Bear | ✔

Chapter Twenty-One

Chapter Twenty-One

All could David hear that morning was a peep. Just one peep turned everything upside down. The routine they had been following lately all came down the drain. All the attempts he had tried out to save her were meaningless. Despite his struggles, he had failed. He had broken a promise, and a big one too.

He felt like the past was playing a sick game at him, rearing its ugly head once more. Everything happened again, for the same reasons and had almost the same consequences. Almost. But he won't risk making it happen again. He should have learned once, but that seemed unlikely. If the second time hadn't taught him the lesson, what would?

Once the doctor had showed him the report, he felt a wave of relief run through, but also a sense of panic shot up his veins. His heart started to fasten its pace for the fear of what was possibly to come next. He wanted to make sure that everything would be okay. He needed to keep her safe, even if it meant that he flew to the other side of the Earth immediately.

And for that exact reason, he had taken his black SUV that morning heading east. That was why he had forced himself to barge inside uninvited, make a fuss out of everything and folded his body down on one of the black leather seats that occupied the space. Sunlight seeped into the lightless room through the floor-to-ceiling windows that lined the opposite wall. Across from it sat a desk, accompanied by two large armchairs. He had driven a way he had been avoiding most of his life just for the sake of keeping safe. Once he had heard of the news, he headed straight to the devil, therefore breaking the vow he had made to his father. He had to drive to the spider web to handle everything, but he knew that everything would be worth it in the end.

He stared at the white mug in front of him on the coffee table, but didn't dare make any move to approach it. He didn't trust whoever prepared it for him. For all he knew, it could possible contain an incurable poison. It just wasn't the time for that now.

He looked up to see his uncle clad in an Armani suit, resting back on the leather armchair across from him. A spark of gold glimmered from the watch he had clasped to his wrist and his leg crossed over one knee, staring back at him with an unreadable expression in his eyes. It was a mixture of hope, and mischief.

He shifted forward on his seat and ran a hand over the thick grayish stubble on his chin. Then, he leaned forward and gestured to the steaming mug of tea in front of her. "Drink, boy! You can't come back after all those years and expect to seal the deal without further generosity."

"Thank you. I'm good," David murmured, staring at the coffee table. A set of magazines were neatly arranged in a corner. It caught his attention that his face was on the cover of one of them, but he wasn't capable of interpreting the title from the distance.

Michael's eyes followed his nephew's gaze and he smiled; a smug smile that implied some sort of victory. "Ah! That," He exclaimed and slapped his fat hand against his knee. "You haven't seen it before, have you?"

David didn't reply. He just kept scanning the cover. He didn't have to wait long, as his uncle knelt forward over the table and snatched the magazine, then he threw it in front of him. It clanked against the glass surface with a shake. The cover's glossy texture glistening under the stand lamp next to him. He reached forward to get a good look at the title.

David Gareth: Dark Secrets Revealed

"It's a little something an interviewer got out of me. He was going to pay six figures for it, but of course I refused. Even I wouldn't do that to my own nephew. Nobody deserves to get their deepest secrets revealed this way. It won't get published, though I would have loved to see Leila's reaction when she had found out about this. How do you think she would have reacted?"