Senseless Abyss (Zero-One Fanfic)

-Chapter 104

-Chapter 104: I Wouldn't Trade Them For Anything

Gai places his hands around me as I move my hand down to my side, releasing the seasoning. 

Allen puts his arms around me tightly as tears go down my face. "Juli, there is no where for you to go but here in my arms. No one else will have you at all. Do you understand that, dear?" 

"Mari, are you alright?" Gai loosens his hold on me and I swallow a bit, my body shaking. Why did I react like that? Am I that afraid of him now? 

"I'm sorry, I don't know what happened," I tell Gai, looking away from the pot on the stove. I really don't know why I reacted like that suddenly.

I feel his arms leave me and I turn my head a bit, looking over my shoulder. He's leaning over and getting ready to grab it. He's going to make me suffer for doing that now, right? I nearly ruined his kitchen floor even though it can be wiped off. It is tile. 

I look away as he bends over completely. "It is fine. How did it go with the therapist earlier?" he asks me and I look back at him as he places the seasoning down next to me.

"It went well." I don't want to talk about what I told them. It has to stay between us and it had nothing to do with my marriage anyway.

"Did you learn anything about yourself there? I am concerned about your mental health right now, dear," he asks, trying to figure out what I talked about there. 

Knock! Knock! Knock!

I sigh heavily as I pick up the seasoning from where he placed it down at. I hope he goes and checks it out. I don't want to talk to him any longer.

"Mari, dear, I'll be right back," he tells me. "You stay here and finish cooking up your...soup, isn't it?"

"Chili. It is a recipe I learned from a state I lived in. It might taste off to you, but I enjoyed it," I respond, my voice sounding a bit dry. 

"Chili? I think I have had it before. I'm sure it'll be good." 

I pour some of the seasoning in, which is combination of stuff I put together in a container for this moment, and put some into it. It should have a bit of garlic and cinnamon in it with a few other things. I figured mixing it all beforehand would be better than making it the moment I want to cook. 

"Mari, it is for you!" Gai exclaims and I put down the seasoning and grab the giant spoon, which I have no idea what it is called. I know how to work a kitchen, but I have no idea what everything is called. 

"For me?" I don't remember having anyone come over except Aruto. Maybe it is Isamu or Kairi stopping by. "Do I need to make tea?" 

"Yes, please do so and come out here." 

Alright then.

~.~

I place down a cup in front of my adoptive mother and she looks me over, her eyes looking a bit tired. She knows why I hardly contacted them and she knows now why it got even more limited. It isn't like I could have talked to them when I was with Allen.

"I am sorry for my wife not contacting you all, but she has been going through a lot of things lately," Gai says, apologizing for me. "I wanted to invite you all to the wedding we had, but she insisted that you all hated her for how she seemed."

"I thought you guys saw me as stuck up after I married into a wealthy family." Allen was and probably still is loaded. "It was difficult."

"We saw in the news that you were abused. I am sorry that we didn't think anything of your sudden disappearance from us completely," mom tells me and she turns to my father. "We knew you changed your name, but we had no idea you changed your face. You didn't show up really after vanishing."