Authors: Sorcha MacMurrough
“Is it all worth it?” Zaira
screamed.
“You used to be a good
person.”
“There’s no such thing, only a
less greedy one than the next man.
Goodbye, Zaira.”
The gun went off, and the impact
sent Zaira flying.
She clutched
her chest as she began to lose consciousness. Her last waking moments were
filled with the sound of the front door to the house bursting open.
Two more shots rang out, then all was
silence.
Zaira couldn’t move to see what
was happening, but she was sure she was dying, for she head Brad’s voice in her
head.
“My God, if you’ve killed her!”
Suddenly there was a cry of “Stop
him!”
The sound of footsteps echoed on
the balcony.
Feeling herself falling, Zaira’s
world went black.
Zaira opened her eyes, and looked
up at a bare white ceiling.
The
brightness was so intense, it dazzled her eyes. For a moment she thought
whimsically, “Gosh, I did get to heaven after all.”
She moved her head to look around,
and her gaze met Brad’s emerald ones, glistening with tears.
“Thank God.
You’re alive.
Oh, my love. You’ve given me the fright of my life.”
As Zaira realised she wasn’t dead,
she calmed for a moment, until a new fear took over.
“The baby!
The baby, Brad?” Zaira cried, cltuching
her flat stomach.
“Sush, it’s all right,” he
soothed.
“You’re going to be
fine.
You haven’t miscarried.
But you have a few cracked ribs,
and a broken wrist.
You’ve lost a
fair bit of blood, and will have to stay in hospital for a while.
At point blank range, you were still
badly bruised even with the bullet proof vest on.”
Zaira sighed as he stroked her
face and kissed her softly on the mouth.
“Why did you do it, Zaira?” Brad
asked quietly, a hint of anger in his voice.
“I started it, in a way, so I had
to finish it.
If it hadn’t been
for me keeping silent about Jonathan being my criminal husband, none of this
would have ever happened.”
“That’s nonsense.
He’d been planning all this ever since
he started working at Clarke Studios.
We have all the papers and information to prove it.
If anything, you saved us all.
If Jonathan hadn’t got scared that you
would tell us everything, he might not have messed up.”
“Cormac!
Jonathan said he was dead,” Zaira gasped, clinging to Brad
weakly.
“And so he would have been, if
your surveillance team hadn’t spotted what he was doing on the cameras.
Dad did turn up for the meeting, as
Jonathan had arranged, and there was an explosion, big enough to be
convincing.
But Dad went in the
front and out the side as fast as possible.
He's a bit shaken up, but he would love to see you if you’re
feeling up to it, as would the Tremaines.”
“Not just yet.
I want to apologize to you first for
all the secretiveness and lies.
Jonathan was dangerously clever.
I knew he had set it all up, had been trying for days to lure you back
to LA with all those calls about “The Dark Lady,” so that once you were in
police custody, you couldn’t clear yourself, or might have an accident.
Then, when the evidence disappeared, I
knew there was no one we could be sure of.
I needed a confession from Jonathan to clear you.”
“Thank God they followed Jonathan.
Kelly had a hunch.
She
checked the cameras in my house on the monitor in the van, and sure enough, you
were there.
It was a damned stupid
thing you did, but I’m grateful, Zaira.
All those people will be put in prison where they belong, and the police
who were in on it all have been exposed as well.”
“Jonathan’s had it coming for
a long time.”
Brad nodded quietly, but he looked
at her piercingly for a few seconds.
“What are you doing here, anyway?”
Zaira suddenly asked.
“I mean, it
isn’t really safe yet, is it?”
“When I spoke to you, I knew
something was going on. That you were hiding something from me.
It was silly that I hadn’t figured it
out sooner.
I came back through
Mexico, just in case the police were still after me.
I took me a bit longer than I expected.
Thank God I came in when I did.
I was at the Studios with Dad when
Kelly phoned.
If we hadn’t burst
in when we did, Jonathan might have shot you again, and killed you.”
Brad’s tears choked him for a few
moments, but finally he breathed, “God, it’s been hell without you for the past
few weeks. What would I have done if you and the baby had died?”
