So this picture is literally how I feel right now and it's been a struggle for me haha. But look at me now! I ACTUALLY UPDATED!! *sobs happily* Okay I'll stop this, enjoy the chapter!
"My life is not a game." -Bella
Isabella's POV:
I stood with my arms crossed, looking ahead of me while Harry stood off to the side, his arms crossed as well as he looked out the window. Layla was the only one who was excited whenever we walked inside the house.
My mother was staring at Harry in horror, while Wesly looked a little angry yet shocked at the same time. Shayla was straight up ignoring Harry, standing beside me with an irritated look on her face.
Layla, however, was ecstatic. She was looking from me to Harry so excitedly and happily that I almost felt bad for her. The tension and the awkwardness in the air was so thick I could practically taste it, and no one has said a single word since we walked in the door.
My daughter still seemed oblivious to the tension, but she was the first to break the dreadful silence everyone was in.
"Daddy agreed to come home!" she exclaims and my mother looks to me surprised, still looking quite afraid to have him here. Of course, I don't blame her for being afraid of him since the last time he was here he nearly killed her. Wesly looked appalled at Harry, as if he was having a hard time believing that this was who my husband had actually become.
Harry frowned and let out an angry sigh. "Two days, remember?" he mutters and Layla turns to him with a sad look on her face. "That's not nearly long enough!" she whines and I close my eyes for a moment. This wasn't going to be easy, no matter how many days we had or how many chances we got.
"Anyways, I need to prepare to go to work in the morning." I mutter, turning around to leave when I felt a hand on my arm. I knew automatically that it was Layla's hand, so I looked down to see my daughter frowning at me.
"Don't go." she begs and I look from her over to Harry, who was avoiding looking me in the eyes. "I'm not leaving. I'm just getting ready for tomorrow. It's time for you to go to bed anyways." I say with a smile and she pouts. "I don't want to go to sleep!" she whines and I hear Harry huff.
"Don't argue. I really would rather avoid a stubborn match right now." he grumbles and I feel a smile creep on my face for a moment but I take a deep breath to contain myself. At least he's figured out that Layla's stubborn just like him...or me.
"I'm not arguing." Layla replied and a small smile comes to my face and I see Harry roll his eyes, shaking his head like he had given up. "Of course not." he muses and Layla grins.
"Why are you getting ready to leave for work?" Harry inquires, changing the topic as he finally looks at me, everyone else remaining quiet as we stared at one another.
"I work at the palace now, alongside Queen Phillipa. I'm one of her official assistants." I say and he raises an eyebrow. "That doesn't seem like a job you'd like, unless you've changed." he says dryly and I frown.
"I kind of had to, didn't I? I had to provide for my family one way or another." I say testily and he narrows his eyes at me, but says nothing else. My mother cleared her throat, grabbing both of her wheels and gave us a small smile.
"I'm going to be retiring for the night. If you'll excuse me, I have a lot to think about." she whispers, Harry looking over at her in her crippled state, and for a moment I swear regret filled his eyes, but he said or did nothing to prove what his eyes gave away.
Darla helped roll my mother away into her room, leaving Wesly with me, Harry, and Layla. "Wesly, do you mind taking Layla to go to sleep? I'm going to be getting ready, since tomorrow is going to be a big day for us. We'll really need to be prepared." I say with a smile and he returns it, giving me a small bow before motioning to Layla.
"Let's go to bed, little lady. Your mother has a lot of work to get done." he says and Layla looks from me to Harry before letting out a long sigh, shaking her head and following Wesly. "Will you read me a story?" she asks and Wesly raises an eyebrow as Layla takes his outstretched hand.
"Why? That'll take a long time." he says and she smiles. "I like it when you read to me. Besides, Momma needs time right?" she says and he looks at me and I just sigh, nodding my head and he nods back.
"Very well." he says, Layla grinning happily as he leads her up the stairs and to her bedroom. My mother was kind enough to lend us our own rooms when we come to visit her, which makes impromptu visits like these much less strenuous on all of us.
