"Cause you are the piece of me, I wish I didn't need."
-back to present-[unedited]
Delilah Warner:
I watch as he sinks down on the floor, sitting on his knees, his face in his hands. The pieces of the broken vase lied near to his body, but he didn't seem to care. For a second, I thought he was crying but I could be wrong.
Why am I even looking at him?
It's been one day and I am already getting tired of his fucking presence.
It's like he ignites this fire in me that completely drowns me in him. I find myself watching his every fucking move, in pure hatred.
His presence suffocates me and it's like I can't breathe when he is around, which is not a good thing considering I have to spend 3 full fucking years with him.
I don't have time for this bullshit.
I don't have time for him.
I find myself wishing he was dead, atleast fifty times a day.
Atleast that would hurt less than his betrayal.
I might seem a tad bit dramatic but trust me when I say, it would definitely hurt less.
After the oh-so-wonderful encounter that night with Maxwell, I was admitted to the hospital for 2 fucking weeks because I kept having panic attacks and my heart rate was going low every other hour.
I wished I could have died to stop the pain.
Luckily I got saved and then I had to move away from here, to just get away with everything.
My life abroad was quite refreshing actually, I met a lot of new people and got to see a better reality of this world.
It would have been better if I didn't have this crippling self-hatred and the urge to call Maxwell back for almost 2 fucking years.
Everything else was okay, and there's an unexplainable feeling of being just a speck in a world that is unaffected by you.
When you're angry, everything else seems angry too, because your vision has a filter over it from your emotions. But to anyone else, it's a normal scene, just an average day because they aren't affected by your anger, they don't feel it.
And hell, I was so angry if anyone from here came to me, I would have definitely shot them in the head.
For that sole reason, I couldn't talk to Grayson for almost 2 years.
I felt bad, I knew he was nowhere involved in this and had no idea just like me but seeing him reminded me of that place.
But when I finally gathered the courage to call him after 2 years, I was almost in tears when I heard his happy voice.
He told me to meet him in one of our favorite cafes, where we always got the chocolate milkshakes.
Chocolate milkshakes were always our thing.
As soon as I reached the cafe, I felt myself getting pulled into a warm embrace by non-other than Grayson.
I looked at him, still in his arms, and saw that he was looking at me with a big grin on his face that showed his dimples but there were tears in his eyes.
Long gone were any traces of a young boy on his face now, he was looking like a man.
His hair that was originally black was now dyed in light brown color, much longer than how it was when we were eighteen.
He grew a lot in height and physique compared to me and his jawline was more prominent, it seemed like his voice also changed into a deeper version.
My thoughts were interrupted when my phone rang showing that it was Danny, my assistant calling,
Danny was such an adorable girl, I think she was about a year younger than me but she was like a ball of sunshine compared to me. But trust me, I did my everything to match her energy and it's genuinely so fun when she is around.
I think she has a crush on me for some reason I mean she blushes whenever I get too close or flirt, which I do way too often for my own good.
I would have dated her, I mean, of course, I don't love her but I like her more than other people.
I don't love anybody currently, including my family. After that incident, I believe that love makes a person weak, and in the end, I am alone so I can't be weak anymore.
Yes, I do like my family but to say that I love them would be a little too much. I am not someone who says I love you to people ever, which makes me sad sometimes.
There was only one person who I loved with all of my heart, but after him, I have no space for letting anyone in.
"Hello?" Danny spoke on the phone. "Hi" I chirped out trying to be cheerful, swallowing the lump in my throat and wetting my dry lips.
"How is your first day as a married woman going on?" she asked, a teasing glint in her voice. I inwardly groaned but mumbled "it was good" to her.
My eyes secretly wandered off to where Maxwell was sitting first, now that I saw he was cleaning the vase that I broke.
Fuck me seriously.
Danny's voice became more teasing because I seemed to space out looking at Maxwell so I decided to change the topic and ask her why she called so early in the morning.
