Authors Note: Thank you to everyone left comments or sent me feedback about previous chapters of this story. Thank you to Margaret who proofread for me. I hope you enjoy this chapter. ~ellie
They had hired a ground floor function room that opened up into a private garden area that overlooked the river. While Peri had invited her friends, the huge guest list was compromised mainly from Josh's family. She felt almost like a stranger at her own party as she was introduced by Josh to various groups of people knowing she would never remember names and how they were related to him.
The gift table was stacked high and the small wishing well they had agreed to for people who wanted to give them a card rather than a present overflowed. She was glad in the end that she had let Andie and Lucia talk her into doing a gift registry at two major department stores.
Josh had reassured her that aside of those directly involved in the incident with Nik, including his direct family, no one knew what had happened to her. She relaxed into the evening being happy to speak with those she knew but finding she liked the majority of the guests she met. Josh was kept busy with the family he didn't get to see very often and she often left his side from to time to find a quiet seat with her friends.
She was standing with Dante and Louisa facing the door to the function room when a tall beautiful woman walked in. She was elegant and regal and when she turned to survey the room Peri froze.
"No, no, no, no, no!" She said rapidly the glass she was holding slipping from her fingers to shatter at her feet breaking the spell of the shock she felt. She turned to run and began moving through the crowd, almost pushing people out of her way to get to the back garden and make her escape. Dante had followed her closely grabbing her before she could get there.
"Peri stop!" he said loudly making her turn to look at him. "What the hell happened?"
"It's Nik! Nik's here!" she looked back over his shoulder and the woman was nowhere in sight.
"No, Nik is in Canberra, you know this," Dante was saying reasonably as Josh appeared at their side looking worried.
"I saw her. She came in just then. I saw her Josh," Peri whispered wide-eyed. "I have to go. I have to go home."
"The woman you saw arriving late was Izabella," Josh said calmly. "It was my sister Izabella," he said a second time wrapping her in his arms. "She came home for the party I told you that I sent her invitation, remember? She wanted to surprise us so she hadn't told us she would be here."
"Bigger surprise than anyone counted on," Dante chuckled relaxing. "I gotta admit though they do look alike, a bit of a heads up would have been a better idea for Peri."
"But I saw Nik, she was there," Peri repeated her fear refusing to believe what he was saying.
"Let's get some fresh air and D can get Izzy once you meet her you will see that it's not Nik," Josh said soothingly and walked her out past the party goers to a quiet space.
"No," Peri shook her head. "I don't want to. I thought I could do this. I thought everything could go back to normal but it can't, can it. I'm sorry Josh I love you but I can't do this. Let me go. I need to go home."
"You don't mean that. It's just the shock of seeing Izzy," Josh tried to reason with her.
"As long as I am with you I will keep expecting to see her everywhere I go," Peri said. "As long as I am with you I will never be free to move on. You weren't there, not in the library, not in the courtroom. You don't know what I know. You didn't see her or hear her. I can't do this, I tried I really did, I wanted it so much." She began to cry and took the rings from her finger.
"You can't be serious!" Josh exploded. "What about what I want?"
"Please Josh, just let me go. I'm sorry about all of this," she waved a hand around indicating the party. "Maybe it was for the best though because now we know we were doomed to fail. Don't follow me, please just let me go." She put the rings in his hand and walked around the side of the building heading for her hotel room.
"What about what I want?" he asked her retreating form. He couldn't let her go like this. He went after her and stopped her before she reached the side door. "I get it, I understand, but she's in prison and not even eligible for parole for the next twenty years. That feeling will fade I promise, please just come and meet Izzy. She flew all the way from Italy to meet you. All of these people are here to meet you." He wrapped his arms around her and held her tightly to him. "Don't leave me," he begged in a whisper.
"There you are," Dante said in a loud voice approaching them followed by a tall stunningly beautiful woman.
"Oh gosh, I'm sorry. I didn't know you'd been injured so terribly recently," Izabella gushed. "I just wanted to surprise my baby brother and I scared you half to death you poor thing. This woman who hurt you must have been terrifying," she said and Peri realised she didn't know that Nik had tried to kill her.