Once those two were out of my sight, I turned to walk to my room, but was stopped by Harry's voice.
"And who is he?" he asks and I pause, turning around to look at Harry, who seemed both upset and curious about Wesly.
"His name is Wesly. We work together, in a way. He takes us to the palace and back home almost every day. He's become a very dear friend." I explain and a grin comes to Harry's face. "Oh, just a friend? That's not what it seemed like." he sneers and I cross my arms.
"Like you would care. He takes care of Layla in the place of her absent father." I snap and he narrows his eyes. "He can't replace me." he growls and I huff. "He already has." I say and he narrows his eyes.
"Really? So you've married him?" he asks and I shake my head. "No, not yet." I say and his eyes widen. "Not yet?" he asks and I nod, not backing down. I wasn't going to make this easy on him, since he's made this nothing but hard for me.
"I've made a promise to my daughter that if I'm not officially reunited with my estranged husband by the time she turns eight, then I will marry Wesly so she has a father. And she's already six, so that only leaves two years left." I say and Harry stares at me shocked.
"So you really have moved on?" he asks and I let out a sigh, uncrossing my arms and looking down at the ground, my shoulders sagging. "I never said that. There's a reason I'm not already married to him." I say and he stays quiet as I look up, seeing an unreadable expression on his face.
"I still had hope, deep down, that maybe you'd come back. But...I never thought it'd be like this." I whisper and he swallows, looking away from my gaze. "Why? Why did you wait? I told you to forget about me." he says and I huff.
"It's kind of hard to forget the man you love. The man who gave you so much to live for. The man I see reflected in our daughter, whom I've raised alone." I say and he frowns, looking back at me.
"How can you still love me?" he asks and I shrug my shoulders. "It's hard to explain how you can love someone who nearly destroyed you. Everyone's asked me this for six years, yet I can't explain it to them. I just love you, Harry. And that part will never change, no matter what you do to me." I say and he clenches his jaw tightly.
"No matter what? I almost killed our daughter. What would you have done if I actually did?" he asks and I freeze, thinking about Layla not being here and I feel my heart clench tightly.
"I probably would've killed you." I mutter and he chuckles. "So you love her more than me. At least that's one thing that's changed." he says dryly and I sigh.
"You'd be the same way had you actually raised her." I say edgy and he gets stony faced, giving me a harsh look. "Why would I raise her? Why am I even here? I wouldn't care if anything happened to her." he says and I smile grimly.
"Now that's not exactly true now is it Harry?" I ask and he swallows. "Layla told me how you saved her." I say and his eyes widen.
"You could've let her get hurt, or let them take her, but instead you saved her life, and if what my daughter says is true, you told her to always stay where you can see her." I say and his face gets red as he looks away.
"I just wanted the information from her." he snaps and I shake my head. "Quit lying to yourself! You're doing this so much lately, just stop! You aren't as angry as you try to make yourself be! If you'd stop trying to act so tough and merciless all the time, you'd be your old self again!" I say harshly and he shakes his head angrily.
"You're wrong!" he yells and I fists my hands together. "No! I'm not! You're trying so hard to be someone you aren't! Why? Why are you wanting to change into a villain that badly?!" I ask angrily and he slams his fist against the wall.
"Because I don't want to be a damn victim again!!!" he shouts and I fall silent, both of us staring at each other and my eyes widen.
And just like that, I saw the lost little boy in front of me again from six years ago, and all the anger I had melted away instantly. My shoulders sagged and a frown came to my face as I stared at him, my heart aching.
"You're still..." I whisper but trail off, seeing him give me a glare. "Still what?!" he snaps and I swallow hard, knowing I had to word this carefully with him.
