Okay so though you're all free to imagine the characters in whichever way you want, I thought I'd just post a few pictures to let you know how I imagine them.

Oh and the following collages are made by FiaMayim ❤❤❤❤
Please imagine the necessary changes of some minor features since not everything is represented perfectly in the pictures. But these are the closest one's to the picture I have in my mind.

Mathew:
. He's 30 now (April 2016) and he was 25 when the accident happened ( 31st December 2010)
. He has auburn brown hair and deep blue eyes.
. His height is 6'2

Emma:
. She's 28 now (April 2016) and was 23 at the time of the accident (31st December 2010)
. She has jet black hair (NATURALLY) and doe brown eyes.
. Her height is 5'7

So there we have it, I hope this helped. ^_^
Though like I said, you're all free to imagine all the characters in whichever way you want!

___________________________________________

Voicemail of 3rd April' 2015
09:32 p.m.

"Good evening, beautiful.

"It is a rather fine evening today, isn't it, love? The stars are shining; the moon is bathing in all its full glory; the people of Lincoln are walking down the streets in their personal bliss... A bonnie evening, yes,"

He sighed, and so did I. The voicemails, the continuous nerve-racking and earth shattering revelations, and just the whole matter in general had drained me of energy. I felt so tired, as if I had aged decades in mere hours.

Lowering my head a bit in silent defeat, I sighed again.

"I have to admit though, love. Richard and Amentia made a good decision by sending you here, in Lincoln. It is a rather alluring small city with all its old buildings and greenery. Hmm, it's very peaceful here."

Slowly, somewhere in the back of my mind, something began to bug me; something about Mathew's tone and his choice of subject for conversation.

"I can imagine myself getting old here, you know."

The scraping at my mind's walls became more persistent. What's wrong?

I inched the phone away from my ear and pinched my eyebrows in frustration. My gaze fell on the lit screen, on the date of the voicemail and suddenly it all clicked in.

"I'll buy a small, red-brick cottage and open a music store. It'll be fun and content, I think - A simple way of life in a simple city."

He was in Lincoln, the city of my current residence. He had come to Lincoln to find me; he told me that in his voicemail from the day before this one. He had come all the way from London to here, for me, and he was talking and babbling about everything but me.

My insides began to churn again. Dread seeped in my veins, circulated around the rest of my body and then settled as a heavy feeling in the pit of stomach.

What horrible thing has happened now? I wondered grimly.

"Sorry, what am I saying? I'll never be content without you. It's not physically nor mentally possible for me; not now, not ever."

Silence followed and I waited, charged with tension. Would it be naive and ignorant of me to hope for everything to be alright anymore?

"But it is for you, though. It is possible for you to be content with your life here, for you to be happy without me."

I had found the answer to my question: Yes, it would be outrageously ignorant and naive.

"I arrived here at noon; but you already know that from my previous message. Your parents had been kind enough to leave me with your exact address in the package I had mentioned and hence, I already knew where you lived.

"So, I hailed a taxi and got dropped off right at your door step. Then just as I had gathered the courage to ring the bell, I heard voices coming down from the building's staircase - your voice accompanied by San's laughter. Fear overcame me for some bizarre reason and I threw my body aside and hid behind a tree just as you two walked out.

"And Emma, you looked so beautiful! You were wearing a red polka dot sundress and had your hair tied up in a messy bun with a few wisps of jet-black escaping the hairstyle and lazily landing on your pink and flushed face. And you were laughing and had a skip in your step and, God, you looked so ravishing!

"It's completely safe to say that I was entranced by the beauty of my wonderful wife, Ems. In fact, I think I fell in love with you all over again,"

Regardless of the growing tension and anger in me, I smiled then because I could very well imagine a guy staring at his wife in awe and with love.

The only problem was with me having trouble in imagining the lovely couple as me and Mathew.

"And so I followed you like a love-sick puppy,"

He laughed; and I grimaced.

"You both walked to a restaurant a couple of blocks away and then waited at the doorstep for a while. Later on it turned out that you guys were waiting for your friends,"

He sighed before continuing, but the slight slip from perky to sad and then up-lifted again didn't go unnoticed by me.

"Anyways, San and the new guys then went inside but you... you stayed out.

"Rubbing your hands to keep warm in the slightly chilly air, you were standing on the road. You kept glancing around from here to there as if looking for someone - and for a moment I fooled myself into believing that you were searching for me."

I felt a tug at my heartstrings then.

Even when I wanted to be mad at him, I couldn't get myself to be so. Maybe this was because I felt guilty for having caused him so much pain; maybe deep down I was starting to believe that I didn't deserve to have the luxury of being angry at him.

But I also didn't deserve to have my reality shattered now... what do I deserve then?

Laughing sarcastically, I settled on my new belief: Maybe we don't have stuff happen to us because we deserve it. Maybe fate and karma sometimes just like to play spin and win, where the lot selected is our ultimate destiny.

That most certainly would explain my messed up life.

