Bear | ✔

Chapter Nine

Chapter Nine

The earth shattered beneath her feet as Leila stood tongue-tied to the spot. The words had failed her, and no matter how many times she had opened her mouth to form a coherent reply, the words had refused to come out every time. The breath eased into her lungs, yet she felt as if she was suffocating. Her mind was working full power in an attempt to interpret the words.

"Zoe is my cousin, Leila."

That one sentence played its echo in the depths of her thoughts for so long. As much as she had wanted to know the answer, she wished she had never asked. Receiving such a straight-forward, mind-blowing explanation had never crossed her mind. Frankly, Leila never thought he had got a real excuse for his biased action.

Yet that was still not qualified as an excuse. Blood relation doesn't make up for all the lines that have been crossed.

"She's my cousin. I've been trying to tell you for so long."

At that exact moment, the color had drained from her face at an alarming speed. Beads of sweat started to form on the palms of her trembling hands. It was impossible, yet it felt so realistic. She cursed herself for being so naive. It wasn't the first time David had shocked her with his conclusions. She didn't know who to blame. She became so confused as to who exactly was at fault within this mess, called their lives.

"She's a double agent. She delivers all the necessary information about my uncle's next steps towards claiming the company ownership. This way, we're always prepared and there's nothing to worry about. But for her, you would have been long dead by now."

But, how come? How could the Zoe she knew be so caring? How could she - the woman who had deprived her of every ounce of love and self-confidence - make sure that she would stay alive? Zoe had always made it her major priority to ruin her life. There was always a thin line between what the truth is and what a lie is.

"Her act needed to be believable. And for you especially to believe. As long as Michael knows that you despise me, that'll be satisfactory to him. Let's just hope he never finds out about the child, at least not until it's too late."

Broken, that was how she was. Betrayed, was how she was feeling. Lost, was her state at that moment. He had betrayed her trust another time. She understood that it was for her safety, and she appreciated that, but such a huge secret should have either been revealed long ago, or kept in its chest until the Final Day.

Zoe's disapproval of that admission was unavoidable. She had refused to witness the moment when he told her the truth and left with an unfinished argument, although she could never erase the memory of Zoe's last words from her memory.

"Look at her. The girl is infatuated with you," She snickered before she headed to the door. "Remember my words, David. The time will come when she has to leave and you'll regret ever doing this from the start, but this time I will not be there to help you. I was there once. I warned you. I won't do it again."

She hadn't seen Zoe ever since. She had either left the hotel, or she was still there but very carefully avoiding her. For the first time, Leila had wished that Zoe was in her reach. There were so many untold questions to which she had desperately needed the answers. She knew she would find what she had been looking for with her, but she doubted it that the girl would give anything away.

David had been gone the whole day. She didn't ask him where he was, and he didn't think it was worth telling at all. She had previously known that their plan for dinner and a movie was out of the window by now. Everything was too complicated that even the sole purpose of having fun would just feel so wrong. She had been finally glad that everything was being fixed between them, but now they were back to the start point for the hundredth time since she had known him.