Chapter 85: Chapter 85

When I get to the police station, he tells me to take a seat. Police are bringing people in with handcuffs. I don't belong here.

The officer comes back. I look at his name tag. Officer Marley.

I remember a Robert Marley being at the baby shower. I think he was a relative of Devlin or something.

He comes back and orders me to stand up. He runs my prints and takes mugshots of me.

"Well, I see this isn't your first time getting into trouble," he says looking at the computer screen.

"Devlin was right, you've always been a criminal. The only difference now is that you've grown."

I don't say anything. I don't want to provoke him. He might just add on another charge for the fun of it.

When he's done taking the mugshots, he takes me by the wrists and leads me to a cell. The cell is filled with crackheads and prostitutes who have stayed here all night.

"You're not seriously going to put me in there with them are you?" I ask, hoping that he was just trying to scare me this whole time.

"Sorry, but you broke the rules. Do the crime, do the time," he says and shoves me into the cell.

It closes and I'm trapped.

I look at the clock outside the cell and it's 8 am. Another three hours before Noah's wedding. I sigh.

A white woman with cornrows approaches me.

"So you think you're too good to be in here with us?" She says. I shake my head no. When she speaks, the grills in her mouth become visible. At this moment I should be terrified, but I'm too distracted by the fact that she has no eyebrows. She obviously notices.

"You got a problem with my eyebrows?" She asks me.

I shake my head no again.

"Trixy leave the girl alone," a woman yells out.

"I'm just playing with her!" She says and her face softens.

"I'm Trixy," she says to me.

"A-Ava" I stutter.

"You're very pretty Ava," she says touching my arm. "How old are you?" She asks me.

"Twenty-two."

"Are you looking for a job Ava?" She smiles and looks at the other girls. Then it finally hits me.

She's a woman pimp and she's trying to make me one of her hoes.

"No, I already have one, thanks"

"Do you make a lot of money at your job?"

"I make all the money I need," I tell her.

"See that's what you think now, but once you start making the type of money we make, you'll think twice about having money that you need."

I don't even understand what she's saying at this point.

I bang on the cell door.

"I want my phone call," I cry out.

"Now!"

"Feisty isn't she?" Trixy says to her other girls.

A guard comes to the cell. "What?"

"I want to make a phone call," I say.

He gestures to someone and the cell door opens.

"Come with me," he says leading me in a small area containing a wall phone.

I dial Dayna's number but she doesn't answer." I wish I had my cellphone, I think to myself, I have all my contacts in there. I then remember that I forgot my cell phone in Noah's room. I call it and on the fourth ring, someone answers.

"Hello?"

"Hello!"

"Ava?"

"Sasha? Oh, thank God. Please help me. I'm in jail."

"You're where!?"

"I'm in jail. One of Devlin's friends or relatives or whoever he is. He locked me up for breaking and entering. But I wasn't, I was just leaving your house."

"You were here? When?"

"Sasha that's not the point. Help please!"

"Okay, don't worry, I'm coming to get you." The phone hangs up.

"Times up," the guard says. He leads me back to my cell.

After thirty minutes of Trixy's failed attempts to start a conversation with me, she gives up. Thank God!

I spend the rest of the hour staring at the clock.

Noah's wedding starts in an hour, and I'm here locked up. Why is Sasha taking so long?

Trixy and the other prostitutes leave before me.

"I'm on Young street and King Road, if you change your mind about the job," she says before she leaves.

After another thirty minutes of being in this hell hole, a guard approaches the cell.

"Avana Stephenson?"

I sprint to the cell door "Yes?"

"Someone has come to bail you out."

Finally!

The door opens and I leave without looking back.

I gather my belongings and head to the front of the station.

I look towards the door and Noah is standing there in a tuxedo.

I stand there, surprised by what I am seeing. He's here instead of his wedding. He's really here. Unable to control myself, I sprint toward him and jump in his arms. He kisses me.

"You're not at your wedding," I say. He smiles.

"So imagine this," he says. "Thirty minutes before my wedding and Sasha approaches me, telling me that You were in jail, and that it was Devlin's doing. I look out my bedroom window and the guests have arrived. The tables are set up. The flowers are beautifully decorated. The priest is there. The bridesmaids are in place. The food looks delicious. And everyone is ready. Everybody except me." He puts my hair behind my ears. "I decided that it was time to stop ignoring the fact that my fiancé is a bitch and that she's probably never going to change. And I realize that I don't love her. The person I was in love with was the person rusting in a jail cell," he jokes. "The mother of my child."

"I've known Devlin for my whole life, and I've only known you for just over a year, and I never felt for her what I feel for you. Ava, I'm madly in love with you. I can't-I just can't explain this feeling. It's so overwhelming, it's consuming. I wake up and I think about you, I go to sleep and I think about you. During the day, I can't concentrate because I'm wondering what you're doing and if you've met someone else. Letting you walk out that door this morning was the stupidest thing I've ever done in my life. I don't care what my mom wants or my dad for that matter. I finally know what I want and I want you. I'm miserable when I'm not with you. I look forward to seeing you always, even if it's just for a few minutes. I wanna be with you all day, every day as a family for the rest of my life Ava."

He gets down on his knees, there's no way he's doing what I think he's doing

"I'm sorry that it took me this long to realize how much I love you. For the last couple of months, I've put you through hell and I'm going to spend the rest of my life making it up to you. Avana Cole Stephenson, will you marry me?"

I cover my mouth. I can't believe this. It's ironic how he's proposing to me on his wedding day.

I don't have to even think about it.

"Yes! The answer is yes!"

He picks me up and spins me in his arms.

A police officer comes in with a man handcuffed. He passes by us. I forgot that we were in a police station.

A look around and police officers and even some criminals start clapping and cheering for us.

I can't believe Noah proposed to me in a police station. Talk about romantic.

He carries me out of the police station and towards our new life together.

One year later and I find myself at the altar across from Noah. I never imagined my one-night stand turning into a lifetime commitment.

Melody, our little flower girl is the best thing in my life. I've never been so happy before. I'm finally getting to be a part of a real family. It scares me but excites me at the same time.

"Ava, sweet beautiful Ava. I never want to live a life without you in it because it would miserable. Even when I wasn't sure about us, you were. You always were. For a long time, I never told you. But you were the girl I sat up all night and thought about. You were the girl who distracted me so much even when you weren't around. But I wasn't strong. You were strong for the both of us. You stuck around even when it hurt you. You never stopped loving me and I will never stop loving you. When I'm with you, I feel happy to be alive. I will cherish you and love you for the rest of my life."

I feel like crying. How I'm I going to beat that?

"I feel like everything has led me to you, my choices, my heartbreaks, my regrets. And when we're together, my past seems worth it. Because if I had done one thing differently, I might have never met you. I promise to love you unconditionally, to honour and respect you each and every day. I promise to laugh with you when you're happy and to support you when you are sad. I chased you for almost a year. I vow to keep you and to never let you go. I promise to love you forever"

"You may now kiss the bride," the priest says. So I do. We kiss in front of everybody, his family, our friends.

It's official and no one can stop it.

I've been waiting so long for this moment and it has finally come.

END