[Unedited]
❝You're my wildest dream and my worst nightmare.❞
➳➳➳
[Harry's POV]
This was probably the happiest I had ever been in my life. After all the things that I had been through, the pain and the heartbreak this was my award for never giving up. The love that I feel for that woman is worth everything. Holding her next to me and kissing her is what I live for and I will never let her go.
Waking up with her next to me today was like a dream come true, it gave me hope that there could be happiness for us.
The only problem is the fact that I have lied to her. I didn't tell her the truth about her past- our past. The Dollhouse, Alexander, Daniel...everything. And I'm slowly starting to regret my decision. In the beginning I thought that I was protecting her that way, that I was helping her start fresh without the pain and shame that place brought, but now I'm not sure about that. I feel like I'm deceiving her and I can't help but think of what will happen when her memory comes back completely.
She will hate you, Harry.
No, no, no.
I have to tell her the truth and be honest with her. I can't just stay here waiting for her to remember. I have to do it tonight at the party and I also have to make sure that Daniel doesn't approach her anymore.
I still can't quite bring myself to believe what he did. He played her, he fooled everyone and managed to keep her hidden from me for so long. And the worst part is the fact that I have no proof against him, only words, but words can't make him rot in prison.
I sighed deeply, ruining a hand through my hair as I paced back and forth in my apartment. My eyes moved to the clock hanging on the wall in from of me and I realised that I was going to be late if I kept overthinking things. Tonight everything would be over.
My phone started ringing and I rushed to get it thinking that it would be Angelina, but it wasn't. After she left this morning she didn't call me anymore, she only asked of me to be there tonight with her and that's exactly what I was going to do.
"Hello." I said, answering the phone. I sat down on the couch, waiting for the other person to speak.
"Harry, why haven't you called me you bastard." Louis was quick to say, giving no proper greeting. I smiled against the phone, shaking my head. I had missed my friend. Since he left I felt so lost, I had no one to run to for advise and help.
"Well, I had been kind of busy." I replied, my voice filled with sarcasm.
"Excuses, but I will let this slide. How are things going for you? Any improvement?" He asked, sounding truly interested to know.
I let out a deep breath and leaned back, staring up at the ceiling. "Yes, things are going better with Angelina, but..." I trailed off, not knowing how to explain to him the situation with Daniel.
"But what?" He asked, urging me to speak. I shut my eyes, pressing my hand on my forehead before deciding to tell him.
"Daniel is here. He was the one that kidnapped Angelina that night." I blurted out.
"What?" Louis exclaimed. I could just imagine the expression on his face, eyes wide and mouth hanging open. "This can't be happening!"
"It was him, Louis. That son of a bïtch took advantage of her situation and fooled everyone. He was her fûcking boyfriend and he pretended to be the good guy all this time. Do you understand how that made me feel?" I asked him, raising my voice a bit as I let everything I was feeling come out. Pain. Hatred. Anger. My fingers had curled into a tight fist without me even realising and I was in need to punch something as I talked about it. "I can't take the image of them together. It makes me sick."
"Fûck, mate, this thing is so fûcked up. I still can't manage to believe that someone could do something like that. He must be insane." The sound of his foot tapping against the floor was heard through the phone and I knew that he was thinking something. He always did that when he was in thoughts and I rose up from my seat immediately.
He must be insane.
Louis' last sentence was ringing in my head over and over again like a wake up call. And just like that I knew what he was thinking. This was the proof I need.
"Maybe he really is insane." I whispered, but I knew that he heard me so I continued. "Louis, maybe Daniel is mentally ill, if I can prove that then he will disappear from our lives forever. I have to do some research, I don't have any proof against him and without Angelina's memory I cant do much, but if I somehow manage to prove that he in mentally ill he will be considered dangerous to be around. Do you think you can help me with this?" I asked him.
"I will see what I can do." Louis sighed. "And right when I thought that my shît was bad, you prove me wrong again. Your life is more fucked up that mine." He said, sounding slightly tired and right then a woman's voice was heard, calling his name, and I frowned, narrowing my eyes.
"Do you have company?" I asked him.
"Well, yes... I did something stupid." He confessed.
A smirk appeared on my face. Louis did something stupid? That was something knew. "What exactly?" I asked.
"I paid a girl to pretend to be my girlfriend in front of my family. I didn't want to be the loser who couldn't even get a girl to like him, so I lied to them and told them that I had a girlfriend- which I didn't. But this is not the worst part, the worst part is that she decided to take manners in her own hands, not follow what we had agreed on and telling them that we were soon getting engaged. Oh, and did I forget to mention that the girl that I hired as my girlfriend happens to be a stripper who previously worked at the Dollhouse?" By the time he finished speaking, he was out of breath and I was just standing there in complete shock by what he had just told me. That definitely was something stupid.