Peri looked at the woman with the sultry, accented voice. Up close she could see that the woman bore nothing more than a family resemblance to Nik. It was more the way she carried herself like a supermodel and the long dark hair that had made her panic the way she did. Josh was right she couldn't walk out on her own party, and humiliate not only herself but him in the process. She felt the need to flee but she pulled herself together for the time being. She would make her apologies and claim fatigue and dizziness after a little while and leave the party in a more dignified manner.
"It was a shock, but no harm was done," Peri said disentangling herself from Josh's arms. "I just needed a moment to get my bearings again. It's lovely to meet you," she said holding out her hand and feeling Josh relax beside her.
"It's lovely to meet you too," Izabella smiled warmly. "Come and say hello to Mama and Papa, they were so worried when you ran off like that. They thought you hadn't wanted to see them."
"If you'll just excuse me for a moment first I need to powder my nose, literally," she smiled.
"Of course," Izabella said. "I'll see you back inside the party."
"Peri?" Andie came around the corner. "I heard you..." She stopped in shock as Izabella turned with the others to look at Andie and Charles, who had followed her to find Peri.
"Andie this is my sister Izabella," Dante said into the silence.
"My god, you look just like her," Andie blinked. She looked at Peri and saw the brave false smile as well as the tear tracks in her makeup.
"Andie, can you help me find the bathrooms, I need to freshen up," Peri said lightly moving toward the relative safety of her mother.
"I was going to ask you the same thing, let's find them together," Andie linked her arm through Peris. "Sorry to rush off, we'll talk more inside," she said to Izabella and walked away from the party toward the foyer of the hotel.
"You don't have to follow us, Josh," Peri said abruptly as he started walking behind the two women.
"He's just worried about you," Andie chastised her daughter. "No one expects you to be fully recovered. I got a shock myself. We'll fix your makeup and go back to the party and everything will be fine."
"I'm not fine, though, am I?" Peri said sadly. "I'm a nut case. How could I possibly have thought this was a good idea?"
"We'll get you some help to work through it," Josh said desperation colouring his voice. He could feel her slipping away from him again as she had at the hospital. Maybe he pushed her too fast, too hard but he had hoped once they were committed, married even, that she would stop running away from him and life would start returning to normal.
Peri had felt that she didn't need the help Pete kept encouraging her to get. The nightmares had begun to ease and she was sleeping better in the last two weeks. Working through her list of things that would make her feel normal again, she had felt she was getting back to her regular life again. Until tonight, she had been feeling good about how she was handling everything. The urgent need to flee the situation was dissipating as she walked into the bathroom with Andie leaving Josh waiting outside.
In a calmer way, she told Andie the same things she had said to Josh. "I thought I could do this but I can't," she began. "As long as I am with him I will keep expecting to see her everywhere I go," Peri said. "I will never be free to move on. I can't do this despite wanting it so much." She said sadly. "We are doomed to fail because I will always be waiting and worrying for her to show up again. I gave him back the rings," she said with a trembling voice.
"Stand right there," Andie said and checked the stalls of the quiet out of the way bathroom. Then she went to the door and opened it surprising Josh who stood nearby. "Get in here," she said and motioned him into the ladies' bathroom.
"I can't stay out of this anymore," Andie said as Josh warily walked into the bathroom. "You apologise for acting like a crazy woman," she pointed at Peri. "And you," she pointed at Josh, "Give her back her rings." She saw Peri hesitate but Josh sighed in relief. "I'm not a doctor, but I have spoken to far too many over the last couple of months not to pick up a thing or two. Baby, it's perfectly reasonable to admit you have post-traumatic stress and need help. I should have made you see the counsellor but I was enjoying the fact that you were treating me like your mother again."
"You are my mother," Peri said shaking her head.
"We both know you hadn't thought of me as your mum for years before all this, because I didn't act like it, I guess," Andie admitted. "Now admit you had a panic attack and apologise to Josh for taking off that ring. You love him and he loves you. The family is neither here nor there. You can love them or hate them because you don't have to live with them you only have to live with him." Andie took on a lecturing tone.
"I did have a panic attack, I'm still having it in fact," she said softly. "I'm sorry I took off my rings." She apologised responding to her mother's authority.