"Anyways, by the time I had gathered my wits to finally approach you, your friend arrived - the person you were actually searching for - and so I halted in my steps.

"Now I had to do something, and fast too, before you went inside the restaurant. And well... uh... you know I'm not that good with doing things swiftly.

"So I sort of just stumbled in front of you. Or rather actually I stumbled into you, making you almost fall down."

Silence followed for a few seconds.

"But you didn't fall, thankfully. You also didn't recognise me; didn't spare me a second glance backwards. Not even the ghost of recognition went through your eyes, Ems... No, you just mumbled a sorry while glancing sideways at me for a quick second before rushing inside the entrance with your friend."

He laughed sadly,

"Honestly I don't know what I was expecting or hoping to see and do when I finally met you but... well it certainly wasn't in-phase with what happened.

"So after the uneventful encounter I just roamed around town for a while; thinking and walking, thinking and walking. Eventually I got tired of walking and then I booked myself into the first hotel I came across and ended up in this room from where I'm calling you right now."

He huffed out a heavy breath, as if having fallen on the bed. I did the same by stretching and then lying down on my back with my feet dangling off the bed's edge. Obviously the both of us were tired and worn out - mentally, physically and emotionally.

"Like I said, love, I've been thinking. I mean there is a lot at stake here apart from our marriage and me. You actually do not remember me, hell you don't even know who I am!"

I cringed at the sudden change in his tone, the sudden show of desperation and anger and pain all scooped up in one sentence. It, however, was true. I didn't know him then.

Haughtily my brain reprimanded: Correction, you don't know him still.

"Sorry I didn't mean... never mind. Sorry, Ems.

"What I'm trying to say is that I can't ignore the fact that you have established a perfectly good and happy life for yourself here; a life which doesn't include me."

I clenched my jaw, my hands curling into fists. You don't know what's good for my life and what isn't! Why does everyone believe that they are the best judge for what's better for me?!

"And as much as it pains me to say this, I can't ruin it, love. I'm sorry but... I can't ruin your life; not intentionally, not with my own hands."

He sighed deeply, probably having conveyed the hardest part of his message.

"So, now what I'll do is pray. I'll pray for some miracle to happen and I'll stick around, always being in the background, in the peripherals of your world - but always there.

"I'm hoping that soon one day you'll see me, see me, for real and you'll remember everything."

He laughed what sounded like an open-mouthed laughed. With his laugh I realised that like me in the present, back then he too must have been laughing and just performing actions in general to stay rooted to reality; because with all the lies and secrets woven so intricately in our daily lives, it gets rather hard to stay in the real world when it's oh-so tempting to float away into dreams.

"I'll also settle for anything mundane and not so utterly dramatic, just as far as you do remember me, one day.

"And until then, my love, I'll wait. I'll give us my best shot and all my will and power and being, and I won't give up, I swear. It doesn't matter if it takes a week for you to come back to me or a month or a year or a decade. I'll stay right here by your side and I'll keep fighting for us. The memory of our love and the hope of our future is enough, will always be enough, for me to fight this battle until the end."

His breathing had become quite ragged now.

"Until then, my love,"

I placed the phone beside me and clamped my hands on my face, forming a shield from the outside world. His 'until then' had come now, and I was holding it between my hands with the power to crush it all into oblivion or grant him his wishes.

If only had I known where my own heart and mind stood in all of this, I believe the decision would've been a hundred times easier. If only...
___________________________________________

Lyrics of song "Best shot" by Birdy and Jaymes Young:

When you're on your own and you feel lost
When your heart's a mess though you've given your best.

I'll be here giving it my best shot, baby, your love's got more than I need.
Here crying from the rooftops.
Nothing can stop us if we believe.
Here giving it my best shot, baby, I find that we can be free.
When you're here, here with me.

When your sky is dark and the earth is shaking your bed.
Your hope is at its end, you just need one friend.

I'll be here giving it my best shot, baby, your love's got all that I need.
Here crying from the rooftops.
Nothing can stop us if we believe.
Here giving it my best shot, baby, I find that we can be free.
When you're here, here with me.

When you can't find your way and all around you walks as deep and grey.
The stars fall from above and you're barely holding on my love.

Giving it my best shot, baby, your love's got all that I need.
Here crying from the rooftops.
Nothing can stop us if we believe.
Here giving it my best shot, baby, I find that we can be free.
When you're here with me.
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Hey buddies! I'm so sorry for updating one day late but trust me, I have a good excuse.

I had run out of pre-written chapters and I also had the aptitude test of one of the most prestigious medical universities in my country the day before yesterday. So I was dying from studies for the said test.

Fyi the test went good, and now I'm hoping that I'll clear it. PLEASE PRAY FOR ME!!!

After the test I sat down to write this chapter yesterday but procrastination *laughs hesitantly* got in the way and I couldn't complete it. So now I've JUST completed this and I'm posting it!

Also, I made the chapter extra long as an apology. *smiles sweetly* *offers skittles*

VOTE, COMMENT AND SHARE!
PLEASE!

toodles.
Much, much love,
-zainab