The Guilty One... Chapter 23

"So Elizabeth wasn't a selfish bitch, like I thought, huh," I murmured.

"What?" Asked Fiona.

I reread out loud the diary entries I found.

"So Henry's the bastard who made all this possible. Elizabeth was just a girl in love..." Brit replied.

"Yeah, basically." I said.

"How pathetic! She didn't have the guts to tell him off?" Brit demanded.

"What if he left her? Or tried killing her! He was capable of killing 135 people with just a few of his criminal friends, what if he did something worse to her. Plus she was pregnant with his child," Fiona tried explaining.

"Love makes us all do stupid things..." I whispered, recalling back to helping Issaic go back to his ghost life when really he had been playing me but I was still willing at the time. Even as I think about it, I'm still willing to do anything for that man.

"What?" Asked Brit.

"Nothing. Listen, I think we've found everything we can, let's go make photocopies of some of these entries, give the books back to Josephine and go home. I feel homesick..." I said.

"Awwwh, Aria misses a certain someone," Fiona sang.

"Shut up," I glared as I threw a pillow at her, getting a perfect shot right at her face.

I fell asleep right away. My mind was finally at rest by now knowing what had really happened. I knew Issaic will be happy to know too, even if he says he doesn't want to.

Early the next morning, we went straight down to the front desk of the hotel, asking to use their photocopier, they agreed after much arguing from Brit's part and we photocopied some of the diary entries I thought were important. We went straight to Josephine's house afterwards.

"You're back! So soon!" Josephine exclaimed upon opening the door.

"Yeah, we just wanted to-" I was cut off by her again.

"And you're all wearing normal clothes!" She says this as if she just realized we were humans. We were all wearing jeans with various blouses.

"Yes... we wear 'normal' clothes when we're not working..." Fiona says slowly emphasizing each word as if Josephine has trouble understanding.

"You guys look good, that's all. You were saying?" She asked, playing with a strand of her hair that had come out of her loose bun.

"Uh, yeah. We're here to return your things. They were a great help... for the piece we're writing." I explained.

"No problem! So how soon can I see this article or video broadcast? My mom is really excited!" Josephine asked.

"We'll mail it to you so you can have your very own copy," Fiona said.

"That's awesome! Thanks."

"No problem. Well, we should be going now. It was great meeting you and thanks for your help!" I said.

"Bye now!" Josephine said before closing the door.

"Thank god that's over," Brit laughed.

"Tell me about it," I sighed.

"Are we really sending her anything?" Brit asked.

"We'll just write up an article or something, instead of making an actual broadcast. Tell them that we weren't allowed to air anything so we wrote for the local newspaper," I shrugged it off.

"Done." Fiona said.

"What?"

"I'm done writing the article."

"In your head? That's great Fiona... but you know we need it on paper," I said.

"Yes, on paper," she said, using the same tone she had just used on Josephine, "when you two were snoring away yesterday, I wrote it out. I figured we would need something as proof so I started gathering some ideas last night and wouldn't you know it, it ended up as a news article!" She giggled.

"Awesome! No homework!" Brit chuckled.

"Let's go home guys," I smiled. After so long, it felt good to genuinely smile without a worry in the world.

"Hey! But wait... I don't snore!" Britney argued.

"Yeah you do. Go ask your boyfriend. He'll clarify," Fiona laughed.

It took us approximately three days to get home, stopping for more breaks than necessary.

When we got there, Issaic and the girls were waiting for us in front of my apartment since we had called an hour ahead and told them we'd be arriving.

I jumped out of the car, ran over to Issaic and planted one right on his lips. He was tensed at first (probably from how straight up I was being) but kissed me back. I vaguely heard a gasp behind me but I didn't care. This was my time and I wasn't going to pass it up. Who knows when a guy this great comes along? If this was my only chance, I wasn't going to miss it.

When I pulled away from him, he asked with a huge grin on his face, "What was that for?"

I returned the grin. "No particular reason. I'm just happy."

"I take it your investigation went well?"

"More than well!" Brit chirped.

Issaic gave me a questioning look.

"She's right, come on inside everyone and we'll explain," I said.

We all went up to my apartment and Nicki made tea for all of us while I pulled out the diary entries and gave them to Issaic to read first. At the moment, he was my number one priority.

He read through the diary entries, explaining what really happened and what Elizabeth was basically forced to do. He kept his face blank while reading all the pages and that made me more nervous.

We all waited in suspense even if two of them didn't know what to expect, they seemed tensed. Even Brit was biting her nails, a nervous habit of hers, the one who never got scared and Fiona kept looking up at the clock every two minutes.

Issaic finally finished reading the last of the fifteen pages and looked up at me. I hadn't realized I was holding my breath. Any longer and I probably would've required CPR, not that I minded if it was from Issaic. Did he know what CPR was though?

I finally let out my breath when he looked at me.

"This is quite a find," he finally said.

"Yeah. It was pretty amazing," I replied.

"I'm glad that Elizabeth hadn't done it on purpose. I just wish she told me instead."

"That wouldn't have gone too well with Henry," I said.

"But he might've been alive," Fiona muttered.

"True... but if I hadn't died, I would not have met any of you, including Aria." He smiled, as he pulled me on his lap, "So I'm very glad I had the chance to come back again," he poked me on the side of my rib, which promptly made me let out a yelp.

"I'm glad I know the truth now though. And Aria, you were right. I suppose I always wanted to know what truly happened but I was in denial. Now that I know, I can finally continue my new life in peace..." he said, "with you," he whispered into my ear, making me blush beetroot red.
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Comment Replies:

BEAUTY - Thank you so very much and I really appreciate you sticking with me through all this time. Enjoy this chapter!

Jeny - You are too sweet, thanks so much! I always love a new reader and I love it even more when they can't get enough of my story! Don't worry I'm a bit like Aria myself, I'm a huge talker. I tend to show a bit of myself in the characters that I portray in my stories. If you like this story, you should read my other one, have you already? It's called "I just had to be a Vampire Slayer" You can pass time with that, instead of reading this story over and over again. It'll get boring, haha!

Beth - All your questions shall be answered in this chapter. I hope you like it and I really appreciate your compliments. They make me smile!

Marie - I'm glad you weren't expecting it. I love a good shocker everyone in a while. Thanks so much for reading!

Lizzi - Lizzi, Lizzi, Lizzi... my, my, it has been awhile. I'm trying not to be as slow as I was but I think it's obvious that my story is coming to an end, no? Not to worry, I will still have your story to entertain myself with but that's only if Jay comes back somehow... or else I'm not reading it. Haha, I'm kidding, I will read it nonetheless. Sorry I've been MIA even in emails. I promise to catch up with you very soon!

Abby - Thanks Abby! I'm glad you liked my idea! Keep reading!

Nicole - Thank you Nicole. I love having you as a reader!

Zenny - Thank you so much and I'm loving your name!