Until Death Do Us Part

Twenty-One

~7 Layers~
Dotan

"Hidden secrets linked in chains."

"Contact me once you've had time to think about it," the persistent man said, handing over his card to me. I wanted to scream in his face to leave me alone, to leave this museum and take all of his pathetic cards with him. Instead, I placed the card in my purse along with the fifteen others I had received within the last two hours.

"Thank you. I will take it into consideration," I replied before turning around and walking away. I didn't have a destination other than anywhere other than near that man. How could he not tell that I didn't want to go into the candle business with him? How did he even get on the list?

I kept my head down, shoving all of the cards into one spot in my purse. As my eyes weren't focused, I bumped into someone's shoulder. "My apologies," I said, a hand covering my chest in pretend surprise. Why couldn't I just be left alone for five minutes? Tom had been torn from my side by someone looking into the watch business. He wanted some tips, and I wanted to get a drink. I hadn't seen Tom in an hour. I wouldn't even be surprised if he was still talking to the same relentless man.

"Don't worry about it, Miss," the man responded. He sounded and looked familiar, as if I had seen him in a dream or passed him in the street.

A flicker of remembrance seemed to light in his own eyes. We were locked in place, eyes focused on one another as classical music carried through the air around us.

"Have we met?" I asked, my weight shifting from one foot to the other. My stomach twisted. A warning.

"I don't believe so, Miss," the man responded quickly, and he weaved through the crowd just as swiftly, disappearing into the numerous bodies.

My heart pounded in my chest. Its beat thudded in my ears, and my veins pulsed with cold blood. My body seemed to physically sway with unease.

"Y/n?" I was brought out of my daze. I hadn't realized that I was continuing to stare off in the direction that the man had gone. I was unconsciously trying to place him. I had seen him before. I knew I had. "What's wrong?" Tom was at my side, his hand gripping onto my elbow.

I looked over into his deep brown eyes, finding a safeness in them as if I was stranded in open water and he was my life vest. "Nothing. I just met a strange man." I shook my head, trying to bring the memory of him from the back of my brain to the front.

"There are plenty of those here tonight. More so than usual," he answered with that familiar smirk of his. My heart slowed, my blood warmed. It was just Tom and I. We were one, we were safe.

"I wonder why that is." I looked out at the crowd again, but not to find the man that had caused my hair to stand on end. I was searching the eyes of all the strangers piled into the museum. Why were they all here?

"There is no better opportunity to be seen by the press than being at an event where a powerful couple of newlyweds are attending," Tom stated.

"That would explain their persistence." We both laughed quietly, and there was a sort of desperation in both of our chests. We wanted to be gone. We wanted to escape.

Tom wrapped his arm around my waist, pulling me closer to him, the sides of our bodies molding together. "Just a little while longer," he whispered into my ear.