Dimitri POV

His first instinct had been to chase Kaliah. He was already tensed to run after her when he thought better of it.

He knew that chasing her when she was overwhelmed and frightened would be a mistake. She would fight him like a trapped animal if he stopped her before she'd had time to calm down.

So instead he walked back into the venue, struggling through the excited crowd that was wondering what was going on. He would have laughed if his heart wasn't stuck in his chest, thundering a painful beat, alive but bleeding for the girl that had been his Sunshine from the day he'd first laid eyes on her.

He hadn't planned it, but when he went back on stage and saw Ronan comforting a near hysterical Sydney on the piano bench, Dimitri found the only way he could reach his runaway bride.

He'd written her a love song many nights ago, long before he'd known that's what it would be.

Dimitri smiled. If he couldn't convince her of his love with Jesse's letter and the papers that signed over the house to her, if he couldn't do it with his words alone in front of thousands of people, there was only one way to reach her.

Dimitri reached for his acoustic guitar that had been propped off to the side of the stage. One nod to his disgruntled manager had him scurrying to bring out a stool for him. Once seated on it, Dimitri began strumming at the strings, tuning them expertly until he had the sound he wanted.

The audience had quieted with the first swipe of his hand down on the strings. He smiled as he looked out into the crowd, seeing obscured faces that were made indistinct due to the dimmed lights. With a deep breath, he spoke honestly for the first time since he'd set off on his path to fame.

"Quite a show, huh?" he teased, tongue-in-cheek. "My wife doesn't find me the most trustworthy of people right now. Can't blame her. For years, I've been lying to her and to myself. That little stunt you saw now? Running off stage? Very dramatic, I know, but I'm the one who ran off first."

Ronan snorted at that and covered it up with a cough.

Dimitri grinned as he continued. "See, I've been living up to an image I thought would be safe and keep my secrets out of the limelight. But the irony is, keeping myself within a shell hasn't been living at all. I've been trying to protect myself and those around me for so long now, I've forgotten what exactly I was protecting them from."

There was utter silence in the room. A roomful to the brim with people and no one so much as cleared their throat. All he could see was the occasional snap of a camera light as pictures and videos were taken of him.

The real Dimitri Hale, vulnerable for the first time in over eight years.

"Kaliah Baker loved me when I thought my own parents could not. She made me feel when I thought I'd closed myself off from all of that. She filled my world with laughter, and sunlight, and dreams that didn't seem so far out of reach because she believed in me."

He heard a few sighs at that.

"And I repaid her by lying. I lied to her, kept some of my darkest secrets from the only person who could have listened to them and not judged me. Because I thought I didn't deserve it." He laughed, the sound cruel and full of contempt. "I was a fool. But I realized my mistake soon after I left her."

He renewed his playing on the guitar, gently plucking at the strings to prolong the notes. "Kallie, wherever you are, don't run. I know you're scared. You feel alone, and that's okay." He paused for breath, trying to steady the sudden thundering of his heart. "I'm scared, too," he whispered. But I'm more terrified of losing you for good. "The truth is I've never loved before you, never known what love could feel like to someone used to living in a breeze. Until you walked in, Kaliah. I love you, and I'm terrified. But I realize I'm more afraid of losing you than I am of laying out my heart. So here's my heart, baby."

The song came easily now that he allowed himself to admit the truth. Now that he had given up pretending to be someone he wasn't. The music flowed from the movement of his fingers, filling the silent room until it was all he could feel, all he could hear.

"I had this silly notion, A dream I couldn't shake from my head..."

In his mind, he saw her face, lovely and open, so that he felt like there was no one else in the world but the two of them. He could believe she heard every word he sang, no matter where she was.

"You swept in like a breeze, and stole the heart I'd so easily ignored."

With his eyes closed to everyone in the audience, Dimitri finished his song to Kaliah. As he finished the final lyric, the crowd erupted in a combination of claps, whistles, and chants for more. But Dimitri shook his head. He'd allowed Kaliah to escape him for too long, and he was going to show her that her home was with him.

