Everything felt surreal.

Being home was different, and I was treated different.

I felt the pity through everyone's eyes, their words attempting to comfort me as I walked past them.

Word spread to everyone the day Kye brought me home, and everyone knew the things that happened between James and I.

The day after I returned home, my father, Kye and Kye's father had sat me down in my fathers study, urging me to tell them everything that James had revealed and what he did.

I told them everything, from the plans of using me against our mafia, to him putting his hands against me.

Kye's jaw had hardened, and I watched as he looked down.

I don't blame him, that would be unfair. I would have done the same thing.

If I had knew what he was going to do, it could have ruined the plan.

I was more furious with my father for putting Kye in this position.

And I knew Kye was truly sorry, for every night, he whisper every single apology in my ear as he held me close to him.

It had now been a month since I was brought back, and everything was starting to go back to normal.

After James had died, everyone went back to their normal day to day lives, doing the work they were originally assigned to do.

I'm glad that other people were able to back to normal and push past those horrid months.

I'm happy, I am. But you can't just let go of being held captive after you're free, it still haunts you.

Warm hands had wrapped themselves around my waist, and a smile tugged against my lips.

Kye's face was nuzzled against the crook of my neck, kissing the space between my shoulder and my jaw.

"I have something to show you," he whispered against my skin, his lips brushing against me as I placed my hands on his.

"You do?" I responded, closing my eyes as he hummed a yes in response.

He removed one hand from my waist and guided me with the other, taking me to the front door of my fathers house.

We've been staying here ever since the incident, only because my father insisted that it still wasn't safe with James's mafia roaming around.

I didn't mind, it was nice to be surrounded by everyone, even if my father was gone for long periods of time for conferences.

Kye led me out into the car, placing his hand on my thigh as we drove off.

"Are you going to tell me?" I asked him, and he only smiled, shaking his head no as he stared ahead.

"That would ruin the surprise, my love."

I felt my heart soar with his words, words I've been longing to hear since the night he took me to James.

We turned down a small road, after twenty minutes of driving.

I looked outside the window, looking at the fields of lavender that sat on hills of green grass.

It was beautiful.

Kye rolled the windows down as we slowly went down the gravel road, and I felt the rush of lavender fill my nose, a smile rising on my lips.

"What is this place?" I asked him, and he squeezed my thigh.

"Our new home," he said softly, a house coming into view behind a large willow tree.

It was the most beautiful house I had ever seen.

It was a large house, the exterior painted white and the doors painted a dark oak brown.

Plants sat the bottom of every window sill, and I smiled in excitement.

What made my mouth open more was when the clear blue water come into view, revealing the coast at the bottom of the hill.

"Kye," I gasp and he chuckled.

"Do you like it?" He asked as he parked in the driveway, shutting the car off and turning towards me.

I didn't waste and time by jumping out of the car and running up to the edge of house, looking down at the ocean below.

I couldn't hide my excitement, and I felt Kye's arms wrap around me once again as we both stared at the crashing waves.

"I love it," I said to him, turning around and placing my hands on his chest.

"Thank you," I whispered, and I kissed him softly, wrapping my arms around his neck and tangling my hands in his hair.

His arms were still draped around my waist, his lips moving gently against mine.

"You deserve the world Aliyah," he breathed against my lips after pulling away from the deep kiss. "This is the least that I could do."

His words sent butterflies in my stomach, and I pulled him even closer.

His hands went to the back of my thighs, lifting me up so that way I can wrap my legs around his waist.

I laughed as he carried me into the house, his mouth planting soft kisses along my collar bone.

We spent the rest of the day touring the house until the sun went down.

We watched the sunset at the top of the hill, my head resting against his shoulder as he drew small circles on my arm.

"I want to spend the rest of my life with you," he said to me, placing a kiss on the top of my head.

"I do too," I told him, "forever."

He smiled, resting his cheek against my head until the sun had finally set, and we were emerged in darkness.

I won't let this moment leave me, for it was the start of something new.

A new life, a new beginning.

I look back on all the things that had went wrong, and even though the scars still haunt me, I wouldn't have it any other way.

Everything comes to an end, good or bad.

I learned that good things come from everything.

I've never been happier.

With Kye at my side, my father and his father gave us the Italian and American mafia, finally conjoining the two.

We lived in the lavender house on the coast, waking up every morning to the smell of the fresh flowers and the saltiness of the ocean.

This was it. This was my happy ending.

The ending I've begged for as a kid, an ending I begged for being locked away with James, an ending I begged for up until this moment.

It came true.

So sitting here, at the age that most people call old, I hold a warm coffee cup, sitting on the wooden swing that looks towards the coast.

A small smile on my lips as I breathed in the same smell I had smelled on the same day Kye and I came here.

The house that I never left.

I turned my head towards the empty seat that was beside me, a seat I haven't touched in years.

My smile never faltered, and my heart only warmed.

"If you could see this view," I whispered out, bringing the cup to my lips.

Only days after we had moved into our home, Kye had died during a mission, a mission that was meant for me.

They say happy endings are real, but I think differently.

No matter how happy you are, or how happy you have become, you can never be happy forever.

Because every good thing comes to end, and the happy ending we dreamed of has disappeared.

Right?