Chapter 252: Rest In...?
Vivian’s POV
Life really had a way of handling people. Bryce had been a horrible human being, an awful boyfriend and an even worse ex. He had tried to kill her for crying out loud.
With all of those things Vivian was certain that no one, not even his family members and friends, would have been shocked had she decided that she wanted nothing that connected her with the man at all. But instead of avoiding Bryce and all things related to him like the plague, she was attending his funeral.
He had wanted her in a coffin. Now she was the one staring at his.
Barely feeling anything, she sat at the back with Ryan by her side watching his family cry over his coffin, closed casket, the irony. He had spent so many years trying to look good and now he was such a hot mess that no one was allowed to see him. Not only that there were dozens of strong air fresheners strategically placed in an effort to hide just how bad he stank. A foul man even in death.
Vivian knew that it was not right to think ill of the dead but she could not help her less than charitable thoughts towards her ex. Gripping Ryan’s hand tight, she glared as his aunt talked about what a hard worker her nephew had been. Sure he’d been that, the man had worked hard in making her feel small. She had really felt that hard work when he had tried to strangle her to death.
As the speeches continued Vivian got angrier and angrier. All the speakers did was recount the ways in which Bryce had been such a great guy. They painted him as a saint, not a single one daring to openly look in her direction.
Trembling with rage, she grit her teeth as funeral progressed.
"Are you alright?" Ryan asked, as everyone began to hum, a funeral song. Briefly turning to him, Vivian returned his gaze to the casket up ahead and let all of her anger come to the surface. She felt every little irritation that she had ever suppressed when it came to Bryce come up and threaten to shake her. Getting to her feet without even realizing it, she began walking towards the front. Barely aware of the shocked gasps that followed as well as the hushed whispers. Clearly everybody in there knew exactly who she was, and they were worried that there was about to be some drama.
Her back straight, her head held high, Vivian walked forward, ignoring all of them. As she neared the front, she saw Bryce’s mother. The woman looked torn between throwing herself at Vivian’s feet and begging, and putting herself between Vivian and her dead son, trying to protect him even in death.
But the older woman’s reaction was unwarranted. Vivian was done with toxicity, that had been more Bryce’s thing. Grabbing a rose from one of the bouquets up front, she walked over to the casket and placed it directly on top.
No words said, she simply looked down at the wooden container. She channeled her rage into it, directed her sadness at it, and hoped that the man within could feel how relieved she was that he was gone.
That done she turned and began walking back. Glad when she found Ryan waiting for her. The man had let her take the necessary steps alone, but now he was waiting for her. Just the sight of him warmed her soul.
Leaving her ex behind, and walking towards her fiancé, she descended the tiny steps of the stage, slipped her hand into his, and the two of them began walking away.
They did not return to their seats. Instead, they walked right out of the little building, the people inside breathing a collective sigh of relief as they walked through the doors.
***
The moment that the giant doors closed behind them. The cool morning air, brushing over them, Vivian felt a sense of peace that she had not felt in a really long time.
It was as though all of the anger, the hurt and pain that she had been feeling while staring at Bryce’s casket had been left behind with the dead body. Now all that she had in the space where those negative emotions used to be was a blank slate. A new space in her heart that she fully intended to fill with nothing but happy memories and good times.
"Are you all right?" Ryan asked again, his hand around her waist. Looking over at him and taking a moment to admire how good he looked in his charcoal black suit, Vivian nodded.
"At first, when you proposed coming to the funeral, I will admit, I was not too sure, but now that I have done it, I realized that this was truly for the best. Thank you," Moving closer to him, she dropped a kiss on his cheek, the red lipstick that she’d worn that day, leaving a visible mark against his pale skin.
"The last memory that I will ever have of him is his casket, a closed casket funeral. I remember one time he laughed at people who had such. He’d made this awful joke about how even gunshot victims who’d had their heads blown off, could have an open casket so long as they had a six pack. That everybody would be too busy looking at their abs to care about anything else," Ryan’s brows rose at that and Vivian shrugged. Her ex really had been something else, sucking her lower lip between her teeth and no doubt ruining her lipstick even more Vivian shook her head.
"To see him having the exact kind of funeral that he had laughed at. I don’t know, I feel it brings home to me that at the end of the day he was just a man. As much as he’d have liked to think he had control, none of us really control anything,"
"So there’s no way I’m going to let my experiences with him dictate how I live the rest of my life. He is in there and I am out here. It is up to me to make good memories without him," Ryan smiled softly at her words. Taking her hand in his, he tucked it into his elbow and the two of them began walking towards where the car was parked. They had almost made it there when she stopped upon hearing the sound of her name being called. Turning around, she was greeted by the sight of Bryce’s younger brother running towards them.
Alex? What did he want?