Epilogue
I sat on the black leather couch in Paul's living room, my feet
curled under me, and a leather-bound journal open in my lap. Chewing
absentmindedly on the end of my pencil, I contemplated how to word the next part
of my writing. It was getting to the tough part, where I wasn't sure I
wanted to go. But I had to. I scrawled a few words on the paper then
sighed in frustration as I erased them. "No, that doesn't work at
all…" I murmured to myself. It was very hard to put other people's
emotions into words, especially someone like Paul whom I was so close to.
After they had released me from the
hospital, I had been referred to a therapist who specialized in rape cases.
One of the parts of his treatment for me was that he wanted me to put my entire
ordeal down on paper, even to get Paul's and Trish's points of view. He
said it would help me work through the events in a more concrete way, and it
had. I was seeing everything from a different perspective and was
beginning to understand things a lot more clearly. The hardest part had
been asking Trish for her thoughts. She was very cooperative and gave me
everything I needed, but it was difficult for me, knowing how she had felt about
Paul. However, all her help with Dwayne and my journal really helped me
see that she really was a good person at heart. Dwayne had manipulated her
as much as he had Paul or me.
The thought of Dwayne still brought a chill
to my heart and made me shudder. I still had occasional nightmares, but
they were starting to lessen as time went on and my therapy progressed. I
bet he's the one having nightmares now, I thought to myself with a chortle.
As soon as his condition was stable enough, he had been arrested and brought to
trial on counts of assault and battery and rape. He had tried to nail
Trish as an accomplice, but she turned state's evidence in return for full
immunity and testified against him, ensuring he would get the harshest sentence
possible. The day his verdict was delivered was a great day in all of our
lives, although we would have been happier if Dwayne had gotten more than 15
years imprisonment. The 'no parole' stipulation made our day, however.
Vince McMahon had made it clear to Dwayne that even if he came out of prison in
the best shape of his life, there was no way in hell he would ever have a job
with WWFE again.
Initially, Paul had been worried he would
get suspended or even fired for the beating he had given Dwayne, but he had
become something of a national hero. The CEO's had decided to give him a
few months paid vacation to take care of his 'personal business' as they put it.
Paul never left my side from that moment on, only leaving me alone when I had to
concentrate on writing.
"Gabrielle?" Paul asked from the
other room, as if he could read my mind.
"Yeah, Paul?"
"How's it coming along?"
I smiled at his apparent excitement; he
knew I was nearing the end after almost two months of work. "Almost
finished! Give me a little while more."
"Alright, babe! I have a
surprise for you when it's finished."
My smile turned into a grin at that
thought. I couldn't wait to see what he had up his sleeve tonight.
He had been giving me little 'surprises' almost every day since I had gotten out
of the hospital. As absurd as it sounded, the whole nightmare had deepened
and strengthened our love. It made us realize that we really couldn't live
without each other. We took things more seriously now that we saw how
easily it could all be taken away from us. There was a new level of
commitment in our relationship, though it had gone unspoken up to that point.
I returned my attention to my writing,
pleased with how it seemed to flow out of my pen with little direction from me.
I had reached the last section of the 'story' and was coming close to its
completion. What we had survived truly amazed me, and the fact that we had
survived made the reliving of it so much easier. There had been a time
when it wouldn't have been possible for me to go through those memories at all,
when I had tried to stuff them down. But with my therapist's and Paul's
help, I had become strong enough to handle them without breaking down. And
in my mind, that was a true victory.
"Paul," I shouted, "can you
come in here, please?"
As he walked into the room and came to
stand beside my desk, I wrote a few last words:
Paul looked back at the sobbing Gabrielle,
and stroked her hair ever so gently. "It'll be alright, babe.
It's gonna be OK."
And he hoped to God it was.
I looked over the last page carefully, then
slowly transferred my gaze to Paul and grinned. "It's done."
His eyes sparkled as he grinned as well.
"Really?? You've written it all?"
I nodded. "All that's left is a
couple of notes to bring it up to date. But the actual story, it's
finished. Finally. It's over." I leapt out of my chair
and hugged him, snuggling into his warm embrace as he held me tight.
"I am so proud of you, Gabrielle.
I don't know how to tell you how proud I am of you, and how much I love
you," he said, then tilted my head up to kiss me deeply. His kisses
were always so sweet, so gentle, that I lost myself in them. He broke the
kiss slowly, then stared down into my eyes. "Actually, I do. Do
you want your surprise now?" he asked, slightly teasingly.
I giggled. "Yes, silly, you know
I hate waiting!" I joked back.
He laughed, but then his demeanor turned
more serious. "Gabrielle, I've been doing a lot of thinking. I
don't think I've ever been happier than I have been right here with you these
last couple of months. The troubles you've had in counseling, the times
I've stayed up with you all night when you couldn't sleep, it's all been worth
it. I don't want to ever lose that."
I interrupted him. "You won't
ever lose that. I'm here, with you. That's never going to
change."
He smiled lovingly at me and said, "I
know. But it can't hurt to make it official can it?"
Now I was confused. "What do you
mean, babe?"
Silently, Paul pulled a small box from his
jeans pocket and sank down to one knee. Tears rose in my eyes, and I could
hear a tear or two threatening in his voice as he spoke. "I mean
this: Gabrielle Davidson, will you marry me?" And he opened the
box to reveal a beautiful diamond engagement ring.
"Oh my… Oh my God, Paul!" I
squealed, tears falling from my eyes, and threw myself into his arms, almost
knocking the ring out of his hand in the process.
He hugged me tightly and whispered in my
ear, "So was that a yes?"
Laughing through my tears, I stared into
his eyes and said, "That was most definitely a yes."
Paul stood with a smile, pulled me up to
stand with him, and then slipped the ring onto my finger. I gazed at it
for a second, then grinned and kissed him passionately, throwing my arms around
his neck. "I can't believe it, this is just too much," I said,
breathless.
"Not too much for you, babe," he
replied with a gleam in his eye. Then he reached behind me and picked up
my journal from the desk. "You'll have to add this to it, of
course," he said jokingly.
"Well, of course," I laughed,
"It's the perfect ending. 'And they lived happily ever after' and all
that stuff."
He nodded. "Perfect," he agreed,
then kissed me deeply again, the excitement still in the air. "Just
out of curiosity," he asked, "are you going to name it?"
I looked down at the book and smiled.
"Yes. I picked a name out already. 'Tangled Webs'."
THE
END
back to Raquel
back to Chapter 5
