𝐃𝐢𝐬𝐜𝐫𝐞𝐭𝐢𝐨𝐧

Chapter 70 | Reluctance

                                       MIRIAM

We got to Delia's home from the hospital.
My mother was ready to be discharged, but insisted that Ellie and her mother could help her home. She didn't like seeing me see her like that, and was sheltering me after my dad's death.

Don't leave me.
I can't handle you dying too.

I would sob in her arms each day for months after he died, repeating the same pleas for her to stay alive and not abandon me as dad did.

She promised, and kept her word.

"I'll be here, if anything happens." Levai says to my left. He has our small bags in the back, and parks outside of Delia's home.

"Hello darling." Delia's lips met Levai's cheeks as he held both our bags near the door.

"Miriam." Her lips tighten into a thin line as my eyes hover over the pathway. The same pathway I went on before going into Elijah's car.

"I trust my son brought you home safely?" I nodded at her, feeling a slight flush at the back of my neck. Why did this have to happen now?

I was confronting one of the places that I was before it happened, and it felt like at any moment that it would happen again.

"Your sister is picking up your mum." She tells Levai as we walk through the doorways. He visibly tensed up, before setting our bags upstairs.

"Mindless." She says to no one in particular as he walks upstairs, disappearing.

"I checked the bedroom, and it looks great. Thank you for that." I offer her a small smile, trying to hold onto my arms. My attempt to console myself is weak, and I feel myself slightly slipping from my body.

"Erin has a few mental health issues that we're trying to get sorted." She opens up a bottle of wine, pouring herself a glass. "That's why it was such a mess in case you were wondering. She tends to break down whenever we suggest removing items from 'her space'."

I hadn't wondered about it since that day.

"This time it won't be so bad, but I'll ask that you keep the master on your to do list before you leave."

Yes, I was leaving. I was leaving soon, and I would be placed in a home at Devon.

I was always buzzing with electricity whenever I thought about moving from one home to the next, but now this had felt different.

My job threatened to take me away from the man I loved, and as distant as we were at the moment, there was no denying that he became my new place of comfort.

I didn't dare to bring up the topic with Levai.
How we would make it work, an hour and a half apart when his admissions tests were all that he was starting to focus on again. He was leaving this weekend, and afterwards we'd try to work all the ins and outs of how long distance, although only a short hour and a half away was going to work.

After all, if he gets into the University in Madrid, that would be much longer journey than an hour and a half.

"If she's off her rocker again, I have no idea how I'm going to cope."

She's drunk.

This wasn't her first bottle.

From the looks of the empty ones on the countertop this was her third.

Still, her voice held the same poise as usual, and the only hint that gave it away was the smell stench that lofts in the air.

"It's kind of your children to come and help." I offer her a small smile, as she draws in her brows. "My children are little shits, except that one up there."