"Oh yeah about that, remember the Italian mafia case?" she asked as if we haven't been working on that case for months.
Kai Alessandro.
The new leader of the Italian mafia, the one and only.
He contacted me about a year ago because he found out that his paternal uncle had kept young girls in his basement that he and his men had raped and tortured severely. Fortunately, he had released the girls as soon as he found out but he couldn't let any of his own mafia lawyers fight the case because he was worried that they might betray him.
So he ended up connecting with me, because technically I am one of the best criminal defense lawyers in all of the mafias, not to be bragging or anything.
The last hearing of the court is in the next 2 weeks, so I and my team has been preparing for that, I must admit everyone has been working really hard.
There were about three victims that are going to be speaking, the main one being an 18-year-old girl named zee. She was an orphan that tried to leave her orphanage because she was getting abused but ended up getting kidnapped by Kai's uncle. Poor girl has gone through so much that when I told her that she is finally getting her freedom soon, she cried in my embrace for about an hour.
"Delilah, you still there, love?" Danny spoke and I came out of my thoughts once again.
"Yeah yeah speak," I said and again my eyes wandered off to Maxwell who was sitting on my seat typing something on my laptop.
What the fuck is up with this dude?
"Okay so..." I heard her take a deep breath. "Zee is dead."
"H-huh?" I spoke, not understanding her.
"Zee suicided, the guards found her hanged by a rope in her room. She wrote 'I am sorry Delilah and Danny.' on the wall."
"Please tell me you are joking Danny" I cupped my hand over my mouth, choking over my own spit.
"I am not" she croaked up on the line, her condition the same as mine.
"H-how? where were the fucking guards?" I raised my voice, there was tight security, there is no way she could have suicided.
"Zee said that she wanted to study for a few hours so she told the guards to go rest for a while. After a few hours when they came back, they saw that the door was unlocked so they went in and found her dead."
"There is no fucking way she killed herself, it was a murder. She was fucking happy, you know that Danny."
"Exactly, so now what shall I do? Just tell me and I will try to do whatever I have to, but you also have to come here in some time."
"Send her body to the Pathologists, and call the police to examine her room and the whole floor. Lock all the guards in the prison, for now, I just know it's one of them who helped someone kill her."
She mumbled a small okay and hanged up.
I have to contact Kai immediately, so forgetting my coffee I went straight to the table and sat in front of my laptop.
When I sat in front of the laptop, I saw that Maxwell fucking changed my wallpaper to our wedding picture.
Specifically, the one where he had my face cupped in his hands and I was telling him that he will be dead if he kissed me, but to the camera, we were looking like a couple in love.
We must be really good at pretending.
I will deal with him later.
I called Kai and told him what had all happened, he told me he is immediately going to come back from his business trip in Spain and go to the police station, asking me to also be present there.
I massaged my head in frustration, this is so fucked up.
I kept my head on the table, my stomach growling from hunger because I skipped dinner last night and a migraine making its way to my head.
I heard sounds of cutlery and when I looked up I wasn't sure if I was dreaming or not.
It was a bowl of cheese pasta with a note kept next to it.
And there stood Maxwell in all glory, holding the bowl for me.
He looked at me for a second with a strange look on his face and then walked away, leaving me with the pasta and a note.
I picked up the note slowly hoping he wouldn't notice that I care, I actually I don't but well I am just a curious person.
"I don't know what were u thinking but I was not going to slap you, You know I could never do it. There was something on your face and I was trying to remove that. Eat the food, please. Sorry again."
I opened my camera and indeed there was something on my face.
So I did all that for nothing? And he still didn't scold me but cleaned up the mess I made and even made me fucking cheese pasta.
Fuck me really.
I was thinking of apologizing but then again, do I really have to? I think not. He deserves it. I am just waiting for him to stop his "nice husband" facade and show his true colors.
Me being me, I kept the note on the table and didn't eat the pasta, although it looked very tempting.
