THE CONVERSATION

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BONUS CHAPTER

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Third Person's P.O.V.

DANIEL WALKED INTO the kitchen only to see Pablo sat at the dining table, calmly sipping some dark coffee out of his mug with his eyes glued to the newspaper in his hands.

“The cars are ready,” he said, standing there for a second longer than needed before turning to make his way out of the kitchen.

“Daniel.” Pablo's voice had successfully halted him, making him turn back to him with a blank expression on his face. “Sit for a second. We should talk.”

“I'll stand,” he said grimly, making Pablo roll his eyes at his stubborn nature. What else had he been expecting from him?

“I want to start by apologising for the way I spoke to you yesterday,” he said, setting his mug on top of the newspaper so it wouldn't make a sound when he placed it down. An anxious habit he had developed in the care of his abusive father that he hadn't quite unlearned yet. “There are much better ways that I could've gone about that and I'm sorry.”

Daniel allowed himself to relax in his presence, leaning against the doorframe with his arms folded across his broad chest. “If I had so much of an issue with what you said for me to need an apology from you, Pablo, you'd be dead already.”

Pablo shook his head, a chuckle leaving his lips at Daniel's words. He couldn't argue with that because nothing Daniel had said was wrong.

“I want to talk to you about Araceli for a moment.”

“What about Araceli?” Daniel questioned, his eyes narrowing at the worried look that was now on Pablo's face.

“I know you care about her,” he said, tilting his head to the side as if he had to admit it, “I'm not blind, but understand that she's fragile right now.” Daniel furrowed his eyebrows, confusion clear on his face at Pablo's cryptic words. What was he talking about?

“What?”

“She's fragile,” he repeated, choosing to ignore the confused look on Daniel's face. “Whatever she saw when they took her, it's affected her. It must've been traumatic to have changed her so much in so little time.” Pablo faltered for a second and thought about the younger version of her who had so much hope and life flowing within her and then thought about the current version of her. “She must've seen hell.”

Daniel wanted to act like he still didn't understand what Pablo was talking about, but he couldn't bring himself to. It was as clear as day and the more he thought about it, the more concerned he grew for the woman who seemed to be sleeping peacefully upstairs. To think that maybe, if he could read her thoughts, they wouldn't be as peaceful as he thought.

“Has she ever talked to you?” Pablo asked, holding the mug of coffee to his lips to take a sip. “Has she talked to you about what happened? Like, the details of it?”

“No,” Daniel shook his head, an unsettled feeling residing in him as he remembered something troubling she had said the previous day.

You saw the breakdowns and all the attempted suicides, he remembered her say. Attempted suicides. Plural.

“She attempted suicide.” Pablo's fierce eyes fixed themselves on Daniel as he stared coldly at the floor. “Multiple times. In two years.”

Both the men in the room seemed to go cold at the thought that they had been so close to losing her. What seemed to fear them most was the realisation that they could still be close to losing her. One wrong thing to trigger the obvious trauma she had and that could be it for her. They could be burying her the next day.

“This is why I'm worried about your relationship,” Pablo said, making Daniel look up at him with questioning eyes. “I think you're a... good person, Daniel.” Pablo cringed at his words, not truly meaning them before rephrasing. “Well, I know you're not a bad person at least and I know you're trying to change because you want to. But understand that change requires making mistakes and a mistake in Araceli's case could end up being very very bad.”

Daniel's arms remained crossed over his chest, his eyes focused on nothing in particular as he thought hard. He loved Araceli because she had a beautiful soul. There were so many things about her that made him happy. She made him feel good. She made him forget. She took the pain away, but how selfish could it be to risk her wellbeing for his own happiness?

He searched his brain and his heart, aching to find something that he did for her. Some benefit he proved to be in her life. Did she smile more because of him? Did she have everything she needed? What good was he to her?

“I'm not telling you this for you to go doubt everything, break up and them fuck this whole thing up,” Pablo said casually as he took the last sip out of his coffee and got up to place the mug in his sink. “Ideally, you two should've never got back together at all until she fully recovered, but the deed has been done and breaking it off will do more harm than good now. Plus, I can see you care deeply about her too. Love her, if I do say?”

Daniel only looked at Pablo, his mouth not moving to form a response to which Pablo laughed at.

“I thought as much,” he shrugged, finding his answer in Daniel's silence. “Just be careful with her, you know? Be gentle, patient. Learn her triggers and avoid them. Always communicate with her, Daniel. That's the biggest part. Talk to her always. If you notice something off, don't just ignore it. Bring it up and if she's uncomfortable, let her tell you that. Support her. Get her therapy. But most importantly, get yourself therapy. Sort your shit out. Your trauma isn't just going to magically go away.”

Daniel narrowed his eyes at him and in a low voice said, “I'm not traumatised.”

And to that, Pablo rolled his eyes. “Right,” he said sarcastically, shutting off the faucet after he placed his mug on the drying rack. “Are you ready now?”

Daniel couldn't help but look at Pablo in a new light. He had always respected the man. It was what came with how close they were as friends but also how competent of a right hand he was and skilled he was with weapons, but now he had a new-found respect for him. A respect for the softer, more patient side he had. Not only was Pablo skilled and smart, he was also incredibly emotionally intelligent.

He wondered how Araceli hadn't found him to fall in love with before finally realising why. Pablo would've never allowed it to happen. When they had first met, Ara had only been fifteen and Pablo was by then a legal adult, yet he was the one that helped her out the most. It was clear he had never seen her in a romantic way, allowing only for a platonic relationship to form between them. One so deep he was sure that they would die for each other at this point.

“No one deserves Emma as much as you do,” Daniel said suddenly, making Pablo look to him with wide eyes. “Hell, I don't even think she deserves you but there's no other person she could be with that I'd approve more than her being with you so if you ever decide to get her back and need Pierre dead—”

“I don't,” Pablo said, cutting him off because he already knew what his friend was going to say, but Daniel only rolled his eyes and made his way out the kitchen towards the front door.

“Well if you ever do, I'll gladly do the job with my bare hands.”

Ignoring the fact that Daniel would just like to kill Pierre in general, whether or not he needed him dead, he followed his friend and spoke. “I'll keep that in mind. Thank you.”

*****

Updates may or may not be slow after this. I'm not sure, but it heavily depends. I have my mocks in three weeks so wish me luck :')

Also, trying to convince the government to give us accredited grades but they're not budging so I've resorted to manifesting instead.

Anyways, yall stay safe xx