KAI'S POV
Daisy had been gone for a month now and every day was becoming more and more difficult.
When I flew home after leaving her on Earth, I tried to stay positive, blocking all of my feelings from tearing me apart but it was harder than I thought it would be.
I noticed that Daisy had taken my pillow and it made me smile to know that she would be able to sleep soundly with my scent to keep her calm.
I felt the same, sleeping on her side of the bed, closing my eyes each night and inhaling deeply to send myself off to sleep.
Eventually though, the sweet scent of my soulmate disappeared and the sleepless nights and the pain of being without her took hold.
My family tried to keep my spirits up and offered to keep me company, but I wanted to be alone and eventually, I locked myself away, rejecting calls and ignoring messages.
DAISY'S POV
Waking up from another nightmare, I sat up in bed, sweeping my hair from my face. "Take each day at a time and stay strong." I muttered to myself.
Those words had become my mantra since I landed on Earth, but with each new day that came, I found myself slipping into a world of sorrow and pain.
Although the house that Kai had chosen for me to live in was perfect, I hated it with a passion. Nothing felt like home and I struggled to find happiness with any aspect of my life.
For the past month, I had unintentionally distanced myself from Emrys, spending the majority of my time alone in my room, hugging a stuffed bear that wore Kai's hoodie.
It was almost six-thirty, so I decided to get up and stuff my face with ice-cream, something I'd done for the past two weeks.
"We're all out." Emrys startled me as I opened the freezer door.
I turned around to see him sat at the large wooden table, coffee in hand and a frown upon his face.
"Coffee it is then." I muttered, making my way over to the coffee machine.
"What happened to you, Daisy?" Emrys mumbled, causing me to turn around and face him.
"What do you mean?"
"On Zandara, you were the only person that could get me through the day. You made sure I was ok, spent hours talking in my room and almost always had a smile on your face. Since we've been here, you've barely said a word and I've been forced to spend all of my time alone. I thought you were supposed to be helping me, but all I've done is worry about you and walk around on egg shells."
As his words sunk in, I realised how much of a bitch I had been. Yes, I was missing Kai, but it didn't give me the right to treat Emrys like shit.
I was ashamed of myself, barely making eye contact as I blinked at him. "I'm sorry, Emrys. I've been so wrapped up in myself that I haven't even given a thought as to how you must be feeling. It's just.. It's.."
"Kai?" He spoke his name for me and I nodded as a lump formed in my throat.
"I get it, Daisy. Haldon explained the whole soulmate bond to me and what would happen if you and Kai were to live on separate planets. I just don't understand why you think you have to lock yourself away instead of taking to me about it. We've been here for a month now, surely you must want to talk about something?" He spoke softly.
"I didn't think you'd want to be bothered by my problems, especially when you wasn't exactly a fan of the zaviours." I sighed.
Emrys chuckled, standing from his chair. He walked over to me and gave me a hug, rubbing my back with his hand.
"They're not so bad. They grew on me towards the end of my stay. Now, how about you shower, get dressed for once and we get out of the house? The cupboards are getting bare and the ice-cream needs resocking."
I wrapped my arms around Emrys. "Thank you." I murmured into his chest.
"What for?"
"I really needed this hug." I stated before pulling away from him. "And a kick up the backside."
"I remember someone once telling me that, 'everyone needs a hug every now and again', and I guess she was right."
"Yeah, I guess she was." I chortled, remembering when Emrys was on the receiving end of one of my hugs.
KAI'S POV
Kiara had insisted that I get out of the house for a while, and she also wanted to show me something. Whatever it was, she was insistent that I see it but she wouldn't tell me what it was until I saw her in person.
"Fine, I'll be there soon." I muttered into my wrist before ending the call.
She had just moved into her new house with Atlas and because I declined her invite to her gathering, she was desperate for me to go and see it.
If Daisy was here, she would have been disappointed that I didn't go, but considering how things had turned out at her last little get together, I wasn't sure that it was a good idea.
It was nearing the end of the second month of Daisy being gone and I had only left the house twice in that time.
Stepping out of the front door, I looked out into the garden and smiled when I saw that the snow people that Daisy had built were still standing tall.
The weather had turned extremely cold, to the point that I had to wrap up warm. I hadn't witnessed such conditions on Zandara before and even the warmer climates were feeling the sting which was quite unusual.
Kiara only lived five minutes away, so I hopped into the shuttle and arrived there in no time.
"You look like shit." She smirked after opening her front door.
