His Lovely Ward

Chapter 25

How her soft laughter would ring around the eerie silence, about her reaction if she saw his fresh wounds, how she would complain about his food, and how she would ease everything else like nothing happened. Like there was always answer for everything he encountered.

He missed how her loud, stupid mouth would get him in trouble, or how her compulsive and aggressive behavior would snap his nerves. Shit, he missed every freaking thing about her.

He couldn’t get over it—over the pain.

But it was pain nonetheless. It was just different and he had to get over it fast before he had the urge to appear in front of her and ruin both their lives.

He had to heal on his own—the old way.

  *****

Of course we all knew she couldn’t just forget and move on, right? Angelica Dalton would always be Angelica Dalton. Call her whatever, but she would always be that girl who would get back on her feet and start fighting.

The time for bleeding dry and crying and moping were over. The time for longing and heartaches were history. Now, she was out to change that.

Her mother, the one who chose to leave her was dead. She could pray for her, but she couldn’t make her come back and tell her the reason why she left, could she?

Her father, the man who decided for himself that she was too frail to handle a tinge of truth was murdered. She could—again—pray for him, but he couldn’t very well just swoosh his way back to tell her every little secret he kept, right?

But Henry, the man who left her thinking he didn’t deserve her, was still alive. She couldn’t just leave everything to prayer or wishes. He was still alive somewhere, kicking asses, and he better hide because she finally decided she couldn’t keep her promise to stay away.

She actually decided on it one fateful night while she was having her rounds in the hospital.

There was this little girl who just witnessed her mother’s death. The girl was told her mother would not be coming back and that God had taken her away to a more beautiful place. What that girl didn’t know was that her mother had suffered a great deal before she died.

Angelica didn’t have the heart to tell her that her mother had experienced the most excruciating pain before death claimed her. What she told the little girl was, “Your mother was thinking of you when she left…”

She did that because deep inside, that was what she had wanted to know when she found out her mother was gone. She wanted to tell the girl not to give up, to be strong, to live, and to be happy. Deep inside, she knew as well that she was saying those very same words to herself.

Never give up. Be strong. Live. Be happy.

Those were her jumpstart and once Angelica Dalton got her jumpstart, no one—not anyone—could stop her.

  *****

“So, how have you been?” Cassandra asked, sipping her cup of coffee.

Angelica stared at her dryly. She had told her friend everything—like every freaking little thing. And in return she learned about the forced marriage her friend had with her husband. That was quite a shocker but she eventually got over it.

“I’m like a comatose patient who is able to walk and have coffee,” she said sarcastically.

“No chance of finding him then?” Cassandra raised her brows.

“No, he’s completely out of reach,” she sighed.

“What do you plan to do? You want me to ask Philip? He might know where he is.”