I was already too late!!

  

99 Bloody Lashes and a Bullet to His Heart

 — Alternative ending

I WAS ALREADY TOO LATE!!

AFTERMATH

The bullet echoed. A final bang that wasn’t empty.

Dominic collapsed to the ground—blood spreading too fast, too real.

Ariana stood frozen.

She didn’t scream.

She didn’t run to him.

She just… left.

Stumbling, numb. Not because she didn’t care—because she cared too much. Too deeply. Too wildly. She didn’t know what was real anymore. Didn’t know if her heart was still inside her chest or lying on the ground next to him.

SINCLAIR MANSION

Everything moved fast.

Too fast.

The wedding was set. Dresses, florals, the whispers of approval. Christopher was kind. Gentle, even. But Ariana couldn’t see any of it. Her thoughts… were trapped. Like thorns coiling tighter around Dominic’s blood-soaked shirt.

The 99 lashes she gave him flashed in her head—the cruel, punishing ones.

Then, that night. When he handed her the knife, guiding her hand to carve “Ari” into his own skin. She had felt the resistance of muscle, the warm gush of blood… and his still eyes. Not flinching. Just… waiting. For her.

She smirkingly called her girl friends as “husband, husband, husband” on the phone call,  just to hurt him. And he? Took it. All of it.

He never once fought back. Not after everything he did wrong.

And still, he asked for forgiveness.

But who was she to forgive him?

She was never even angry. Not truly. She had loved him… always. From the very first time her eyes met his. Quiet. Honest. One-sided, yes—but pure.

And yet, he thought he owed her something.

He made Mia marry an old man.

Destroyed her father.

Took every ounce of revenge she couldn’t.

And in the end, still—still—he was the one bleeding for her.

And she? Told him she wanted to leave.

When she didn’t even mean what she said.

Why did she think he wouldn’t pull the trigger?

Three empty rounds already done.

Why did she say that?

And even in the moment of death, he thought of her.

He wrote her name on his will.

Left everything behind for her, so no one would trouble her.

How stupid, how beautiful, how painfully… him. 

She couldn’t breathe. Caught in his thoughts, overwhelmed. 

THE WEDDING

The music started.

Ariana walked down the aisle, numb. The world blurred. Her dress didn’t matter. Neither did the applause.

Only one image stood before her: her man bleeding, the one who had never stopped loving her—even when she shattered him.

She looked at Christopher.

She said

“I… I don’t.”

A silence dropped.

“I’m sorry, Christopher. I’m already too late. I need to leave.”

He smiled, gently. “I know. 

and He’s in critical condition. You should go. I’m sorry I kept you this long.”

Tears blurred her vision.

She ran.

THE CAB

Everything came rushing back like waves she couldn’t hold back anymore.

The moment she saw him for the first time.

The way he took the knife for her.

All the things she thought he did for Mia—had always been for the white dress girl. Her.

The blood. The knife. The lashes.

The Mastiff bites. The number of apologies.

The pain.

Why did she walk away?

Why did she think she didn’t want him?

She had long forgiven him. But she had never forgotten him, ever.

Even before she knew the truth she never forgot him, she had always loved him, even when the marriage was proposed, her heart remembered her dream of walking down the aisle for Dominic. 

THE HOSPITAL

She barged into the room breathless.

He lay there.

Wounds still fresh.

Her name—Ari—carved on his chest like a scar too deep to heal.

His arms marked with the bite of mastiffs, still healing.

Her whip lashes—angry, raw—stretched across his back, dark and cruel.

She fell to her knees beside him, gently touching his face.

His eyes fluttered open.

She gasped.

“Ari…” he whispered, voice raspy.

Tears poured as she hugged him, her body trembling.

He hissed from the pain—his chest still sore from the shot—but he didn’t let her go.

They both giggled, broken and soft.

Because what else could they do?

They were both crazy. But somehow, it made sense.

THE PROMISE

She pulled back. “I don’t know what to say. I—”

“You don’t have to,” he interrupted. “You’re all I need. I’ll keep repaying you, always. I promised.”

