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EPILOGUE

Austin

There are people in a person’s life that they will never forget, no matter how much time has passed. Even if the only interaction was a text message once a year on their shared birthdays.

Annabelle Carsen was that person for Austin. Or, as the rest of the world knew her, Belle Sweets, America’s Sweetheart. A country music sensation that took the world by storm when she was only sixteen years old. Now nearly fifteen years later, she was still releasing albums and touring around the world to sold-out stadiums. And just like thousands of others across the world, he loved her music.

He would wait every year for her one text wishing him a happy birthday. She never forgot, and he never changed his number for that exact reason. That day he would smile bigger and not for the reasons his friends thought. He never cared that it was his birthday. He only cared that it was hers as well.

For one day, he would be happier than ever before, but it always ended.

This year was different though. This year, when his phone lit up with a text, it wasn’t on his birthday and it wasn’t something happy.

It was one word.

BELLS: Help!

That was all she said and Austin knew without a shadow of a doubt that he would drop everything to do what she asked. Because Annabelle wasn’t just an old high school friend, she was the woman who owned his heart.