Soon a fight broke out in the garden. And the huge difference in their numbers was causing more damage to Charles' men than to Kei's. Avery grabbed her gun off the table and rushed towards Kei, while dodging and ignoring everyone else. Finding the opportunity in the chaos, Avery aimed the gun at Kei's head and pulled the trigger. But right before the gun fired, someone grabbed her arm and ruined her aim. It made the bullet slip past near Kei's ear. Kei's attention turned towards her and he headed towards her.

Avery looked behind her, at the man who grabbed her arm just now and was shocked at finding Salvatore standing there with anger in his eyes. "Not again. Never again." He warned her, which was more confusing than anything. What did he mean by that?

Before she could thing any more, Kei was almost at them and he reached his arm out to grab her. She dodged and kicked his knee joint. He staggered, so Avery took advantage of this and reached behind him. She held him in a choke hold and pressed the silencer of her gun to the side of his head.

"You Bastard, how dare you betray Tsuda?!" She cursed him out through clenched teeth.

"Avery." He sighed out. The voice of the masked man made her pause for a second.

"Avery good! Kill him!" Uncle Charles shouted.

Avery looked around and saw almost all of the men on their side were dead or unconscious. Only her and Uncle Charles were standing and fighting. Most of Kei's men were done with the fight and stood around watching or smoking including Salvatore.

Avery clenched her jaw in tension and smacked the back of her pistol on the side of Kei's face making him bleed. This cause his eyepatch to get loose and fell to the ground. She heard a gasp from Uncle Charles who was looking at them. Suddenly Avery was pushed back by the masked man, who only had the left half of his face covered in a white mask. He got out of Avery's grip and reached Charles in a blink, with his own pistol now aimed at the side of Uncle Charles.

Avery, now facing the masked man gasped as she recognized the half revealed face of the man. It was Tsuda himself.

Her throat closed up as emotions welled up in them. Oh God! She sighed in amazement.

"Please. Trust me this time. He needs to die." Tsuda said to her, while taking of his mask. Blood was dripping down his temple where Avery had hit him earlier. She closed her eyes for a second to thank God for keeping him alive and well but soon her thoughts were broken by Uncle Charles' voice.

"Avery?!" He choked out with fear in his eyes. Avery now alerted pointed the gun at Tsuda.

"Let my Uncle go." She said in a voice unlike herself, rather than her usual devoid of emotions voice. She begged him. "Please."

"Ikigai." He breathed out her name in pain and relief at seeing her face to face after a long time.

"It's me or him. Choose now. The time has turned back and the moment you killed me in that warehouse has returned. Choose again Avery. And if you've regretted killing me, choose me this time. And I'll forget the night at the warehouse ever happened. Choose now." Tsuda told her. Everything and everyone stood still around them. It was a crucial point of her life then.

What did Uncle do? Why would Tsuda want him dead? Did Uncle harm him before? Was Tsuda okay? Suddenly her thoughts stopped and she was amazed at what she was thinking. Rather than finding a way to defend her uncle and harm Tsuda all she thought was about Tsuda's wellbeing and what would have caused him to make the decision to kill her uncle. So the decision was clear before she was even conscious about him.

"I.." She tried but felt her throat tightening. Tsuda looked at her with hope in his eyes but in the back of his mind he also held doubt and pain. That once again his love and heart would be rejected, and once again she would not choose him. But this time, he was not sure if he would be able to live on with her rejection.

"I choose..you. A thousand time over I will choose you. I trust you." She choked out, throwing her gun down and then followed it down, as she sat on her knees in front of him.

"Forgive me, but I trust him." She told her Uncle without looking at him.

"Avery..." Charles tried begging her, but Tsuda silenced him by pressing the gun harder into his flash.

"Tell her what you did and I might spare you." He told Charles. But Charles remained silent.

He pulled the trigger close to his head but didn't hit him. Charles screamed at the loud bang and started trembling. "I... I was the one who convinced you father to divorce your mother." He stated.

"Tell her the main fucking thing!" He warned him as he reloaded his pistol.

"I... your mother was an only child and I was her only cousin. If she and you were to die, her inheritance would be mine. I... had an affair with your father and convinced him to kill you both to marry me." He told her everything.

"What?!" Avery shouted at that. So the person her father was having an affair with was not only her mother's cousin but also a man?! She was shocked.

"And?" Tsuda asked him.

Charles gritted out, "And I planned to tell you all of this today and kill you before leaving Japan. But right before I could we were attacked." Avery could not hide the hurt she felt at that. She chose him over Tsuda before. She thought of him as a family. She almost chose him again and he wanted her dead.

It broke her heart but everything made sense now, how he was after Tsuda to silence him, how he adopted her and used all her inherited funds to fulfill his greed and why Tsuda wanted to kill him.

She realized that Tsuda knew she would kill him and used this to make Charles lose his cover and relax. All so he could kill Charles.

Tsuda intentionally confined her so that she would contact Charles and he would come to Japan, out of his hiding spot. Avery thought she was tricking Tsuda by pretending to be docile in his cage but he knew all along she had contacted Charles and that was exactly what he wanted. What a cunning man, she thought.

