Staring at the keyboard in frustration, I watched the line that marked where I had stopped writing blink slowly at me, almost like it was taunting me with each flash of its existence. Why was it so hard to decide on the next part of the story?

I had spent the last twenty minutes struggling over whether I should keep the female lead together with her current lover or have her fall back into the arms of her first love, who had returned after having been lost while traveling in a foreign land and assumed dead for several years.

With each choice came new possibilities but also new consequences. Even so, it should not be this hard to choose one or the other, so why was I struggling so much to do so? Why was I feeling so conflicted by this? I had planned it all in advance up to this point and beyond, but suddenly when I got to this point, I found a part of me wanting to take a different route.

I let out a small shriek when I felt hands suddenly grasp my shoulders, holding a hand to my chest as I tried to calm my heart down as Leon rested his head on top of mine. Honestly, he was lucky I hadn't smacked him yet for all the times he liked to startle me like this.

"If she loves him, she would return to him. If she doesn't, then she would move on. So the only question is, does she still love him?" His soft voice whispered into my ear after he'd finished reading what I'd typed and moved his head down beside my own.

Feeling his arms wrap around me reassuringly, I barely had to think before making my choice, my fingers finding the keyboard once more and moving swiftly over the keys.

--------

"They want to what?" I stood with my mouth dropped open as I stared at Leon, his face caught in a huge grin as he waved the letter back and forth in front of me. There was no way I heard what I thought I did. I mean, how would they even know how to contact me outside of the website? There was no way it could be real.

"As I said, they want to publish your books. Of course, they will start with just the first one and see how well it does, but if it is even half as successful as expected, they will continue publishing the entire series. I knew you could do it, Shina. I knew that someday you would be just as well known as the authors you always adored so much ," he stated as one of his hands came up to caress my cheek, a gentle look forming on his face as he looked at me with a soft grin.

Throwing my arms around his neck, I hugged him tightly as I sobbed happily into his chest, not caring how it had happened. At this point, it became clear that Leon was behind it somehow, just as he had been behind everything wonderful that happened to me these days.

How did I become so lucky?

--------

It was another dream come true. To meet with the agent we would be talking to, both ours and the publishers, to discuss the arrangements for them to publish the first of my books, we would be traveling across the border into France where we would stay for three days in Paris while the agent Leon had talked to would meet with us and join our discussions each day as we all tried to make a deal we could all be happy with.

Right now, however, I could care less about the meetings and the deal. I was finally going to Paris! It was a dream come true! Oh! I would finally get to see the Eiffel Tower and the Louvre, the Arc D'Truimph and maybe even Notre Dame!

Deep inside my memories, I could still hear myself talking about going there someday with Matthew as Emily watched cartoons with Elijah in the other room. It had been like a secret wish shared between just the two of us at that moment in time, something I had never dared speak aloud to anyone else but him.

Oh Matthew, even with everything I had now, I still missed my son. I could only pray he was still safe, back at home with his sister and father.

So far, so very far, out of my reach.

--------

I had to be careful to keep her distracted more often. Even now I could tell that she still thought of her past from time to time, missing something from before that I knew I couldn't give her. Somehow, I had to find something new to fill that empty spot, something that even writing books and going on trips couldn't do.

Maybe somewhere during this trip, she would give a clue to something else that might help distract her from this heartache that I couldn't bare to see her in. I really didn't want her to hurt any more than she already had in her lifetime.