"I'm on your mind?" I ask in a soft whisper.
I was no longer concerned about where we
were. I needed to know more.
His eyes are still closed, but the look on his face is one of pain.
"All the time." He confesses. "More than I would like to admit to you or anyone else."
I can't control myself as I lean closer into him and gently run my fingers from his temple to his cheek.
He inhales sharply and finally opens his eyes, "Why do I feel like whatever everyone is hiding from me includes you? I think I'm going insane trying to figure out why I feel this way. As far as I know, we barely spoke to each other in the past, somehow right after the accident, everything feels different between us."
His words remind me of where we were and our complicated situation. I remove my hand and place it between my legs to prevent myself from trying to touch him again.
I gasped when he grabbed my hand and placed it back on his cheek.
He narrows his eyes and pins me with his gaze, "Things aren't the same. I can feel it. It bothers me that no one is willing to tell me why I feel this way? Why everyone are keeping secrets from me? Are you also the one who is keeping secrets like everyone else?
I can't look away even if I want to. I'm locked in his gaze. Unable to move an inch. I want to tell him the truth, I desperately want him to know we're married.
But I promised Clarissa that I wouldn't say anything. It wasn't just because of the promise. I was scared of how he would react if he found out the truth.
He was practically stuck in the past, he was the same Atticus who was only obsessed with making Anya happy. I knew Atticus well. I wouldn't be able to control my emotions if I told him the truth, and if he still chose to keep Anya in his life over me.
I needed more time. I needed time to remind him of us before I finally broke the truth to him. I'm not only doing this for me but for him as well. He may think he's ready to know the truth. But everyone else knows that this wasn't the right time for him to find out that we're married.
Atticus gets a message on his phone, and he immediately looks at Anya, who's glaring at him. He gives her an apologetic look before putting more space between us. This was exactly what l was scared about, him pushing me away because of Anya. I already been through that once, I didn't want it to happen again.
He didn't try to speak to me again for the rest of the class, and I don't know whether to be relieved or sad because of it.
I should be happy that Clarissa was right. Even if Atticus didn't remember our times together as a married couple, he could still feel the connection between us. His reaction to me, as well as the questions that he'd asked, was enough to confirm this for me.
It would make my work plenty easier. I still had a chance to bring him back to me. I just had to do things carefully without hurting him.
Now it was time to slowly remind him of what we had. It wouldn't be easy, and I knew that Anya would keep trying to push us apart, but I wouldn't give up. Atticus was everything to me. I was not going down without a fight.
Whatever Anya threw my way would not discourage me from doing what I needed to do
to get him back. However hard she tried to separate us, I would make it my business to try even harder.
She would not win this fight. I would not let her take him from me this time. She had him once, and I'd let it happen, if I had shown my interest earlier, maybe Atticus would have been mine sooner. I wouldn't make the same mistake twice.
Anya's POV
I couldn't believe that Autumn was indeed back. I was hoping that yesterday was a dream, not a dream, a nightmare. I was sure that she was gone from our lives for good after she went missing for days.
How did she survive? They'd kidnapped her, I saw the video, how did she escape from them?
She was unconscious when they took her. And I was sure that they intended to kill her or keep her. Not once did I think we would see her back home without a scratch on her body.
Those men weren't as dangerous as I'd initially thought. If they were, they would have gotten rid of her, and I wouldn't have been so damn pissed right now. All of my plans had been squashed because of her return.
She'd managed to spoil everything just by showing up. There's no telling what more trouble she was up to.
"I can't believe this," I mumble as I hit a bottle to the ground. "Why is she back?" I shout as breaks and shatters on the floor.
My mother enters my room upon hearing the noise, "What's going on?"
"She's back, mom. Autumn is back, and already she's making my life difficult. Whenever Atticus is around her, he completely forgets about me. He doesn't remember his marriage to her, yet he's still stuck to her like glue. You should have seen them together in class today. He totally forgot that I was in the room with them. They were practically close to making out in the middle of the classroom. It makes me sick just thinking about it."
I'd mentioned Autumn's return to her already, and she was pissed when she'd heard about it. But she'd also promised me that I had the upper hand. I didn't think so anymore, not after what I saw today.
I felt like everything was continuously blowing up in my face. I was tired of having plans that constantly failed.
"You're not trying hard enough."She snaps. "Atticus is very easy to manipulate. You should know that about him by now. You're supposed to know all of his weaknesses. I told you that you're at an advantage now that he barely remembers her. You can't let this opportunity slip away from you, Anya. I didn't go through all this trouble with his accident, so that you could mess my plans up for a second time. Go to that party tonight and make him fall more in love with you. Do everything that you need to have his full attention tonight. Make sure that Autumn doesn't get a second of his time. If you truly want him, you will succeed tonight."
It was easy for her to order me around since she wasn't the one going through it. She had no idea how humiliating it was to see Atticus time and time again choose Autumn over me. He may not say it, but his actions were always in favor of her.
It was almost like she was the one that had put a spell on him, not us.
I inwardly groaned, it was so unfair.
"Those men that kidnapped her." I point out.
"Did you happen to find any more information on them?"
My mother runs a hand through the candle in front of her and steps closer to me, "I'm afraid not.
Those tattoos seem familiar to me. I remember seeing them somewhere in the past, but for some reason, I can't remember where. I've been researching and looking around, but there's nothing about them. It's almost like they're under the radar. I'll keep looking into them. Maybe I can find something that would help keep Atticus
and Autumn apart from each other for much longer. The fact that Autumn escaped, or should I say the fact that they let her go? I'm not sure what happened, but she's herenow. I still believe that those men are dangerous, they just haven't used her for their main event yet. I'm not sure what they wanted from her, but they must not have been
able to get it from her. That's why they let her go. They're waiting. Waiting for the chance to get what they wanted the most. I don't have any information
on it, at least for now, but I know they will be back. Her life is still in danger, I'm sure she knows it. I hope they get rid of her in time for our plan to work."
Maybe I could try to find out more. Autumn was close to Clarissa recently. I hated both of them with a passion. Clarissa has always had a dirty mouth, and being around her has always been an immense pain in my ass.
And Autumn. Her innocence annoyed the crap out of me. She always made everyone around her feel sorry for her. I'd never seen anyone cry for attention the way that she does.
But since Clarissa may have an idea of what was happening, I knew that there was a good chance that she'd also told Damon about it.
And Damon was still easy to control, just like Atticus had been before marrying Autumn.
I could get him to tell me everything Clarissa had told him.
Once l knew the truth, I would report everything back to my mother. She would know what to do from there. She was good at plotting against the Fawn's.
I've tried to get closer to his parents this entire time that Autumn had been missing, but they didn't warm up to me, they were still worked up over her disappearance.
Now that she was back, I knew my work had just doubled. His parents were happy to have her back even though they still lied to Atticus about her.
Everyone was still lying to him, but he was constantly trying to dig further into the events
of the day of his accident.
Why was it so difficult to keep this secret from him?
I didn't know how long I had before he found out the truth. But when he did, I wasn't sure how he would take the news.
Would he return to Autumn, or would he choose to be with me?