"Lost." I murmur and he clenches his jaw, turning away from me. "I'm not lost." he mutters and I let out a quiet sigh that he didn't hear. "Harry we've all been hurt. We've all been victimized. But to let that experience control how we act in the future? That's absurd. Learning from the experiences we've had is one thing, but to let it consume us and turn us into someone we're not is another. You can't mix the two, Harry." I say surely and he stares at me for a long time, soaking my words up before he lets out a huff.
"I didn't mix them up. I know very well what I'm doing." he states and I swallow. "Do you really?" I ask and he gives me a dirty look. "Of course!" he snaps and I give him an even stare. "Then what is it?" I ask and he opens his mouth to say something before he stops, looking away from me and out the window.
"I didn't let it consume me. I became it." he whispers and my eyes widen. "You wanted this?" I ask stunned, seeing him nod his head.
"I wanted an out. A way to get rid of all the pain from what had happened. So I focused all my anger on you, on the crew...everyone. And it worked. It's worked for six years and I've been doing just fine. Then you had to show back up with Layla and ruin the entire front I've built over half a decade." he says. He wasn't angry when he spoke, but I could still tell there was something edgy about his voice, the way his tone was laced with a sort of venom that was aimed directly at me, as if it were all my fault his anger was misplaced.
"I didn't go there willingly. Neither did Layla. It was all coincidence." I say and he chuckles. "Was it really though? Because I've been to this port before, only two other times in the last six years, and you never showed up. But now...you did. Why?" he asks and I hold my hands up.
"I don't know. I still haven't really wrapped my head around the fact that you're actually here in front of me, talking to me without shouting and actually staying with me again. It's all just happened so fast." I say and he frowns, but stays quiet.
It was probably midnight by now, judging by how dark it was outside. The weight of everything that's happened today began to weigh down on me and I let out a long sigh, slouching down and putting a hand on my forehead.
"What's wrong?" Harry asks and I let out a breathy laugh. "It's been such a long day." I whisper and I hear him murmur an agreement. "You should go to bed then. Get some sleep." he says and I look up at him, seeing him scratching the back of his head.
"Do I need to sleep on the floor, or am I allowed to leave?" he grumbles and I shake my head. "I have a feeling you'd be pounced by Layla if you left. Come on, there's a spare bed in the back." I say and motion for him to follow me, turning and going towards the back, passing the bedroom I was sleeping in and going to the next room, opening up the door and stepping to the side to let him through.
I turned around and nearly stumbled back when Harry was inches from me, making me look up at him, seeing an unreadable expression on his face. "W-What?" I stutter but he doesn't respond, just stays still as he stares at me.
Very slowly he leans closer, my eyes widening as he gently grabs my chin, tilting my head up so I was looking at him, his face now inches away from mine. My heart hammered in my chest at his touch; something I've missed for so long but was now here and it felt like my skin was on fire.
He was so close to my lips now, and I leaned forward slightly, but never made any contact as he pulled away, his hand falling to his side as he stood up straight, leaving me confused and embarrassed.
"So it is still there, you weren't lying." he mumbles to himself before brushing past me, my mouth open and my eyes wide, not believing he just played me so easily like that.
"Goodnight." he says before slamming the door shut, bringing me from my trance-like state and turning around, seeing the wooden door the only barrier between us now. I brought my hand up to my chin, feeling where he had touched, before tears came to my eyes.
He was just toying with me. I don't know what game he was playing, but I didn't want any part of it. He needs to figure out what it is he really wants to do, because my heart can't take this. My love for him is still on fire, burning so intensely that it hurts to see him toss it away like trash.
I went into my room, a tear falling from my eye as I shut the door behind me, not understanding what had just happened. Harry was here...he was in my mother's house...he knew my daughter...our daughter...and he knows I still love him. But...
Does he still love me?
I AM SO SO SO SORRY FOR THE LACK OF UPDATING!! But I finally got this out and it's a long chapter so yay for that! I really hope you enjoy this little bit of banter and tension between the two! I had been planning on updating for a long time but a lot of problems came up that prevented me from doing so. But I really hope you guys enjoy this!!