I’d Give Up The World For You - Chapter 228

Leo said his favorite flower was daisies with a rather sad smile on his face the second time they met. Daisy now knew that daisies were Veronica’s favorite flower. That would explain his reaction in some ways but not others.

She tried to remember what else he had said that day. After a moment she recalled he said something about how her name suited her because he always thought of daisies as cheerful, friendly flowers. And how widely he had grinned at her when she embarrassed herself by complimenting his hair though the sadness lingered in his eyes.

Veronica talked about how pretty his hair was throughout the story. It would also explain why Leo said he had a rather sentimental reason for loving the color red even though it wasn’t his favorite.

Rukelion dyed his hair for most of the prequel to hide his identity and she always made him red sweaters in honor of the color he was so proud of but had to hide. That would certainly explain it. The coincidences were too stacked up at this point.

Almost everything Daisy knew about her boyfriend could fit into what she had read about Rukelion Blaze. There were a few discrepancies but everything else made sense.

She had a lot of questions…and while they swirled around in her head she recalled something she had largely pushed out of her mind before. How well Leo seemed to know her despite their minimal time together.

Her preferences in bed…how she would react to certain things…being so positive she would be horrible at juggling and then being right…There had been a lot of things like this throughout the time she had known him but she had dismissed them as coincidences.

Daisy couldn’t do that anymore. She was in full-on conspiracy theory mode. Coincidences were out the window now.

Rukelion had known Veronica for eight years. Leo had known Daisy for less than one.

It was crazy…but was it possible that in a previous life she had been Veronica? It would coincide with what he said about how she was the only person in his heart even though he had a wife. And it would explain why he freaked out so much after his allergic reaction and didn’t want to let her out of his sight.

If her theory was correct, it had nothing to do with needing to be near someone he trusted while he was panicking and everything to do with her specifically. Because he had seen her die of an allergy right in front of him.

That world’s medicine didn’t seem very advanced based on what she had read. They definitely didn’t have epi-pens there.

Why would the author change things though? That didn’t make sense to her. Everything else seemed not only feasible but likely given what she did know about her boyfriend.

Daisy didn’t want to be a replacement for anyone even if it happened to be a different version of herself. Nothing they had was real if every time he looked at her he was seeing someone else.

If that was the case this wasn’t going to work. She couldn’t stay with a fictional villain solely because she might have been his wife in another time and place. That didn’t fly with her. She wanted to be loved for herself not because she was the shadow of someone else.

She couldn’t keep wondering forever. She was going to confront him about this when he woke up and he WAS going to answer her questions even if she had to squeeze them out of him!

Leo began to stir and Daisy decided to conduct a test while he was half-asleep to see if she could get him to talk. She called his name. His real name (at least according to her suspicions). If he answered to it that would essentially confirm things for her.

“Rukelion,” she said softly.

“Mm? What is it, Daisy?” he slurred sleepily.

She could hardly understand what he was saying but he definitely responded to that name while still calling her by hers. Was it reflex? Was he able to tell people apart when he was half-asleep even though he couldn’t remember which name he was supposed to respond to?

“You’re Rukelion Blaze!”

That woke him up fully. He sat up and stared at her with a mixture of hope and panic in his eyes. “You finally remember?!”

Daisy suddenly flashed back to the morning of his birthday when he had a very similar reaction to her remembering when his birthday was. Then when she said she saw it on his driver’s license he got oddly disappointed until he ate his birthday breakfast in bed and perked up a little.

Leo had been waiting for her to remember him all this time, hadn’t he? But she wasn’t who he thought she was! She was going to have to explain that to him once and for all.

“No. But I managed to put it together after reading the prequel. Juliet Gallagher didn’t base her villain off of you. You ARE her villain. You hate her because of how she wrote your character. And I’m pretty sure you also think I’m your dead wife,” she said with a scowl.

A flurry of emotions crossed his face in the several long moments before he let out a heavy sigh. “You’re far too smart for your own good. And I don’t think; I know. Without a shadow of a doubt, you’re my Daisy.”

Daisy was incredibly confused. She was still stunned he admitted to it so easily once he was caught after being so resistant all this time.

“Your Daisy?”

Leo—no, Rukelion—nodded. “Daisy Blaze, born and raised in Ohio. Your mother was twice divorced before you were six so you didn’t believe in love or the institution of marriage. You spent most of your childhood in foster care and lived on the streets several times after running away. It was how you recognized I was running away from something terrible and were willing to help me disguise myself.

“You thought you died in your car accident but your soul was sent to my world and inhabited the body of Veronica May while you were in a coma. Time flows differently between the two places so the eight years you were there only counted as four days here.

“It took a while for you to tell me the truth about yourself. You told me your name the day you found out I was a fire mage to get me to talk and said that you were from a faraway place called Ohio. I didn’t find out you were from another world until much later but the technology I heard about seemed impossible.

“What you said about it helped me realize where I was when I ended up with that horrible hag Juliet. She made it inside my world too. Her theory is that it happened because she was writing the draft of the prequel and your arrival changed everything. She got sucked into her computer and ended up in the capital after we were married.”

He paused and took a deep breath before continuing his unbelievable tale. It seemed this part was hard for him to talk about.

“She was thoroughly convinced I was the monster she wrote me to be and set out to destroy me. That resulted in your death. She got the heroes of the original novel together to defeat me plus a few others and one of them held a grudge.

“She…she…we all killed you. It was an accident! The ice mage girl had you at knifepoint so Ira and I had to work together to try and save you. She barely nicked you as we took her out but the knife was poisoned. That wouldn’t have been a problem if the antidote hadn’t had bee venom in it.

“Veronica’s body was allergic to bees and we didn’t know because you had never been stung before. Ira tried to save you but you and our unborn child died anyway. You can’t imagine how horrified I was to discover that was so easily treatable here when it made me lose both of you…

“I thought you had died before and come here so I was convinced that you would end up somewhere else after dying a second time and all I had to do was follow you. I can sense people’s heat signatures with my magic and I would know yours anywhere so I used up quite a lot of firepower to find you.

“That worthless woman thought I was trying to destroy the world in my grief and tried to stop me, pushing me off course. I had to spend six horrible months with her while trying to track you down and learn how to fit into this world.

“I was so excited when I found you again until I realized you didn’t remember me. I can’t deny that nearly broke me again but once I came to my senses I thought I could try again without having all the mistakes from before hanging over us.

“I wanted nothing more than to make things up to you, Daisy. To live peacefully with you without any need for revenge or keeping you cooped up in the castle. I’ll never do anything you don’t like again and will help you get that land you want.

“That’s been my only goal ever since you fell in love with me again. All I want is to help you be happy this time and to stay by your side. I’m sorry I failed you before. I was selfish and blinded by rage and grief.

“I’m not all the way better yet but I’m working on it. I’m trying to get a hold of my negative emotions and put the past behind me so I can focus on our future instead. I’ll never let anything come before you again.. I’m so sorry I didn’t do that before. I’m so, so sorry!”