"Ahh, brutal as always." I muttered.
"If Daisy came home today, she wouldn't recognise you. Have a shower and shave before she returns, otherwise she won't want to go anywhere near you."
"Noted." I rolled my eyes, side stepping Kiara and walking into her house. "So, what did you want to show me?"
She smiled widely, excitement in her eyes. "Come with me." She stated, walking away from me.
I followed behind, admittedly a little curious, and when we arrived in her office, I was surprised to see papers scattered all over her desk.
"What is all of this?" I wondered.
"This, my dear brother, is evidence that you aren't an abuser. You are not a monster and you can sleep soundly at night knowing that those stories we used to be told, were nothing but rubbish."
My brows furrowed as my eyes scanned the papers on her desk. I wasn't exactly sure what I was looking at, but it definitely had my attention.
"Evidence? How is this evidence?"
"Well, after digging around in the archives, I found the original report, the one that apparently outed all of those men as abusers." She looked at me, brow raised as she crossed her arms.
"And... What did it say?" I wondered.
"It stated that the men did, indeed, beat their soulmates, but not for the reasons that we were told."
Kiara paused, clearly for dramatic effect.
"Really, Kiara? Keep going." I insisted.
"Guess what all of the women had in common?" She asked.
I rolled my eyes with a groan. "I don't know.. They had the same coloured hair?"
"Nice try, but no. They all rejected their soulmates."
"So the men beat the women because they rejected them?"
"No. The women came together and formed some sort of cult, devestated that the men they were paired with weren't what they deemed good enough."
I nodded my head, no clue where she was going with the story but I needed to know how it ended.
"After a while, the rage that they felt was targeted at the men and they came up with a plan for revenge. They all went back to their soulmates, pleading for forgivness and as you can imagine, they were welcomed with open arms. The group of women began hurting the men, physically attacking them and emotionally abusing them. Eventually, the men couldn't take it anymore and they snapped. One by one, they turned on the women until every single one of them had taken a beating. After that had happened, the women reached out to the reporter and told her the story that we had been told."
I looked at Kiara, unable to see how this was evidence, but the story wasn't over.
"After the story was released, one of the women couldn't cope with what she'd done. Crippled with guilt, she told the reporter the truth, but when the other women found out, they were enraged that the reporter was going to expose their lies. They killed her, it wasn't the men, but no one believed them and they were detained and locked up for the rest of their lives."
Kiara's revelation had left me dumbfounded.
"But how did all of this come to light if the reporter was killed?"
"The woman that had confided in the reporter kept the only report that was made. She didn't destroy it and actually added to it herself. She wrote about everything. The women killing the reporter, being threatened with the same fate, the men being unlawfully detained and how she hoped that one day the truth would be revealed. I assume the men were long gone by the time the truth was discovered but the files were kept private and hidden within the archives."
"How did you manage to get your hands on them if they were kept private?"
Kiara hesitated before sighing. "The monarchy has private records. I couldn't find anything in the public archives so I went snooping elsewhere."
"Kiara! You could be in serious trouble for doing that. Have you told anyone? Mum, Dad, Kordin?" I wondered.
"Just you.. And maybe Atlas." She peered up at me.
"Why did you even do this?"
"Because you're my brother, and I knew that you'd never be completely at ease without any form of proof that you're not defective." She murmured.
Rubbing my hands over my face, I couldn't quite believe that Kiara had ascertained the truth about the abusive gene.
"Thank you for doing this, Kiara. You have no idea what this means for me and Daisy."
I pulled her into a tight embrace, and for the first time in almost two months, a joyous smile graced my lips.
"I really did do good, didn't I?" She chuckled.
"What do you plan on doing with this evidence?" I wondered, pulling away, narrowing my eyes at her.
"I was going to anonymously leave it on Kordin's doorstep and hope that he shares the news publicly."
A slight laugh escaped my throat. "That's not a bad idea."
DAISY'S POV
Emrys was adapting well to life on Earth now that I'd forced myself out of my room.
When we went on our shopping trip, he struggled with the noise and the sheer volume of people but the one thing that stuck with him the most, was the fact that almost everyone we walked past had their head in their phone.
To get him used to the fast pace of society, we went shopping once a week. On one of our trips, I suggested that Emrys should get himself a smartphone so that he could see what all the fuss was about.
A week into using it, he began watching videos on how things had changed throughout the years.
I didn't realise how much he needed to learn if he was to have a proper conversation with someone other than myself.
