Lily's POV

I watched the therapist's eyes widen with something close to awe as she signed off on my final session. A grin tugged at my mouth, my muscles still aching from weeks of relentless rehab, but stronger than ever. She'd said I was a miracle case, a recovery ahead of the curve. If only she knew. If only she understood how healing could come in the form of late-night kisses and a blue-eyed boy who refused to let me quit. Finn had pushed me harder than any sports trainer ever could—on the field, off the field, in every way that mattered. And apparently, extracurricular activities in his bed did wonders for my flexibility.

When I stepped out of the sterile, echoing corridor of the hospital, a June breeze kissed my cheeks, and the world felt so wide open I could barely hold it inside me. My phone buzzed, jolting me from the heady high of freedom.

Lovebug: Game night tonight. The guys are insisting... You in, babe? xx

The corners of my lips lifted before I could stop them. Finn. My sun, my storm, my impossibility made real.

Me: Yeah, sure xx

His reply was instant, like he'd been waiting with bated breath.

Lovebug: Nice, see you at mine xx

See you at mine. Those four words felt like a promise I could almost taste.

*********

Finn's place was all warm light and lived-in chaos by the time I got there. The second I stepped through the door, his presence wrapped around me like a second skin—laundry detergent, woodsmoke, the faint citrus aftershave he refused to change. Before I could even set my bag down, Finn's arms caged me in, hauling me against his chest. The kiss he pressed to my mouth was rough around the edges, desperate in a way that made my bones liquefy.

"Missed you," he murmured against my lips, voice warm and a little uneven.

I melted, fingers curling in the cotton of his T-shirt. "Missed you too."

The room was a hurricane of our friends, laughter bouncing off the walls as Jen organized the table with beer bottles, Kam unspooled a half-eaten packet of Pringles, and Kai shouted orders from the couch like he owned the place.

"Ready for some friendly competition?" Kai challenged, flashing a grin so devious it should have been illegal.

I tilted my head, shooting Finn a suspicious look. "Friendly? Since when has anything about you guys been friendly?"

Finn tried for innocent, but the smirk breaking through betrayed him. "We'll go easy on you."

I snorted and gave him a playful shove. "As if."

Kam clapped her hands like an excited kid. "Okay! Scavenger hunt teams. Boys versus girls. Loser buys drinks for the next week."

Shawn cracked his knuckles theatrically. "Hope your wallets are ready, ladies."

Jen leaned forward, fire in her eyes. "Bring it, boys."

A slip of paper was drawn, the first clue read aloud by Jen with all the drama of a Shakespearean queen.

"Clue 1: Where victories are made and grudges are laid to rest — meet me where the game always calls you back..."

"Soccer field," Kam and I blurted at once, already charging toward the door.

"Wait up!" Kai called, trying to untangle himself from a half-zip hoodie.

"Yeah, no fair!" Shawn sputtered.

"You snooze, you lose, bitches!" Jen shouted, laughter trailing after us as we hurtled out of Finn's flat and down the apartment staircase.

********

The night air was crisp, buses rumbling past as we sprinted toward the stop, barely making it. Kam grabbed the pole inside the bus, eyes bright with adrenaline.

"Remind me why we agreed to a running game?" she gasped.

I laughed so hard I almost fell over, chest pounding. "Blame Finn."

The soccer field under the floodlights looked different at night—haunting, familiar. The place where I'd fought for myself and then found something worth fighting for. Jen sprinted ahead, waving a folded note like a victory flag.

"Clue 2: Where neon lights and music once stole our sense of time — find your next step where the party made us fearless – and reckless."

"Bridges Hall," Kam said without missing a beat, and we were off again, feet pounding the sidewalk, lungs burning, laughter catching in the cool night breeze.

********

At Bridges Hall, Kam practically dove behind a bench and whooped in triumph.

She tears it open, and we all huddle around as she reads the final clue.

"Clue 3: You've come this far, but don't get lost—find the place where new faces start off and come for an adventure or perhaps punishment."

Jen scrunched up her nose. "Okay, that's a cryptic nightmare."

I bit my lip, breathing heavy. "New faces...adventure...punishment...Orientation!"

Kam's eyes went wide. "The Freshers Week field!"

We bolted, my heart hammering from more than just the run.

******

The Freshers Week field came into view, wide and familiar, strung with delicate fairy lights that made it look like a wish come true, like the universe had pressed pause just for us.

And then I saw him.

Finn.

Standing there in a tux, holding up a shirt that read Here to help, a playful grin tugging at his lips. My chest twisted at the sight of him, too handsome to be real, too perfect to belong to any world except mine.

My steps slowed, confusion crashing through me, tangling up my thoughts. Why was he here in a tux? And that stupid volunteer shirt from all those months ago — what was he doing with it?

I turned to look behind me, searching for a clue, but all I saw were tears and smiles and arms wrapped around each other. Jen clung to Kai, her eyes bright with something I didn't understand, and Kam was already hugging Shawn like she might never let go. They looked so happy, so full of knowing, like they'd been let in on a secret that no one had told me.

My heart hammered, my breath catching. "Finn," I managed, voice wobbling. "Babe... what's going on?"

He stepped forward, so close I could smell the faint citrus of his aftershave and the warmth of summer on his skin. His hand came up, brushing a strand of hair away from my cheek, and his thumb lingered against my jaw with a tenderness that nearly undid me.

"Took you long enough," he teased, voice low and unsteady, like he was balancing on the edge of something terrifying and beautiful.

I shook my head, still trying to stitch the moment together. "Babe?"

