by Sandi Lynn
“How could you do this to me? I’m your daughter, your flesh and blood, and you destroyed my life.”
Corinne looked at me and clenched her jaw. “No, he destroyed your life,” she said as she pointed to Sam.
I gasped. “It was an accident and it could have happened to anybody. You destroyed my life the minute you forbade me to see him. If you had only accepted me and him, the accident wouldn’t have happened, so you have no one to blame but yourself, you bitch,” I screamed in her face.
Corinne raised her hand and slapped me across the face. Sam gasped and lunged toward me. I threw my arm back to block him as Harry grabbed Corinne and held her. Zoey took a few steps forward, but Dylan held her back. I held the side of my face, which stung from her hand.
“Feel better now, Corinne? Silly woman, you thought because you have money and influence that you could keep Sam and me apart? But guess what, Corinne, the universe had other plans for us and we were meant to find one another again.”
Zoey spoke up. “She’s right, Mom.”
I looked at her in anger and pointed my finger. “You are supposed to be my sister. How could you lie to me like that?” The bright lights started to flash in my mind, like someone was taking pictures with the flash on. I grabbed my head and knelt to the ground as tears fell down my face. Sam wrapped his arms around me from behind and sat on the floor with me.
“Breathe, baby, don’t fight it,” he whispered as he kissed my head. Corinne and Harry ran over to me. “Stay away from her,” Sam yelled as he looked up at them.
“How dare you? That’s my daughter,” Corinne snapped in anger.
“You don’t have a clue about your daughter and what she goes through. You’re not there, helping her through these excruciating headaches.”
Harry knelt down in front of me. “Claire, sweetheart, let us help you.”
I smiled as the images stopped and the lights dissipated. Sam loosened his grip and helped me up. I turned around to face him with the smile that never left my mouth.
“I saw you, us, on the beach. We were watching the sunset and sitting on a blanket. You packed us subs; in fact, you brought a bunch of them because you didn’t know what I liked. I remembered that moment, Sam,” I cried as he hugged me and kissed me softly on the top of my head.
“You’re going to remember a lot more,” he whispered.
I turned back around to face my family and friends. It was time to say goodbye. Everyone was crying. “What each one of you in this room has done to me and Sam is unforgivable. You each had a part in making the last three years of my life a living hell.” I pointed my finger to each person in the tent. “You could have told me about Sam and we could have tried to reconnect, but you didn’t; you hid it like some dirty little secret and, for that, I will never forgive you. Consider me dead to all of you because that’s what you all are to me. Now, if you’ll excuse me, I have a life to go live.” I took Sam’s hand and walked towards the entrance of the tent.
Corinne screamed, “Claire, no, please don’t do this! We love you.”
Ally and Rachel ran out into the yard after us. “Please, Claire, Sam, please, we’re sorry.”
I stopped dead in my tracks and whipped my body around to face them. “You call yourselves my best friends? I forgot you once and I can easily do it again. You chose Corinne’s side after the accident instead of mine. Even when I called you and begged you to tell me the truth, you still wouldn’t. You’re no friends. You’re spineless little bitches, and I never want to see either of you again.”
Ally and Rachel both started crying. Harry walked over to me and pleaded with me not to leave.
“I’m sorry, Dad, but you and the rest of this family have nobody to blame but yourselves. What you did by keeping secrets and telling me lies about my past is unforgiveable. You and mom let me think that I was driving and that someone died in my car. You think your money and your influence can control people. Well, you know what, Harry? You failed. You may be able to buy off people and keep them silent, but you can’t control fate and the universe. All of you need to take a good look at yourselves in the mirror and ask God for forgiveness. When I died in that hospital bed, a woman came to me in a garden and told me that if our love was true, we’d find our way back to each other. That’s something you can’t ever silence. You’re all pathetic.”
I shook my head and Sam put his arm around me. There were no more tears that could fall from my eyes. As I turned around and started to walk away, I could hear Corinne sobbing. Zoey grabbed my arm and spun me around.
“Don’t do this, little sister. I know we’ve had our differences in the past, but we can be different now. My baby is going to need you in his life. Please don’t walk away from us.”
I looked at her and gently placed my hand on her cheek. “Even though I can’t remember what our relationship used to be before the accident, I get the feeling you hated me. To be honest with you, Zoey, I don’t want to be around and watch a selfish bitch like you ruin your son’s life. Enjoy being a mom and a senator’s wife. You learned from the best and you deserve everything that will come your way,” I said as I looked at Corinne.
Sam kissed my head and pulled me into him. I turned my back to them and, as I was walking away, I stuck my hand up and waved.