He came back about 2 seconds later as if he was waiting for me to finish reading the note.
I just ignored his gaze on me and typed a random report on my laptop.
"Delilah, eat the pasta."
Ignore him.
"Please."
Ignore.
"I swear to God eat it while I am being nice."
This bitch.
As I was thinking of 101 ways of killing him without actually killing him, I felt my chin getting lifted up by a random hand and pasta being shoved in my mouth.
I looked at him who was standing there with a smirk on his fucking face. The pasta got caught up in my throat and I coughed. His eyes grew worried and he ran to the kitchen and literally made me drink water, the glass in his hand.
I mumbled a small "thanks" unconsciously because of my habits and he fucking smiled.
He then took the fork to his own mouth, tasting the pasta he made, all that while keeping eye contact with me.
That was kinda ho- no it wasn't.
"So are you gonna eat on your own or do you want me to sit here and feed you?" he said with a small smile lurking on his fucking face.
I went up and walked to the kitchen, ignoring his stupid gaze as usual, and got another plate coming back in the room.
I divided the pasta into half and gave him his share, keeping it in front of him not making any kind of eye contact.
I noticed his lips curved upwards almost immediately and he mumbled a small "thank you" with a small blush appearing on his face. He rubbed his neck awkwardly and sat in the seat next to me.
I kept my laptop away and started eating but I could feel his gaze on me.
I am trying to act civil I promise, but right now I really want to punch him in the face.
I got a call from Danny and picked it up almost immediately, thanking her mentally.
"Yes?" I said softly because apparently, she would be in the police station right now.
"Delilah they want you here in 20 minutes for some legal process, they said they can't inform me what it is."
"Okay fine I will be there, just message me the address please, love."
I turned my face around to Maxwell when I said the word "love" and I saw his tongue was poking out in his inner cheek and his eyes were fixed on me.
I looked away almost immediately and got up to get dressed when he held my wrist. I didn't look at his face and tried pulling away but he just held it tighter.
"Are you going somewhere?" he asked, a little too softly for my liking.
"Out" was all I simply said and went away to get changed.
I came back around 5 minutes later dressed up ready to leave, I was about to call for an uber since my car was still in my old house when once again I felt myself getting pulled into something or should I say- someone.
"I am driving you to wherever the fuck you are going," he said with a straight face.
"You don't get to order me around," I said with the same tone.
"I am not ordering you, I am protecting you. That's what I am here for and that's what I will always do, whether you like it or not. Better get that in your head." he said and dragged me to his car.
We were 10 minutes into the ride when my phone rang again, It was Danny again. I immediately picked it up and put it to my ear
"Delilah you need to immediately email me her orphanage papers, the police needs it right now."
"Oh- uh okay," I said and cut the call.
Suddenly the car came to a halt and we were seated in front of a cafe, a very pretty one I must add.
"What are we doing here?" I asked narrowing my eyes at him, I am pretty sure he heard the conversion I had with Danny so he knows I immediately need to send the email. I don't have time for him to get his fucking coffee.
"You get nauseous in the car when you use your devices, so get out and send the email while I order us something to drink."
Oh.
I forgot about that.
Why does he still remember?
I got up and followed him with my laptop bag in hand.
We sat down and he went straight to the counter, not even bothering to ask me what I want.
There is no way he remembers my coffee order.
When he came back after ordering and telling me that the drinks will take about five minutes, everyone's phone suddenly dinged as if there was a warning message.
"Kindly note that we are putting up a lockdown of two weeks due to a virus spreading in our state, starting from 10 am today. Kindly get back to your houses immediately as all the roads will be closed exactly at 10 am. All the details will be given very soon."
HI LOVES<333
HOW WAS THE CHAPTER?
Sorry for the late chapter and also thank you for almost 22k reads I feel so happy<3
Also, this update is dedicated to Aisha @allgoodusernamesrgon for making really pretty edits of Hiraeth<3