Friday, August 31st
At two o’clock in the morning, Andrea Arquette awakened suddenly and stared at Dan’s sleeping form beside her. She was perspiring and shaking from the nightmare that had awakened her. She was grateful Dan still slept exhausted from a long bout of sensuous lovemaking. Was it simply a bad dream, or was she just remembering her past? They were one and the same to her. Andrea knew she couldn’t bear it if anything happened to Dan. She would go to any lengths to protect him. For several hours, she gazed at him as intense emotions overcame her. She wept as anguish and fear engulfed her, as she knew she would lose him if the truth was exposed. Or would he understand? Forgive her? Protect her? Love and accept her no matter what she had done? Or who she had been for several maddening months? Now that it was over, it seemed like only a bad dream, an illusion, a trick of the mind. Finally, her tears were spent and her body relaxed from the tension.
After all she had been forced to endure in her life, was she finally going to find peace and love? Acceptance? How would he feel and what would he do if he learned the dark truth about her? About her ugly childhood and all the tortures she had been subjected to before her best friend’s family had gotten involved? Before and after the Garrett's' had rescued her from the devil, and taken her into their own family?
God, I love this man. Please don’t take him away from me as you’ve taken all the others. I need him now. I didn’t mean to fall in love with him, but I did. Maybe Dan can help me erase the pains from the past. Maybe now I can finally be healed, now that the past has been put to rest.
Andrea put her lips against Dan’s cheek before laying her head on his shoulder and throwing her leg over his. She smiled as he embraced her but didn’t awaken. As she drifted off to sleep, she thought of her final promise to her best friend who was like a real sister to her, a vow she had kept no matter the costs or dangers involved. We can both rest now, dearest Tippi, it’s all over. At last you’ve been avenged and we have our justice. They pulled your plug today. Please forgive me for not being there to hold your hand at the last moment. Find peace, dear Tippi. I love you. Goodbye.
As if a heavy burden and years of torment were lifted from her shoulders, Andrea’s green eyes closed and she slept in love’s embrace, dreaming of the day she and Dan married. Above them hovered a guardian angel with flowing blond hair, crystal blue eyes, and the face of Tippi...
As a glorious morning sun slowly slithered over the Atlanta horizon, Ashley Tippins “Tippi” Garrett found eternal peace as she took her final breath with a radiant smile on her scarred face, as if her subconscious mind had heard Andrea’s words....