Politics was something that I advised him to look in to, along with sports, up to date news, the local area and I even suggested he looked into some online classes so that he could learn something new.
While Emrys was preoccupied with his phone, I found myself spending more time alone with my mind consumed with thoughts of Kai.
I missed him so much, yearning for him night after night, day after day and the pain in my chest didn't once cease to exist.
I felt empty inside, like a part of me was missing but I had to plaster a fake smile on my face and pretend that I was ok so that Emrys could focus on himself.
Four months in, Emrys and I had found a cute little cafe that was around a mile away from our house.
We found it accidentally while we were out on a hike and we became friendly with the waitress that served us each time we were in there.
Her name was Samantha, around five foot six, jet black hair with a pixie cut and a very pretty smile.
Emrys had taken an instant liking to her but she was difficult for me to read so I had no idea if she liked him too.
It was almost lunchtime and when Emrys declined my invitation to go to the cafe for lunch, too swept up in his research, I decided to go alone.
After ordering a coffee, my appetite had gone so I sat down in the corner, away from the other customers and gazed out of the window at the fields that surrounded me.
"Where's your other half today?" Samantha asked, cleaning the empty table that was next to me.
Her innocent question almost made me spit out my coffee as I chuckled in amusement.
"Emrys? Oh.. We aren't.. He's not.. We're more like brother and sister."
Samantha blushed, sweeping her hair out of her face. "Oh, sorry, I just assumed that you two were together."
"No need to apologise, I can see why you'd think it." I smiled softly.
"Is he not joining you today?"
"Unfortunately not. He's busy at home so I've been forced to dine alone." I frowned. "Although I don't have much of an appetite anymore I'll be sticking to coffee rather than food."
Samantha chuckled before moving onto another table and clearing away the dirty dishes. When she returned to clean it, she looked up at me.
"So are you and Emrys new to the area?"
"Um, yes. We moved here around five month ago but we're still finding our feet and exploring the area." I muttered.
"It's a large are to explore but most of it is just fields, sheep, cows, and a few essential shops." She chuckled.
"Where do you live?" I wondered.
"In the flat upstairs. My mum owns the cafe so it makes sense for me to stay here instead of driving five miles a day down country roads." She chortled.
"No boyfriend?"
Samantha raised a brow. "Nope, just me, myself and my mother." She said dryly, causing me to laugh out loud.
"Feel free to stop by and see me and Emrys if you ever need a change of scenery. We live in the refurbished farmhouse about a mile in that direction." I smiled, pointing out of the window in the direction of our house.
"Ahh, that's where you live? I saw people doing it up months and months ago but I didn't realise it was being lived in now. I might take you up on that offer, I don't get out much with us being so remote."
When Samantha got back to work, I finished my coffee and began my walk home.
I thought back to what she said about people doing up the house months and months ago, knowing that Kai had somehow organised it from Zandara.
The whole house was furnished from top to bottom and it must have taken so much thought and effort to get it looking so beautiful.
I felt myself getting emotional, wishing that I could see him but I knew that Emrys wasn't ready to be alone just yet.
I had thought about flipping the switch and sending the signal numerous times, but each time I wanted to, I just couldn't do it to Emrys.
I didn't know how much longer I would have to stay on Earth and the more I thought about it, I wondered if there would ever be a right time to go.
Would I be stuck here until Emrys had a wife and kids? Would he wake up one morning and decide that he could manage alone? Would we end up having a row over something stupid and I end up leaving out of spite?
All kinds of scenarios had crossed my mind but none of them gave me the answers I needed.
When I got home, Emrys was asleep on the sofa, phone in hand as he snored lightly.
I was glad that he was asleep because I hadn't got my tears under control, crying every step of the way home while I thought about Kai.
Sighing, I went to my room and lay down on my bed.
My eyes were heavy and I felt extremely tired but I couldn't relax enough to fall asleep.
A pain formed in my chest and I knew that it was because I was missing Kai. I'd felt it on my low days but it was becoming a regular occurrence when I was alone with my thoughts.
Curling up into a ball, I stayed like that for hours and when nightfall came and the room darkened, I eventually drifted off to sleep.
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Hi my lovely readers 👋
What have you all been upto? I've literally done nothing but work, eat, write and sleep.
I hope you enjoyed this chapter. I know it was one of the more boring ones so I'll have the next one up asap!
Thank you for the comments/votes recently, I appreciate every single one 😊❤