Better Let Them Know Who's Boss {mxm}

29.

"Ow..."

I rubbed my stomach back and forth, wondering what the hell this pain was. It felt as if it was stretching, constricting, and squeezing all in one motion and it was burning. "God, what the hell?" I murmured as I made eye contact with the unfamiliar walls of my room, the one that I slept in when I first arrived. It had been about two weeks since I last came in here for anything and it felt odd to be in here by myself.

I frowned, not even daring to look at the cold spot on the left side of the bed, knowing that he had never come. For the last two nights, I had slept in here because he had told me that he needed space, that he needed time alone and I would've denied that request, had he not have given me such a fierce and angered look. It shook me back because he never looked at me that way. He had promised that he would come and stay by my side while I slept, but not once in the last 72 hours did I hear my door open.

He even took to calling me Mr. Morelli all over again, and I just knew that something was not right. He refused to touch me, not even in the slightest nudge, or even take the time to talk to me. Jexan came yesterday to tell me that any concerns I had or issues that I needed, or even just a person to talk to, he'd be that person because Maddox was out of the game. He was avoiding me and I needed to find out why.

It became painfully obvious when the swirling maroon sky turned into black drops of rain. It was raining so bad that demon code enforcement training had to be canceled. There was no way that we could see in that rain. I had asked Vee, Zavi, and Amona if this was common, but they looked just as scared as I expected and I was extremely lost. Maddox's odd behavior was something I had to fix because not only was he treating me terribly, he was treating his family even worse.

"Shit, Maddox, what the fuck are you thinking?" I rubbed my head and my tummy, sitting on the edge of the bed. I really should've kept my words to myself because maybe, just maybe, he would be here to stay.

"I just had to tell him that I love him..." I gritted my teeth, trying to hold back some tears. I was Troy Victorino motherfucking Morelli. I didn't do dumb shit like cry over people because they wanted nothing to do with me anymore. I just kept it moving because my life didn't stop because I was hurt or feeling some way.

I needed to remember that.

I just hoped that I didn't waste everything. I just hoped that my mistake didn't cost me everything because this time, it was for real. I was in too deep and as Jade hinted, there was no way in hell that I could even attempt to climb my way out. I just wanted to know what we were fighting for because I knew nothing and neither of us wanted to say anything. Neither one of us had the nerve.

I wanted to run in there and tell him that I was wrong for saying it, but even I knew that the beating of my heart and the blush of my cheeks would give me away. For the first time ever, I finally knew what love was. It was entirely from the love that I shared with Jade, from the love that I shared with Avery, from the love that I shared with my parents or even the kids here or the fellow demons.

This was a deep and penetrating love.

"Troy," I heard a knock on the door and I looked up, rubbing my eyes. "Come in," I whispered, holding the pain deep inside. "Hey," I blinked several times, seeing Nya standing before me with a sheepish look in her blue eyes. She looked just as confused and as sad I was, so I tapped the bed next to me, motioning for her to sit. We just looked at each other, not knowing where to start. There were so many things to say, but we didn't have the nerve.

"...I know who I am," I raised a brow, knowing that it was only time before she finally put it together. "I'm Nicola Ferrari, mother of Emily Vandenrei and ex-lover of Calix Vandenrei," She spat his name coldly and I knew she got all of her memories back. "I used to be a soldier in the white army on Eden, and then when I fell pregnant and Calix didn't want Emily, so I poisoned him. Tion caught me and gave me the sin of Wrath and I fell to Hell," She shrugged and I noticed that her eyes started changing to white.