The CEO's Rose

Ryan’s POV

A part of Ryan had truly been worried. He had actually thought that news of Bryce’s death had changed things between him and Vivian. That the man’s demise had made her realize that she still had feelings for him even after everything that Bryce had done to her.

Ryan had never been more glad to be proven wrong. Thanks to that assumption, he had nearly lost his Vivian again. Lucky for the both of them, before things had escalated to the point of no return, they had managed to fix their relationship.

In fact, it was better than fixed. They were getting married. Vivian Rose was no longer a friends with benefits situation. She was no longer just his girlfriend. She was his fiancée. His soon to be wife. That was huge. And Ryan was very proud that at some point in the near future, (very soon in the future), if he had any say in it, Vivian would be his wife.

Vivian Terrell, he liked the sound of that.

But, as much as he liked that, there was still a very huge mental block in her path. Something that she had readily admitted to needing to resolve in order to feel that she was truly ready to move on with her life.

***

Closure.

She was right. She needed to put the final nail in the coffin when it came to all things that had tied her to Bryce. As much as it hurt Ryan to acknowledge, Bryce had been a big part of Vivian’s life for a long time. Anybody who said that they could easily turn off all of their feelings, their hurt and pain over somebody who had been with them for so long was either not telling the truth, or they had not cared at all.

His Vivian, too full of heart for her own good, was at least honest enough to admit that her relationship with her ex had left a wound that she needed to close.

Ryan, being the supportive fiancée that he was, was all for that. He was completely in favour of Vivian leaving the past and the past and moving on with him.

But as much as he wanted to rush things, he did not wish to push her to move forward when she was not ready. Doing so would not benefit her in the long run at all.

In fact, if he was not careful, it could even cause cracks in their relationship that could result in the two of them parting ways. That was not something that he wanted happening at all. He would help her deal with this issue so that their future would have as few hurdles as possible.

Were it up to Ryan, Bryce, monster that he was, would not be getting a proper funeral. He would simply just take the man, burn him to ash and flush those ashes down the nearest public toilet. But as awful as he had been, Bryce had actually had family, people who had cared about him. So that meant that the man was going to get a proper funeral.

Rather than bothering Vivian with all of that and asking her to check on things, Ryan had instead enlisted Amy’s help. The woman had willingly agreed to reach out to some of the people who had been close to Bryce in order to ask about how the funeral arrangements were going. When she had come back with the word that the body had indeed been released and that his family was working on getting him underground as quickly as possible. Ryan had then asked her to get him in touch with Bryce’s family.

The phone call had been insanely awkward on both sides. On one end, Ryan had not really wanted to be talking to those people, but for his Vivian’s sake, he had endured. It had been clear that the young man and the other end, Bryce’s younger brother had been very ashamed and also more than a little terrified. Clearly thinking that Ryan was about to ruin their entire family over the actions of his brother.

After Ryan had assured Bryce’s brother that he would not be doing such a thing. It had crossed his mind briefly, but he had decided against it when he had done a bit of research and had realized that Bryce had been the black sheep of the family. An anomaly in a group of people that were known for being generally well-mannered.

By the end of that conversation, Ryan had been able to determine that Vivian was welcome at the funeral. Had he been somebody looking for drama, he simply would have taken her along without enquiring first. The two of them would have crashed the event. Ruining Bryce’s final moments above ground by having all of the attention being on them and fighting with his family if it came to that.

But that was the last thing that Ryan wanted. What he wanted was for Vivian to attend the funeral and get her closure. To realize that her ex was well and truly gone, that he would not be hurting her anymore.

***

With as much trouble as he had gone to in order to make sure that the two of them were welcome at the funeral. Ryan was now realizing that he had forgotten the most important thing. He had forgotten to tell Vivian what he had been doing.

Now, as he sat next to her, the two of them taking a bit of a breather after a boxing session, he realized that he was going to have to do it.

Bryce’s funeral was only two days away.

"Darling, I have to tell you something and I want you to listen with an open mind, but just know that whatever you choose, I’m with you no matter what," Taking a drink from her water bottle, Vivian nodded and gave him her full attention.

"What is it?" She asked.

Tapping lightly at his own bottle, Ryan decided to just hit her with the truth.

"I have an idea on how to get you closure. I believe that attending Bryce’s funeral will help," From the way that her entire body stiffened, he knew that his words were not something that she had been expecting at all.

"Ryan, I can’t, I..." Not even able to finish the sentence, Vivian stared at him with wide eyes, her breaths suddenly coming too fast. Reaching out, he placed a calming hand on her shoulder.

"Hey, it’s alright. It is just an option, not something I’m forcing you to do. I have already spoken with his family and they said they would be alright with you attending, so it is up to you. Would you like to go or not?"