“Goodbye, Montgomery family.”
Chapter 17
Sam and I climbed in his car and he drove around the corner and threw the car in park. He turned his body so he was facing me and grabbed my hand.
“You are an amazing woman. What you did back there took a lot of strength and courage. I love you so much, Claire Montgomery.” He smiled.
I took in a deep breath before I leaned over and softly kissed his lips. “You’re the one who gives me strength, Sam. Being with you is the best thing that ever happened to me, again.” I smiled. “I want to and need to remember our time together before the accident and the only person who can help with that is your mom.”
“Claire, I’m not ready to—”
“Shh…” I said as I put my finger over his lips. “Your mom was worried about your medical bills and your future. She did what she had to in order to help you. Corinne and Harry are very convincing people. Why do you think she kept an envelope with our pictures in it? Because she knew that someday, we’d find each other again. You need to go and make things right with her. Tell her you forgive her and tell her how much you love her. You’re all she has, Sam.”
He looked down as a tear fell from his eye. “You’re right. Will you come with me?” he asked.
“I wouldn’t have it any other way.” I smiled before kissing him again.
Sam took in a deep breath, put the car in drive, and drove to his mom’s house. As we pulled up in the driveway, she was in the front, planting some flowers. She turned around and smiled when she saw us. We got out of the car as she took off her gardening gloves. Sam walked to her and wrapped his arms around her, hugging her tightly. Tears started to roll down her face as she kept apologizing over and over again.
“It’s okay, Mom,” Sam said.
“No, Sam, it’s not okay. What I did was wrong and I’m so ashamed.”
My phone kept ringing and ringing. I pulled it out of my purse and saw that I had missed calls from Harry, Zoey, Ally, and Rachel. I turned off my phone. The first thing I was going to do when I got back to Seattle was buy a new phone with a new number.
“Everything okay?” Sam asked me.
“Everything’s good.” I smiled.
Sam walked his mom into the house and I followed behind. She had just made some chocolate chip cookies and fresh lemonade. She asked Sam to put the plate of cookies on the table while she went and got something. A few moments later, she walked out with a phone and handed it to Sam.
“This is the phone you had before the accident. It has some pictures on it, but I want you to see all the text messages you sent back and forth to each other. I’m going to go back outside and finish planting those flowers while you two look throu
gh them and see what your life was like before the accident.”
“Why did you save this stuff, Mom?”
She placed her hand on his cheek and smiled. “Because I had hoped that someday you’d find each other again and you’d want to know.”
“I love you, Mom.”
“I love you too, Sam. If you need me, I’ll be outside.”
Sam and I sat down on the couch and started looking through his phone. We started with the pictures. Even though the screen had a crack in it, we could see the pictures clearly. There were only a few pictures of us that his mom didn’t get developed. There were a lot of pictures at the beach, my graduation, and at a park with Ally and Rachel. I put my head on Sam’s shoulder as he pointed to our silly faces and we laughed. He began scrolling through the text messages. As we read them, tears started to fall down my face. Just to read his words and my words back was enough to show how much we cared and loved each other.
“I’m going to marry you one day, Claire, and we’ll have our own snow babies.”
“You better, Sam Snow, and I’m holding you to that, forever!”
“I promise you a perfect forever, babe.”
“And I promise you a perfect forever, my love.”
I lifted my head as Sam wiped the tears from my eyes. “These messages still hold true. They are our past, present, and future, Claire,” he said as he kissed my lips.
I wrapped my arms around him and buried my face into his neck. “We’re right where we’re supposed to be.”
We got up from the couch and walked outside. Sam and I knelt down next to his mom and helped her plant the rest of the flowers. She looked at us with a smile and nodded her head.
This life. The life I was supposed to have all along was finally mine. I wasn’t part of a person anymore. Now, I was whole. My heart and soul had been filled. Filled with love and kindness by a man who was meant to be mine since the day we both were born. No accident could stand in the way of us being together. God had a plan for the two of us and he made sure we found each other once again. This timeline of life we ride is unknown, and now I know that everything happens for a reason; Sam being my reason for my survival, and me being his reason for his.
I hope you enjoyed the story of Sam and Claire, but their story isn’t over….
Reclaiming Us
About The Author
Sandi Lynn is a New York Times, USA Today and Wall Street Journal bestselling author who spends all of her days writing. She published her first novel, Forever Black, in February 2013 and this is her seventh published novel. Her addictions are shopping, romance novels, coffee, chocolate, margaritas, and giving readers an escape to another world.
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