think back clearly to his one lapse in judgement.

He'd met Sydney Heard the moment he'd walked into Mast Studio Records and asked to audition. She'd just been signed to the label herself after leaving her girl group due to rising tensions. She'd taken one look at him and decided she wanted him. He'd smirked and told her he wasn't interested. She'd slapped him.

Dimitri had performed for the label and been offered a conditional acceptance, so long as he followed in Sydney's shadow for the first few weeks while he was introduced to the public. In hindsight, Sydney had probably arranged for that so they would have to be seen together. But he'd been a young fool, fresh out of high school. He'd been photographed with Sydney glued to his side from the first night he'd gone out to open a show for her. The public had seen the pictures and surmised that the two were an item. They'd figured Sydney had known of Dimitri for years and just recently decided to share him. He'd gone along because he'd known in his heart the truth; that the person who'd believed in him and been willing to sacrifice everything for him had been the one girl he'd betrayed.

His moment of weakness came when he stepped into his first celebrity party. He'd gotten off the phone from talking to Jesse only twenty minutes before. Jesse had told him that he needed to stop calling to ask about Kaliah. That Kaliah was well over him. That Kaliah was seeing a college guy who wasn't going to go anywhere to chase a silly dream.

Jealousy had driven him mad. He'd had too much to drink, and he was hurting instead of having the time of his life. It didn't matter that Jesse hadn't been able to give him a name for the faceless man who was taking Kaliah from him. It hadn't mattered that Jesse had seen the photos of Dimitri and Sydney, too, and guessed the worst. What mattered was that on that night, Dimitri had let himself seek a few minutes of comfort in Sydney's bed, all because he couldn't have the one girl he'd truly wanted.

Sydney had been a thorn in his side ever since; a thorn who refused to be removed no matter how many times he'd told her that night had been a mistake he'd regret for the rest of his life.

Kaliah hadn't moved on with a college guy. Jesse admitted to his own deception two days later. The lie had been another misguided attempt on his part to protect his sister from more heartbreak. And for that lie, Dimitri had betrayed his devotion for Kaliah.

Dimitri laughed coldly at his own foolishness. To think he'd tried to ignore Sydney's presence under the same roof he now shared with Kaliah, to try to persuade his reluctant wife to go to bed with him. Kaliah had very nearly broken his toe when she slammed her bedroom door in his face. Sydney had tried without shame to get him to share a room with her. He'd refused with a disgusted taste in his mouth. That he could have been blind and deaf to her desperate manipulations even while stinking drunk didn't bode well with him. Sydney didn't even care that he was married. All she wanted was to finally get to claim him before she grew bored and found some other fool to throw herself at.

For someone like Sydney, the chase was the fun part. After she realized she had someone in the palm of her hand, she grew restless. Since Dimitri had made it clear he didn't want her despite his one night in her embrace, he remained a challenge that interested her very much.

Dimitri straightened from the leather armchair he'd been brooding in to glance out the window of Jesse's room. Kaliah was outside in her old tree house, her hand running over the worn wood. From this safe distance, he could admire her face freely. She didn't know she was being watched so there was no reason for that guarded mask she constantly wore around him. This was Kaliah in her home, where she felt safe to let go of all pretense.

She still had that angelic face that caught your attention, not because it was overtly sensual or beautiful. It stopped you in your tracks because it was honest, lovely, and warm like the sun. She had the most expressive golden eyes, like honey. Those eyes of hers added an innocence to her face that he hadn't seen in the eight years he'd been away. They couldn't hide a thing. When she smiled through her pain, her eyes betrayed just how vulnerable she was. Those eyes had made Kaliah the worst liar he'd ever met. Those eyes had haunted him every time he went to sleep.

She hadn't learned yet how to shutter them, and for that he was eternally grateful.

Her full lips were curved into a gentle smile. How he'd love to be the reason she smiled like that, earnestly and with so much pleasure. She'd smiled to him like that so long ago and he'd not appreciated them when he should have. It must have been hard for someone like Kaliah to smile through the loss of both her parents, but she'd managed to. He imagined she'd also managed to smile at times while he'd been traveling from one show to another. It had taken losing those lovely smiles for Dimitri to realize how much he needed to see them. How much he wanted to make sure she always smiled and felt joy.

It would take him the rest of their lives to make up for the way he'd abandoned her. Kaliah was under the impression that Dimitri would leave when the two years were up. That she'd only have to suffer through two years before he'd be out of her life for good. He had no intention of leaving this time. He'd heard Kaliah's soft playing in the early morning, before Sydney had interrupted her, and he'd found she still possessed the natural ability to move an audience with her music and lyrics. She'd never understood why he'd been so mesmerized every time she opened her mouth to sing, and he hadn't completely grasped it either, but something about her made him stop to listen. Held him prisoner while she poured herself into the words she sang. Kaliah hadn't buried that gift of hers, she simply hid it behind indifference.

Someone whacked him on the back of his head, effectively snapping him back to the present. Dimitri blinked as his eyes focused on Ronan and his obnoxious grin. "What was that for?"