No matter how far or how many years they'd been apart. It always came back to the same thing.

Dimitri's heart had always been hers. She would always be his. Together, they were home.

"I'm sorry, but I have a wife to catch." Snickers followed his words, and he smiled back. "Any more songs you'd like to hear will have to come from Ronan and his Sydney."

He had some unfinished business with Kaliah Baker. Mainly, a promise he'd made over eight years ago.

He was coming back for her.

***

"What do you mean, she's gone?!" Dimitri exclaimed as Miss Santillan threw herself into his unsuspecting arms as soon as he walked through the door.

"Don't ask me to spell it out for you, Mr. Hale, for I don't know how to write!" she cried back, her sobs making it harder than usual to understand her through the heavy accent. "The poor girl left me a note in her room and left. She must have been so heartbroken!" She paused to blow her nose into a tissue before she pinned him in place with a ferocious glare. "What did you do to her?"

"Me? I did nothing but tell her I loved her!" Dimitri retorted, trying to ignore the heat that crept up his neck. How was it that his own housekeeper had to take up in Kaliah's defense?

The phone rang suddenly. Miss Santillan ran into the kitchen to answer it, muttering the whole way there. "This is Dimitri Hale's residence. How may I help you?" Amazing how quickly she could go from protective Mama Bear to sweet housekeeper.

Dimitri turned away as she spoke to whoever was on the other line. He was trying his best to remain calm, to try to keep from bolting out the door the way he wanted to. Where would he go? If Kaliah had thought far enough to leave a note behind, she must have had time to think about where she could go. She obviously hadn't wanted to hear him confess his feelings. Probably hadn't believed them. He couldn't blame her, but he wasn't going to just let her go and return to the sad shell he'd found her in.

He was halfway out the kitchen, intent on going to Kaliah's room to see if she'd left anything behind that proved she would be back soon, when the housekeeper's shrill cries froze him in place.

For goodness' sakes, he couldn't take much more tonight! "What is it now, Miss Santillan?" he asked, retracing his steps into the kitchen.

The woman had dropped the phone onto the floor. She was grasping a hand to her chest while heaving sobs shook her small, stout frame. "It is Kaliah, sir," she panted, her voice breaking on his wife's name. "She's been in a terrible accident."

An accident. The words echoed in his head as if from far away. He remembered another time the same words had nearly destroyed him. The last time Kaliah had been in an accident her brother died and she almost hadn't made it. Dimitri felt the same terror he'd felt then, that fear that he had lost his chance because he'd been too afraid to fight for his dream with Kaliah. He couldn't lose her now.

But Miss Santillan wasn't done tearing him apart. "How could you let her go?" she accused in between sobs. "How could you not tell her what she needed to hear? And with the baby on the way, too!"

He blinked as her words sucker punched him in the gut.

"What baby?"

She eyed him incredulously. "The baby you helped make with her?" she told him. "Do you really not know how it all happens?"

He ignored the stupid question. "Kaliah is pregnant?"

"You did not know?" More crying ensued. The woman was going to kill herself from crying so much! "Ay Dios mio! The poor girl! Keeping so much to herself and now she's probably in pain, needing her husband to stop being an idiot!"

Fair enough. Dimtri had proven time and time again that he was every kind of fool where Kaliah was concerned. But pregnant? Kaliah carried his child and he had allowed her to run from him.

He could admit he was an idiot so long as the housekeeper didn't throw her sandal at him.

Right now, all he could do was pray Kaliah would be strong enough to survive. Because if she didn't...

Miss Santillan was never going to forgive him

——
Hello, guys! This is officially the last chapter of this book. The epilogue is coming up. I tried to close it all in nicely but I'm not very good at ending things.

Anyway, thank you for sticking with this story!

Don't forget to vote and comment!
—VIVKELLER23