"Wow, just wow. Why the hell did you do that?" I asked him, furrowing my eyebrows in confusion.
"I just did. Don't ask why, you know that there is no why for what I do. I don't think when I do shît like this. I guess, I just felt bad for her." He claimed, sighing in frustration.
I shook my head in disapproval, but didn't say anything else to him. I was in no position to judge him, especially considering the fact that my lies were worst than his. He lied about his relationship, I lied about someone's past.
"You know, you should stop caring so much about others. Remember what happened the last time you did." I told him, giving him a small advice. "I hope you sort things out."
"I hope that too. Listen, I have to go now. I will call if I learn something about Daniel's case." He informed me and I nodded, even though, he couldn't see me.
"Thanks, Louis."
"Bye, mate. Oh, and Harry... Happy birthday."
He hang up and I placed the phone on top of the table again. Happy birthday. Well, let's hope it will be a good one.
My eyes trailed towards the small box beside it, which contained Angelina's present and I took it my hand before placing inside my pocket.
I had a birthday party to attend and an enemy to get rid off and no time to waste. So I stood up and left.
Happy fûcking birthday to me.
* * *
[Angel's POV]
"And you see that woman other there with the red dress? She is the wife of a billionaire, Oscar Crawford is his name. He is a great man, but she is a total bîtch. They say that she cheats on him..." I zoned out slowly as my aunt kept talking to me and informing me about everyone's life in this room. I knew everyone's personal life and I didn't even stop to ask her where she got all that information from. I couldn't understand why she had invited all those people, I didn't know any of them.
"I think I know enough, aunt." I told her, forcing a smile. She stopped talking and turned to look at me with a puzzled expression on her face, as if not understanding why I wasn't interesting in what she was telling me. "Why are they even here if you dislike most of them?" I questioned.
She sighed, rolling her eyes at me. She placed her hand on my back and brought me closer to her. "All these people here are important, they belong to our class, therefor it is important to develop certain friendships with them. You never know when they can be helpful." She told me and I nodded, turning my head away from her. Immediately my eyes landed on Daniel who was standing across the room talking to other people. I had talked to him earlier, before the guests arrived, but I never got the chance to speak to him about what I wanted to tell him cause he was always busy. His face was still slightly bruised, but he seemed to be in a better mood than he was yesterday when I saw him. He was smiling a lot today.
I looked away from him and smiled as I saw the woman, that my aunt was talking to me about, approaching me.
"And here is the birthday girl." She exclaimed, smiling widely and showing off her white, straight teeth. Her brown eyes moved to my aunt and she gave her a small nod, before taking a sip from her wine. "I have heard a lot about you, Angelina. Maxwell Starr's long lost daughter, the true heiress of his wealth. People haven't stopped talking about you. How does it feel like to be the centre of attention?" She asked me, raising an eyebrow at me.
I gaped at her, with a confused expression on my face. I didn't expect her to talk to me like that. She sounded jealous.
I cleared my throat.
"I think you are exaggerating things a bit. But to answer your question, I don't really care for fame and I don't feel comfortable with this situation." I replied to her.
She smiled, she wasn't believing me. "Sweetheart, everyone loves attention." She stated.
"Not me." I was quick to say.
She pressed her lips together, obviously irritated and took another sip from her drink.
She wanted to say something else, but I excused myself and left. I wasn't in the mood to deal with a woman like her at the moment. I was getting anxious, knowing that I had to speak with Daniel and ask him to break up and Harry was no one to be found. I really needed to see him before doing this.
I walked through the room, talking to some of the guest and quietly made my way outside in the garden just in time to see a familiar car pulling over by the front gate.
I smiled and ran towards it as Harry got out and threw myself in his arms, giving his a kiss on the lips. His hands gripped my hips and pulled me closer to him and I broke off the kiss, tilting my head up to look at his face. He was grining, making the dimples on his cheeks more visible and I felt my heart flatter.
He was all mine.
I slipped my arms around his neck and stood on my toes, brushing my nose against his as I bit my bottom lip. "Tell me that you love me." I whispered, smiling again like an idiot. My muscles were hurting from smiling so much, but I couldn't help it around him. He made me happy. I was happy.
"I love you." He said, clear enough for me to hear.
I kissed him again, grabbing him by the collar of his shirt and leaning my back against the car behind me. "I love you, Harry." I told him.
"Let's get out of here. Come with me." He said, taking my hands in his.
I shook my head.
"I can't just yet, I have to talk with Daniel first and then we can leave. Can you please wait for me here?" I told him.