How did a man of Ronan's build manage to sneak into his room without so much as a thud of his booted feet?

"I asked if you wanted to go out grocery shopping and you weren't listening." Ronan looked offended at the mere thought of being ignored. "Is that anyway to treat a friend you practically abandoned for years?"

"No. I'm sorry." Dimitri rubbed the back of his head as he straightened away from the window. He winced. Had Ronan meant to get his attention or bash his skull in? "Where'd you want to go?"

Ronan shrugged. "Kaliah said the Farmer's Market is open today."

Dimitri nodded by way of a response and followed Ronan out the bedroom door, making sure to grab his baseball cap and sunglasses on the way out.

Two years, Kaliah kept mentioning.

Dimitri had two years to prove to Kaliah they were still good together. Two years to gain her trust once more and convince her to open her heart to him. Two years to show his reluctant wife they were meant for one another and that their marriage was one that would last if they wanted it to.

Cause God knew he wanted his marriage to Kaliah to last until the day he drew his last breath on earth.

***

They were out grocery shopping in Reignville's Farmers' Market. Since Kaliah and Ronan weren't 'superstars' (Kaliah's wording, not his) with a big fan base, they were free to roam the streets without drawing attention to themselves. Dimitri was stuck sitting behind the wheel of Ronan's old Jeep Wrangler with his collar turned up and sunglasses shading his eyes from anyone happening to glance his way.

But he could still see them as they chatted and tossed potatoes at each other.

Ronan and Kaliah had been inseparable from the instant she'd seen him stride into the courthouse. Dimitri had only himself to blame for that. He'd been the one with the bright idea to ask Ronan to be present at the wedding ceremony. He should have realized his friend wasn't one to forget the first girl he'd developed feelings for. A guy like Ronan gave all of himself when he fell for a girl. He'd fallen for Kaliah years ago, and hadn't quite gotten over her.

If Ronan had been anyone else, Dimitri might have succeeded in hating his friend. But Ronan was the purest guy he knew. So no matter how hard Dimitri had wanted to loathe the times Ronan got a little too close to Kaliah, he couldn't. Kaliah had only ever seen Ronan as a friend in the past, she'd been so taken with Dimitri, that she hadn't been tempted to try to go out with Ronan. And no matter how strongly Ronan felt about Kaliah, he'd never trespassed on the girl his best friend had all but claimed as his girl.

That didn't mean there hadn't been tension between them. They'd just never let it tear them apart.

Looking at Ronan whisper something ridiculous into Kaliah's ear to make her laugh, Dimitri didn't feel so sure anymore. When he'd walked out of Kaliah's life, he'd also cut all communication with Ronan. He'd done so believing Ronan would finally try to make his move on Kaliah and succeed. He'd thought it would be better not to complicate things by staying in touch with Ronan if Ronan really wanted to be with Kaliah. Dimitri had figured he was noble for distancing himself so that if anyone was going to take his place in Kaliah's life, it would be Ronan who would love her.

Ronan hadn't stayed after graduation, though. He'd taken off to Monterey Bay to study Marine Biology despite his being afraid of anything with fins. Honestly, Ronan was a puzzle to try to understand sometimes.

Dimitri watched his friend take the bountiful basket Kaliah struggled to carry. Ronan was always the gentleman. "Just don't get too friendly," Dimitri muttered, feeling the familiar green-eyed monster that was jealousy creep over him. This time Kaliah wasn't just the girl Dimitri had set his sights on. No, this time, Kaliah was his wife, and Ronan would do well not to forget it.

Kaliah glanced towards him, narrowing her eyes when she caught Dimitri staring at her. She probably would have given him the finger if she hadn't been so against cursing in general. Instead she gave him a smirk that had him bracing himself in the driver's seat as Kaliah turned her attention back to Ronan. She whispered something and raised herself on her tiptoes to plant a sound kiss on Ronan's right cheek.

Why, the little tease! She'd done that purposely, knowing Dimitri was watching. And Ronan looked as if she'd given him more than just a peck on the cheek! Was this her way of getting back at him for Sydney's unexpected visit? He wanted to get out of the car and shake her. That would give Reignville's residents something to talk about for weeks!

Be rational, Hale, the calmer, sane part of him warned. Sydney hadn't even made it back to Hollywood yet to spill her guts to the press. He didn't want to speed up the inevitable.

Kaliah tucked a strand of her white-gold hair behind her ear, all eyes on Ronan.

Yeah, right. Dimitri didn't get out of the car and cause a scene like he wanted to. He did the next best thing. He slammed his fist down on the car horn and startled Ronan into dropping his basket of vegetables. Kaliah had to busy herself collecting the potatoes and cucumbers that rolled to the ground, so she was too distracted to flirt with Ronan. And Dimitri got to enjoy watching the two of them apologize and pay for the items even though some of them were too bruised now to make much of a meal.

Sure, he'd have to pay for their lunch now, but at least Kaliah wasn't smirking like a satisfied cat. Dimitri felt it was a small price to pay for having the last laugh.