HIDDEN IN THE CLOSET

Chapter 23 I "Why are you doing all of this for me?"

After Maisy's parents come back into the living room where Milly and Pia, Maisy's sister and I were waiting already. They just went to see their daughter after she woke up and looked much better and relieved that they saw that she woke up. Pia apparently arrived two hours ago and I just bumped into her when I went to tell everyone about Maisy being awake. She was really nice and immediately started talking with me about Maisy's health when I fill her in on what happened in the past 24 hours.

"She looks much better already." Her mom says and sits down on one of the chairs at the dinner table. It was already evening and Maisy has been sleeping all day and I had people making dinner for everyone. I wasn't really hungry and more worried about Maisy being on her own right now. After everything that happened, I guess she must be confused and scared. That is why I excused myself with another glass of water for Maisy and left her family and friends alone. I quietly open the door to her bedroom and assume that she was asleep again, so I try to make as less sounds as possible when entering. But then she turns around with tears rolling down her cheeks and I walk over to her, placing the glass away and laying down next to Maisy. She whispers my name, with her voice so broken that I just want to hold her and make her fear go away. When I lay down next to her, she places her head on my chest and I waste no time to wrap my arm around her and I cover he small hand that was laying on my het with mine. Four fucking months. It's been four months that I have been dreaming of this and now that it was happening, my heart was beating rapidly.

"Shh, it's okay. I'm here okay, I won't let anything happen to you ever again." I whisper when I hear her silently crying into my chest. I didn't know if my words even had an effect on her, but I just wanted her to know that she wasn't alone. "When you asked me to leave you alone in New York, I did it because that was what you wanted and it has already caused you to leave me. It pained me not to know whether your safe and happy, but I still left you alone because that's the one thing you ever asked me to do for you. But I will never forgive myself for leaving you alone when there were people who wanted to harm you, Maisy." I confess. Never in my life had it caused me so much strength to do something like it did when I left her alone. She never asked me for anything and when she did, it was the one thing that I feared most. "I can understand that you don't like this, but I brought you here to recover and I want you to stay, at least as long as it takes to have these people who harmed you behind bars." I needed her to know that I was there for her and would give her a place to stay forever. My attempt was to speak as soft as possible, not wanting to scare her away. I tried to appear calm to be strong for her, but I was freaking out on the inside. What if she didn't want to stay here? What if she wanted to go home with her parents?

"I don't want to leave." Her answer makes my heart beat even faster and my worry to subside. Maisy didn't want to leave me again, it's everything I could ask for. Her small hand gripped my shir tightly, like she was afraid I might disappear, but I would never leave this girl in my arms. After a while, I feel her hand relaxing in mine and when I looked down, I saw her eyes closing, so I pressed a kiss to her forehead as she fell asleep.

Being awake for more than 48 hours already made me tired, but only the feeling of a sleeping Maisy in my arms made me want to fall asleep, so stopped fighting my own body and just closed my eyes. Having no idea what time it was or if this was a dream, I was in a half-awake state and heard some voices.

"Should we wake them up?"

"No, let them sleep." I was able to say that this was Milly speaking. "Look at them, they are so happy together." She whispers and then I just feel something cuddling closer to my chest and a leg coming in between mine. Knowing that it was Maisy laying half on top of me, I relax and hold her closer while falling back asleep again.