Crumbling Cakes

Part XXXVII (37) *POV Bonus*

Nephew. This was her nephew. I hadn't even known she had siblings, let alone young enough ones to give her a seventeenish nephew...Just how little did I bother to learn about this woman who wanted nothing more but to help me? "Oh, I'm so sorry, she just never—"

"Mentioned us?" He offered helpfully, still holding my hand. Somehow this didn't feel awkward, it was actually kind of grounding. "Yea, I'm not surprised. When she's here, she's sort of all shop all the time." He smiled and I pulled my hand out of his.

"That sounds about accurate. I'm Dalia, one of her regulars?"

"Ah, Dalia..." He drew out my name in interest. Oh boy.

"Joseph! I told you to let me know when you leave the front unattended!" Lei came marching toward us. "And stop harassing this one, you'll scare her off and I quite like her."

"Yes, ā yí, I apologize. Although I wasn't harassing anyone, just making new friends." He grinned at Lei.

"Agh." Lei waved him away. "Back to your post." She hid her smile. I'm thinking Jo was right on the money about him being her favorite.

"Nice meeting you!" He shrugged with a twinkle in his eye then moved toward the entrance for behind the counter.

"Dalia, how wonderful to see you." Lei turned to me with bright eyes that dimmed, and lips that tightened when she saw my cheek. I've been beaten around so much, I keep forgetting that I'm walking around blue and purple.

"It's a long story," I confessed.

She sighed heavily. "Involving that thing you refuse to tell me."

I nodded. "It's not terrible." I swallowed the guilt. This was all a necessary evil.

"Alright come along." I don't know how she knew, but she led us to her Mahjong table. Meekly, I followed. This would be my chance to come clean—to a certain point that is.

Lei set the board up and I let my mind wander. Watching the familiar way her hands moved and letting that be my anchor for the storm to come.

It didn't take long for her to pull on the center string and peel apart all of the twisted threads. Now or never, D. Just get it over with.

"Lei..."

She looked at me, expectedly. But I think she knew, causing my heart to increase in tempo. A hunch that was proven correct not long after.

"You're leaving," She replied quietly. I nodded slowly. So slow I wondered if you could tell I'd moved at all. I lifted my eyes to her as I faced the floor. Avoiding the board in front of me. "How long?"

"I don't know. For a long time, most likely."

She took a deep breath. Everyone around me inhaled as if it was the last bit of air that would fill their lungs. Guilt was my constant companion, as I've long acknowledged. I just wished it would leave me be. "And the reason?"

I licked my lips, trying to hydrate the path of what came next. "I think you know."

Her hand reached out, a gentle thumb running along the cut of my cheek. Her eyes bouncing to my other injuries. Lei never asked questions, she knew there was a world that I had to hide from. Our interactions had taught me that. But still, like everyone else in my life, I felt the weight of her questions. The pain of her worst nightmares.

"And Sebastian?"

This pain was my own. The ache that tied itself to his name was only ever felt by myself. I could only drape my shoulders in the falsehoods that helped me put one foot in front of the other. "He stays. Where he belongs."