"Should I finish him or would you like to do it yourself?" Tsuda asked her.

She was still on her knees and silent for a moment. "You should do it. Someone I shot in the heart survived before, maybe he will too if I do it." She told him and Tsuda showed a sly smile at that.

Bang he shot Charles in the head, so no rate of survival was left. Charles' almost headless body hit the ground and Avery moved her gaze to Tsuda. He walked towards her and before he could crouch down to her level, she hugged his legs with trembling hands. Her cheek rested on his thigh as tears started flowing down her eyes. Tsuda panicked and told everyone to leave including Salvatore.

"Should I tell Ava to prepare for a wedding soon?" He asked teasingly before leaving. Tsuda who had a gentle hand on top of Avery's head, told him. "No, her friend will inform her herself. Fuck off now." He flicked his wrist and gestured him to leave. He could not bear to see his woman looking this weak to anyone but himself. Salvatore left with a smile to his lips because he was proven wrong at his judgement of Avery. She clearly loved him too.

"Come now, don't make me embarrassed like that. Get up." Tsuda whispered to Avery in a soft voice and touched her shoulder to pull her up, but she won't budge.

"Please forgive me. Please... I can't live without you. I can't..." She could not continue and was hiccuping badly and trembling. Tsuda took the familiar coat off of his back and put it on hers.

"You are forgiven. That night didn't happen as I promised before." He told her as he stepped back and got on his knees to replicate her position.

He hugged her, hiding her in his arms and told her, "Come now, I'm not used to seeing you weak like this. Get up huh?" He pulled her up and sat down on the garden table with her in his lap. Her head was resting on his chest as he rubbed her back to stop her hiccups. Gradually the hiccups stopped and Avery breathed in his scent after a long while. It has a soothing effect on her body and she relaxed.

"So the letter was from you. You told me about my parents. Because you wanted me to lash out on Tsuda. So you could confine me and make me call Uncle Charles into Japan so you could finish your revenge and guilt about what happened that night." She told Tsuda.

"No, it was only partially for revenge. I did it because it was Charles who attacked you and Ava that night at your house. He was planning to kill you. I had to protect you." She reached her hand out, wiped the blood from his temple. "I'm sorry." She apologised about the wound.

"No problem. I will bear a thousand of them if it means I get to have you." He smiled down at her.

Her lower lip trembled at that and she cradled his face with on hand. He leaned into her touch and sighed in exhaustion and relief.

She pulled him down gently by his shirt and kissed his lips. His eyes widened for a moment in panic but soon he relaxed and kissed her back. After a while they pulled back and she looked him in the eyes. He met her soft gaze as she stated, "God took my family from me and sent you to me in apology." He smiled at that.

"So do I make up for the loss?" He asked her.

"Oh most perfectly. My ikigai." She told him and kissed him again. "Oh you know the meaning of it now?" He asked her. She nodded, "Yes, 'my reason to live' I got to know the meaning from the letter you sent to your father." She told him.

"Oh Shit." Tsuda panicked and stood up, pulling her up with him. Avery became anxious and asked. "What? What happened?" He got them to the car outside and got in, while giving Kei a nod in response to his bow.

"What is wrong Tsuda?" She asked him again as he started driving.

"My family, doesn't know I'm alive yet." He told her.

"Why did you not tell them about this whole plan of yours?" She told him.

"It was too risky, I could have died for real if Salvatore did not intervene in the last moment. My father would have stopped me from executing my plan or worst broken us apart immediately." He told her and sped towards their house.

She felt ashamed of her actions all over again and unconsciously reached out to him, putting her hand on his thigh. Tsuda gasped at that and the car waved a little to the other lane. Tsuda immediately corrected the car's position and told her. "Don't do that!" He told her. She looked at him confused about what the outburst was for.

But the moment her eyes caught what caused him to react that way she retreated her hand immediately. And turned towards the window. Her cheeks were burning red with embarrment.

"Are you a teenager?" She asked awkwardly. "Well I love you, you know. And I'm a healthy man. So it's a normal reaction." He defended himself. "And you know very well there is nothing wrong with me in that area, don't you?" He teased back.

"Yeah, we have nothing to worry about in that matter, but we sure do need to worry about what your father will do to you when we get there." At her words Tsuda's smiles disappeared and his back straightened.

"This coat. So it's not Kei's." She stated, a little gazed while thinking about the night she spent in the graveyard. "When did you get there?" She asked him about that night. "I was there all along, standing behind the truck of the cherry blossom tree. I heard you and saw the stars with you. I will never leave your side. I can not do it even if I wanted to." He slowed the car and stopped it at a corner of the road.

He looked at her and caressed her cheek with a warm hand. "I love you so much Avery. I adore you. I can not breath when you're not in my sight. Please be with me for life. I swear, you will not regret it." He begged with his eyes and leaned into her keeping his gaze on her lips. "I am yours to do what you please, Tsuda. I.. I love you too." She breathed out before snaking her arms around his neck and pulling him down to capture his lips with hers.