Perceptions

Chapter 11 {Letting Go Is Hard When You Are Tied Up}

"I can protect you, I—I love you Layla, please stay." He confessed, making Layla's heart break once again, she knew that he had developed feeling for her secretly, but she had hoped that it was not true. She did not want to hurt more people than she already did. The tears broke free, she was ashamed of her existence, she hated that she was the cause of his pain. She hated that she was hurting him so painfully, she hated the look of hope in his eyes—the type of hope that you know is not going to happen, but you hope anyway.

"Please, Layla—"

Layla cut him off, "No Alejandro, I don't want to be a burden anymore. Just let me go, I am no good for anyone, you'll soon meet a woman who is made for you and you'll know she is the one, but I am not Alejandro, I can't be. I am tainted, I am pregnant by my rapist and you know that. You don't deserve a tainted woman, you deserve the world, you deserve an amazing woman, who can make you happy, but I can't."

She explained as tears continued to run down her eyes, watching his hurt expression on his face, a tear managed to escape out of his eye, "What if you are the one for me?" His voice became louder, "I can't be. I can never be the one for you, I can't ever make someone happy, I am already hurting my loved ones." She answered.

"Thank you for everything, Alejandro. I will never forget you and Liza, I hope you can forgive me for hurting you. However, I'll always be grateful for everything you've done for me, thank you for caring about me, thank you for being there for me. Take care." She said as she grabbed her suitcase and went towards the door, leaving Alejandro sitting there alone.

"Wait! Layla!" Alejandro screamed as Layla almost entered her cab, she turned around, shook to the core as Alejandro pulled her into a hug, kissing her almost drying tears on her cheeks, Layla stood stiff for a moment, then she wrapped her arms around him as he pulled her more into him, leaving no space between them. "Take care, Layla. We will miss you." He said softly, his voice breaking slightly, which made her heart ache. "I'll miss you too, Alejandro. Take care of Liza and yourself." She said as she entered the cab, leaving him staring at her trace as tears flooded down his eyes.

"How can I forget you when you are the only thing I think about since I know you?" He asked himself quietly as he continued to stare at her trace.

••••••••

Love was so easy to turn into hatred. Or Alejandro was desperate to believe so. He did not even know if he felt love for Layla, but he always wanted her beside him, and even one single touch of hers—even by accident—was enough to get him weak to his knees.

Just as he was ready to fix her broken pieces, she was gone.

"Fuck!" He screamed, punching the wall next to him so hard that it almost created a hole, leaning against the wall with his fist, he tried to control his breaths, the urge to break everything rising up inside him, he tried to fight it back even if it was too hard to do.

A few tears made its way down his eyes as the feeling of pain hit him harder than ever—this was the type of pain he had never experienced before, but it was tearing him apart. Very hard. He wanted to forget all of this, so he entered his car and drove off with no real destination to go.

••••••••

Layla exhaled a heavy breath once she was seated in the airplane, which was going to fly to Italy. She looked at the window one last time as if saying goodbye to America, in hope to never come here again, because she was too scared that Dimitri would find her—she would only return when she finds out that he is dead.

She couldn't help but feel very heavy, like there was a really heavy weight in her heart, which was slowly swallowing her heart and it hurt. It hurt a lot. She felt ashamed of herself for letting Alejandro get too close to her, now she left him broken-hearted and alone. However, this was for the best. No one would ever love a tainted woman like her, she thought, she was too tainted, too tired of living.

She really was thinking about committing suicide, but this baby needed her. She knew exactly how it was to have parents, who didn't even care about their own child, so she did not want to be like her parents, she wanted to provide an amazing life for this baby inside of her—even if it was from the most evil man of this world.

She caught a tear that had managed to escape out of her eye, sniffling, she told herself to calm down before she got another anxiety attack. She leaned back, sighing in a deep breath as another trail of thoughts captured her soul once again.

If Alejandro hadn't helped her, she would've never gotten a chance to escape. Dimitri would've found out about the baby and he would've killed it and continue to use her as her slave, she shuddered in fear at that thought. She would lose her soul if something happened to her baby, it was her blood after all, even though it shares the blood of a monster, it does not mean that this baby is going to be like Dimitri, Layla will make sure of that.

Her hand went over to her belly, which started to get bigger because of her pregnancy, she could feel the bump, but it wasn't that noticeable yet. However, it was going to start showing in a very short amount of time, so she had to escape as soon as she could.

She felt so grateful towards Alejandro, he was the one who gave her the opportunity to feel how it is when you are being loved by someone and oh it was an indescribeable amazing feeling, but she knew that it was not going to last, she could never make him happy in the way that another woman could-a woman who isn't tainted like her, a woman who is prettier than her, he deserves a woman who isn't broken like her, he deserves a woman who is stronger than her, these are the qualities she did not have, she thought. Yet he still confessed his love to her-

No. Love was never built to last for her, every single human being in her life made sure about that.

As the trail of thoughts pulled her in more and more as time passed, she felt someone patting her shoulder, which pushed her mind away from her captivating thoughts. She looked to her side, her face was covered in shock and fear as she saw the person sitting next to her, her heart started beating louder than ever, making her hear every single beat of her heart. Her mouth went dry so that no words could slip out of her tongue, she did not know why she was so scared, but she couldn't help but feel an overwhelming fear.

"Aren't you happy to see me, amore?"