He smiled, but there was something deeper behind it — something heavy and soft, tangled with so much meaning it made my knees tremble. "Trust me," he murmured, "just... trust me, okay?"

It hits me all at once.

The soccer field — where I'd apologized, where we'd decided to be friends and rewrite our story.
Bridges Hall — where the party had turned into our first night of letting go, of being reckless, of seeing each other with no walls left standing.
And now this — the exact spot where I'd first bumped into him, a girl with too many bruises and no clue how to fall in love, colliding with a boy in a stupid volunteer shirt and a grin that would end up changing everything.

The girls' giggles ripple through the quiet night, carried on the breeze like a secret only they knew, while my heart pounds so hard I'm convinced the ground might crack beneath me. I feel so stupid for not piecing it together sooner — the clues, the places. They weren't random. They were ours. A map of our memories. Every moment that made us who we are.

My emotions are bubbling so violently I think they might spill out of me. Finn's smile is soft, almost breakable, but something in his eyes is deeper tonight, a promise, a prayer, a question.

He reaches up, thumb brushing a tear from my cheek I didn't even know had fallen. His voice is so gentle it steals the air right out of me.

"Do you remember," he starts, voice softening even more, "what you told me one night? After the fight with Nate?"

My lungs seize, a sharp, vivid memory slamming through me — fists and shouting, fear and relief, and then his arms holding me while I spilled every truth I'd buried.

I nodded, breath catching. "I remember."

He chuckled lightly, like he was remembering it too, and somehow it made the whole world tilt.

"You said you wanted an epic love," he went on, voice barely a whisper, "a love that made you feel safe and cherished."

"...just like my parents," I finish for him, my voice cracking under the weight of it all, the memory still so fresh it nearly split me in half.

He nodded, swallowing hard. "I've spent every single day trying to give you that love, Lily. Safe. Cherished. Loved." His voice thickened, a tremor running through it. "And I don't want to spend another second of my life without you."

Before I could even breathe, he reached into his pocket, and my heart leapt straight into my throat when I saw the small velvet box in his hand.

My whole body went still.

He opened it, revealing a ring that sparkled in the fairy lights like it had been waiting its whole life to find me. Nothing, absolutely nothing, shone brighter than the way he looked at me right then.

"Butterfly," he whispered, voice cracking, "I want to be your epic love. The one who's there in all the small moments and the big ones. The one who makes you feel everything you've ever dreamed of, and more. If you'll let me, I want to spend the rest of my life loving you exactly how you deserve."

The tears came fast and hard, unstoppable, streaming down my face until the world was just a blur of light and love and him. I couldn't breathe, couldn't think, could only feel every word, every promise, every piece of this boy who had become my entire heart.

He lifted a hand, gently brushing away my tears, thumb lingering like he could anchor me to the earth.

"From the moment I met you, you've been everything, Lily," he whispered, voice breaking. "You made me want to be better. To be someone worthy of you. Every day with you has made me fall harder, deeper, more in love than I ever thought possible. And I don't want another day to go by without you by my side."

He swallowed hard, eyes glittering. "Lilianna Marcella Garcia... will you do me the honour of letting me be your epic love, the one whose heart stays tangled with yours, forever? Will you marry me?"

There was no way I could ever untangle myself from him — not that I'd ever want to.

His words hit me with so much force my whole body shook. I couldn't breathe, couldn't even move, except to nod — frantic, desperate — as the sobs overtook me.

"Yes," I managed to choke out, voice lost in a thousand shattered pieces. "Yes, Finn. Oh my God, yes."

The relief that crashed across his face nearly brought me to my knees. He took my shaking hand, sliding the ring onto my finger with so much care it made me start crying all over again. Then he stood, pulling me into his arms so tightly I felt like the earth itself might steady around us.

My face buried against his chest, I sobbed harder than I ever had in my life, but I was happy — so heartbreakingly, unbelievably happy.

"I love you," I whispered, voice raw, clinging to him like he might disappear. "I love you so much."

His lips pressed against my hair, voice thick and trembling. "I love you too, Butterfly. More than anything. More than you'll ever know."

"She said YES!!" Finn suddenly shouted, joy bursting out of him like sunlight, spinning me around in his arms until the world blurred with stars. The guys cheered, yelling like maniacs, and the girls giggled through their tears, clinging to each other as happy as I'd ever seen them.

But none of that mattered.

In this moment, it was just me and Finn, standing in the very place where it had all started — where I'd once crashed into him, never dreaming he'd be the man I could never live without.

He set me down, but not before pulling me into a kiss that felt like forever wrapped inside a single breath.

When he pulled back, eyes glinting with that spark that had ruined me from day one, he cupped my face and grinned.

"So," he whispered, teasing but gentle, "did I manage to pull off an epic proposal, or...?"

I laugh through the tears, shaking my head in disbelief. "Finn, you could've asked me with a string tied around my finger and I still would've said yes. But this?" I reach up to cup his face, breathless. "This was everything. You are everything."

Still laughing, I look up at him through the tears, knowing—absolutely knowing—that this is it.

He's it.

As I gaze into his beautiful blue eyes, I know with every part of me that this man is my forever.

My one, true, epic love.

The one I never saw coming but now can't imagine my life without.

𝓣𝓱𝓮 𝓔𝓷𝓭 

********

Author's Note 

Fucking hell, it's over ... Thanks for reading till the very end. Honestly it makes me so happy, that people actually read 'Tangled Hearts' 

Stick around because, I'll be dropping three epilogue chapters soon. 

Love you all !!!