A frown took over his face and he took a step away from me.
"I will come with you." He stated.
"No, I need to do this alone. You being there will just make things worse. Please, Harry." I pled. He gave me a hard stare and then sighed, nodding slowly. He wasn't pleased with this situation, but he had to understand. I couldn't appear in front of Daniel with him by my side, it would just make matters worse.
"Fine, but hurry up. I have planned something to celebrated our birthdays tonight." He told me, smiling again.
"Birthdays?" I furrowed my eyebrows at him.
"It's my birthday today." He informed me.
My eyes widened. "What? And why didn't you tell me? I would have bought you a gift." I told him, crossing my arms over my chest and pouting.
He approached me again and placed his finger under my chin, lifting my head up to look into his emerald eyes.
"You are my gift. Your love is all I could ask for. Just love me, that's all I want. Don't leave me. Love me." He whispered, bringing his face closer to me. My heart started beating fast at his words, only he could have his effect on me.
"I can do that." I choked out. I was feeling... funny. My whole body tingling and trembling. He brought his hand up to cup my face, I leaned into his touch, and he gently pressed his lips on mine. It was just a small perk. His lips were soft as he started to kiss a trail from my mouth to my neck.
A soft moan escaped my lips and that was enough to make him stop, restraining himself from pushing me inside his car and driving away together.
"I think you should go now." He said, his house hoarse.
I nodded and walked away without saying anything else. I walked back inside the house, feeling a bit lightheaded, but managed to collect myself. Music filled my ears again and I forced a smile on my face as some guests turned to look at my flustered face.
From the corner of my eye I saw Daniel walking around the room with a frown on his face as if searching for someone. His eyes soon found mine and he smiled, motioning for me to approach him.
This was it.
I had prepared my speech all day, trying to find the right words to explain to him that our relationship couldn't keep going. I didn't want us to end on bad terms and I didn't want to hurt him. As I walked towards him I repeated everything over and over in my head, but when he was finally standing in front of me I blacked out. Everything in my mind went blank and I forget all my words.
What was I supposed to say?
His brown eyes were sparking and I didn't know why. His smile was wide and I felt horrible that I was going to make it disappear.
"I have to tell you something." We both said in unison.
He laughed.
"You can speak first." I told him, taking a deep breath. That way I had some time to remember my words. Oh, this was terrible.
"Fine, then." He said, scratching the back of his neck. "Angelina, we have been together for almost a year and over this time I have realised that you mean a lot to me and I can't really imagine my life without you. If you leave me I will go insane. I love you and I know that you feel the same, even though, you are afraid to admit it. I know that we have talked about this before and you said that you needed time to think about it, but I cant wait anymore and I think that this is the perfect time to ask you this." He said and exhaled from his mouth.
My heart stared beating like crazy, I was beginning to get scared. I had a slight idea of where this conversation was going.
No, no. Oh, please, no.
He took a step back and put his hand in his pocket, pulling out a small, red velvety box. My eyes widened and I looked around me to see that the music had stopped and everyone had turned to look at us. Their curious gazes were suffocating me and I felt like I couldn't breath as I looked back at Daniel.
"Daniel." I said his name in a warning tone.
He ignored it and went down on his knee, opening the small box to reveal the diamond ring that was inside. I saw my aunt behind me, she was looking at me with a horrified expression on her face, she looked shocked too.
"Angelina, will you marry me?" Daniel finally made the question and I felt my world collapsing around me. All these people were looking at us, waiting for me to accept his proposal and kiss him like a loving couple would do. But I couldn't do that. I didn't love Daniel and I could never marry him. This was wrong. Wrong.
The room fell silent, not even a single sound was heard. Daniel was looking up at me with his big brown eyes and his hand extended to me, waiting impatiently for my reply, but I couldn't even bring myself to open my mouth. I was just standing there dumbfounded.
How can you deny a proposal in front of so many people without hurting the other person? You can't. Why did he do that? Why? Did he think that I would accept his proposal if he did it in front of so many people? Did he think that I would feel bad and just agree?No.
I parted my lips and took a step back from him, which caused his smile to fall a bit.
"No." The word echoed through the walls and sounded way harsher than I intended it to be. Everyone in the room gasped and whispers filled the place. "I can't marry you, Daniel."
The box fell from his hands and his eyes stared up at me. His expression hardened to one I had never seen before. His eyes were glossy, filled with hatred and he rose to his feet, clenching his jaw muscles.
He looked mad.
He looked dangerous and that brought back unpleasant memories...
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Updates will be more often since I'm back from vacation. I was also thinking of making a spin-off for this book, focusing on Louis.
Here is a quick trailer I have made, let me know if you are interested in reading it.