“Kelly told you?”
“Yes, and the doctor too.
What a day for surprises. But it’s no
surprise I want to marry you,
darling. So as soon as you're up out of that bed, we’ll go ahead and do
it.
Then we'll film “The Dark Lady.”
Now that I’m back in California, I’m
not going to let you go back to New York and your old life.
We’ll finish what we started.”
“Brad, it
is
all finished.
How can you ever forgive me? Besides,
I’m still married to Jonathan,” Zaira protested.
Brad hesitated, looking away from
her for a moment.
Zaira waited in agony for his next
words.
Was he going to agree with
her that they had no future together?
“Zaira, I know you don’t remember
it. I didn’t want to tell you until you were feeling stronger.
I don’t want to upset you, but Jonathan
is dead.
He jumped from the
balcony when the police tried to arrest him.
You’re a widow, and free to marry me whenever you like.”
Zaira’s tears began to fall.
“So it’s really all over then?”
“So far as the past is concerned,
yes.
I’m in the clear, and can go
back to living a normal life.
It’s
the future I’m worried about.
I
love you, and need you, my most precious treasure.
Please, I want you and the baby to make my life
complete.
Free yourself of the
past, and marry me.
I love you
more than ever, Zaira, not less.
How could I blame you?
You’ve done everything to save me. You were willing to die for me.
How can you even consider going back to
New York, of making me live without you?”
“Oh Brad, I’ve missed you so,”
Zaira cried, as she threw her arms around his neck and kissed him passionately,
all her pain of past and present finally at an end as the joyful future Brad
was laying out for them both spread before her like a glimpse of paradise.
“The Dark Lady” went into
production several weeks later, and Zaira and Brad were married on the set, in
full costume.
It was an unusual
wedding , an unusual film, and even more unusually, it swept the Academy Awards
that year for all the technical categories, including Best Original Screenplay
for Zaira. To her great delight, Brad was awarded the Oscar for Best Director,
and no one could have been prouder of Brad's achievement than his wife, except
possibly for his father Cormac, now his staunchest supporter for all his films.
“They may have named me Best
Director, my love, and I may be surrounded by hundreds of actors and actresses,
but you're the brightest star in this whole room,” Brad whispered as Zaira
looked around the auditorium in awe.
“You’re the star I revolve around, like the earth taking all its light
and warmth from the sun.”
Zaira and Brad had settled in New York to teach and work on
the film adaptation of her second blockbuster novel,
Star Attraction
, They were sure they could never
be happier than they had been since the awards evening, but a couple of months
after fateful evening, on a bright day in June in New York, their son Declan
was born, anf gave a whole new meaning to the word bliss.
It was an easy labor and a quick
recovery.
Eager to take the baby home
and start on the newest chapter in their fantastic romance, Brad couldn't wait
to get his new little family back to their snug apartment where they had fallen
in love nine months before.
As he wheeled Zaira and the baby
out of the elevator, a lovely young girl with flaming red hair crashed into a
busy young doctor trying to slip in through
the closing doors.
Brad and Zaira caught each other’s
eye and laughed.
“Let’s hope they have a smoother
path in front of them than we had, darling.”
“The road to my journey’s end has
been rocky, it's true. But I've had the most radiant star to guide me."
"No regrets?"
"Never. It's all been more
than worth it, my love,” Brad said. He kissed his wife on the lips, a silent
promise of more to come, and played with his son’s tiny hand. "Now let's
go home. I can't wait to get started on the happily ever after you promised
me."
"I love you, darling. Thank
you for everything, the gift of your love, and our son."
"Thank you, Zaira, for the
gift of my freedom, my reputation, and for being the most amazing woman I've
ever met."
"You're welcome, darling. Now
come, your father's waiting to spoil his grandson."
"And I can't wait to give him
at least several more. And some granddaughters too, just like their incredible
mother."
Zaira smiled up at him, her heart
full of love. "The Dark Lady" had brought them together. Her dark
past had nearly torn them apart. Now in the bright light of their love, there
was no shadow to mar the brilliance of their happy future full of passion and bliss.
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