She shook her head fiercely. “No. Stop hurting yourself for me. Every time you get hurt, it hurts me too. You’ve done enough. Too much.”

He reached for something beside the bed.

Two rings.

Forged from the metal of the whip she used on him.

“I melted it down. Thought maybe… if i wore the pain as a promise, I’d never forget it. Never repeat it. This is my vow.”

She gasped, tears flooding again.

She took one and slid it on his finger. “And this is mine—I’ll never leave you again.” All you ever did was, in love. without knowing the truth about mia, its not your fault, you don't have to live in guilt. 

HEALING

He recovered slowly. And she was always there.

Nurses whispered that he was smiling again.

That his pain seemed lighter when she was near.

And when he was strong enough to stand on his own… he proposed. Not in secret.

But loud. Public. Real.

The world saw them—flawed, wrecked, but whole in their love.

THE WEDDING

She walked down the aisle in the same white dress he had fallen in love with her in.

The sun kissed her skin. The birds chirped, just like that day in the yard.

He stood waiting, eyes full.

She said I do, this time. No hesitation.

THE WEDDING NIGHT

Their bedroom was simple. Familiar. Safe.

The room Dominic had designed similar to Ari's childhood home. It was home.

Ariana stepped inside slowly, heart beating wildly.

He was already there, sitting on the edge of the bed, wearing that nervous, crooked smile. The kind he rarely showed anyone else.

He stood slowly, walking up to her. Their hands met in the middle.

Warm. Safe. Real.

“You look beautiful,” he murmured, brushing her hair behind her ear.

She leaned into his touch like she was starved for it.

Then he bent and kissed her—slow, reverent.

A kiss that tasted of tears and healing and years of longing.

She pulled him closer, wrapping her arms around his neck. He winced from pain, and she pulled back immediately.

“Sorry,” she whispered.

He shook his head. “No. I want this. I want you. Every part of you.”

Her lips found his again. This time slower, deeper. Her hands ran over the lines of his chest, pausing over the faded scars—her name, the whip marks, the memories of pain.

They sank into the bed like waves folding into each other.

Clothes fell away slowly—no rush, no tension. Just breathless touches.

Her fingertips traced every scar on his body, kissing each one like a vow.

His hands held her like she was both breakable and untouchable.

When he entered her, it wasn’t just physical—it was two souls becoming one.

Ariana gasped into his shoulder. He stilled. “Are you okay?”

She cupped his face, eyes glassy. “I’ve never been better.”

Their bodies moved in perfect rhythm—soft moans, whispered names, shared tears. There was no dominance, no games—only devotion.

The moonlight slid across their skin as they made love, over and over again. Pausing only to whisper more apologies. More promises.

It was raw. Messy. Real.

And when it was over, they lay tangled together—sweaty, exhausted, blissful.

Dominic pressed his forehead to hers.

“I love you, Ariana.”

“I love you more,” she whispered. “And I’m not going anywhere this time.”

They fell asleep like that—wrapped in each other, no more ghosts between them. Only the future.

They woke up to birds chirping, tangled in sheets and each other’s arms.

And on the side table… was a whip.

They both stared at it. Then burst out laughing.

“You’re insane,” she whispered.

“You married me,” he grinned.

“You seriously kept that thing?” she asked, half teasing, half blushing, still half asleep. 

“I melted the one you used on me,” he said, voice soft. “This one… was for a different reason.”

She tilted her head. “Different reason?”

“I figured… maybe we could make new memories with it—the kind that make you blush, not bleed.”

Her breath caught— “You’re crazy” she says

“For you,” he whispered. 

They fall back asleep hugging each other smiling happily. 

HAPPILY EVER AFTER

One morning, he made her favorite spicy food.

She chuckled, pushing the plate away.

“It’s not good for the baby.”

He froze.

Then his face broke into the biggest, most idiotic smile she had ever seen.

The Northshore family was finally whole.

And this time—it stayed that way.

END.