THE ALTERCATION

All of our conversations end like it's the last goodbye.

***

CHAPTER XVI

*****

“DANIEL?” I POKED my head into his office and saw him sitting at his desk with his laptop right in front of him. He glanced up at me briefly before going back to his work. “Can we talk?”

He didn't have a choice in the matter, but I knew from experience that making people believe they did made them more receptive to what I was going to say.

Daniel only grunted, getting first place for the most minimal response I had ever received to that question. I still let myself in, closing the door behind me with a soft click before making my way over to his desk.

I had decided to clean myself up before I came to speak with him, now adorned in one of his black shirts and the same sweatpants after a much needed shower.

He hadn't looked up at me at all since I had called for his attention and I soon realised that that was how our conversation was going to go.

With a small exhale, I gathered my thoughts and then began talking. “I want to go back to New York.”

His eyes snapped up to meet mine in a matter of a seconds and a feeling of triumph had washed over me. “Are you mad?”

“No, but I am tired of feeling useless so I'm going back,” I stated, shrugging. “There's nothing for me here.”

He narrowed his eyes at me and dropped his pen on his desk. He leaned back in his seat as he stared at me. “And how do you intend to do that?”

“With a plane ticket.”

“I'm not joking—”

“Neither am I,” I said, swiftly cutting him off. “I intend to go back to New York, threat or not because I can't sit here and twiddle my thumbs in front of me like nothing is happening while other people take care of my shit. I feel useless.”

“Better than feeling dead.”

“You would know, huh?” He glared at me at my words and I only raised my hands in defense, not wanting him to think that I was staging a personal attack against him. “Look, Daniel, believe it or not, I have a job that I need to do. I have bills that need to be paid and my rent too. People know me in New York and it won't take long before they start noticing my absence if they haven't already. I have appointments to go to.”

“Cancel all of them.”

“I can't cancel them. What happens when all of this ends and I have no home to live in and no job?” I asked, leaning over the desk to get closer to him. “What do I do? Rely on you again?” He said nothing as I spoke, only watching me with his cold eyes. “And what about all my things? How do I get them? I'm assuming I'll be here for a bit of time so what happens to that?”

He again said nothing, not providing a solution and only adding to the problems I needed to solve. If it was just me, the solution was easy; go back to New York.

“You can go back,” Daniel said, making my eyes widen. “But wherever you intend on going, know that Mateo stays here.”

I knew there was a catch. There always had to be a catch. It was Daniel after all. There was no way I would ever win something against him.

I narrowed my eyes at him before letting a chuckle slip past my lips. He narrowed his eyes at the sound of it and pursed his lips as I began to speak. “You think you can care for him? He doesn't even know you're his father.”

He remained silent as he glared at me for a couple seconds. He didn't seem angry, but he did look irritated. “Are you trying to piss me off?”

“Is it working?” I asked, feigning excitement as I leaned forward. He rolled his eyes at me and went back to the paper work on his desk, making me click my tongue and examine my nails. “Funny you should bring up Mateo.” I perked up, sitting upright in my seat. “He's actually the main reason I want to leave this place.” That seemed to have got his attention. “This place isn't good for his development,” I continued as if we were having a two-person conversation and I wasn't just talking to a brick wall. “The amount of people around gets him anxious and there's just nothing for him to do during the day so he gets bored won't sleep at night.”

Daniel's eyes remained on me, but I knew I was the last thing on his mind. He looked as if he was deeply contemplating something before he let put a low exhale and addressed me. “I'll sort something out.”

“Like what?” I asked, narrowing my eyes at him.

“Like something,” he answered sarcastically. “Now go.”

I got up out of my seat but instead of heading to the door like he probably expected, I leaned over the table and grabbed a hold of his chin. With minimal effort, I jerked his head up so his surprised eyes were focused on mine.

“I'm giving you two days to sort out the living situation.” The surprise had worn off and taking its place was humour as Daniel proceeded to not take me seriously. I didn't think he understood just how hell bent I was on not staying in the freak house he had put me in.

He wrapped his large hand around my wrist, bringing my hand away from his chin without any protest from me. His touch was gentle and his thumb traced soft circles on my palm which made me shiver momentarily.

“And if I don't?”

I glared at him, attempting to pull my hand from his but the grip he had on it only tightened as he brought my hand to his face.

“Then I'll leave. It's that simple.” I hissed, trying to hide the effect his touch had on me. “And if I leave, believe me when I say that you will never set your eyes on Mateo again.”

A chuckle had escaped his lips at my words as his eyes met mine. Without breaking eye contact, he placed a small kiss on the palm of my hand that practically made all of my internal organs melt. Fortunately, I didn't let that show through my facial expression, only humouring him more.

“You seem confident about that. Why?”

“Because, my love,” I said sarcastically, yanking my hand out of his hold. “I'm frustrated. And the last thing you want to do is mess with a frustrated woman.” With my final words declared, I turned around and made my way out of his office.

Our talk wasn't over. While we had discussed the future, the huge elephant that we were yet to address was our past and I wasn't planning on leaving him alone until we did, but I decided that he deserved a break from me. If not for at least an hour.

I travelled down the stairs, heading straight to the maids quarters so I could coerce Anna into speaking with me. I went by different doors, knowing that Anna's room was near the end of the hall. Despite being aware of this fact, I came to a sudden halt at a door that I knew didn't belong to my best friend.

I strained my ears, listening hard to what sounded like baby noises coming from the opposite side of the door. I shouldn't have been so concerned since any other maid could have brought a child with them to work, but something felt wrong in this moment.

I pressed my ear against the door, wanting to hear a little more to at least put my heart at ease when the blood-chilling cries of a young child erupted from the room. What really had me frozen in fear was the fact that those cries were familiar.

I wasn't an expert on sound, but I could tell when my own child was crying and when he wasn't. And in this moment, he was definitely crying.

“Mateo!” I yelled, pounding my fist on the door after the handle didn't budge. “Mateo, what's wrong? What happened?”

I knew my voice was travelling far and wide due to the amount of maids that poked their heads out of their room to see what was happening. I couldn't care any less. I was going mad because my son was crying and I couldn't even get to him.

“Who's room even is this?” I muttered as I tried to pry the door open again from the handle. “On my life, if you don't open the door for me now—”

“Araceli? What's going on ?” Anna asked coming up behind me, but I didn't pay any attention to her.

All I could focus on was the sound of the lock clicking open. I hadn't waited for the person behind the door to swing it open before I had barged in, storming into the room before looking around. My eyes instantly found Mateo, screaming on the vanity chair as he held his hand up to head in what I assumed was pain.

I ran up to me, not wasting a second to scoop him up into my arms and hold him to my chest.

“What happened, baby?” I cooed, rubbing his back as his face got redder and redder with tears. “What happened to you? What did she do?”

The answer came to me a second later in the form of dark, curly locks of hair on the white vanity table along with a small pair of scissors. I pulled Teo's hand away from his head for a second, scanning my eyes over the speckles of blood on his fingers before cursing and holding him closer to my chest.

“My love, I'm so sorry.” He only continued crying, his hand buried in his hair as his snot dribbled from his nose onto Daniel's shirt. “I'm right here okay.”

It hadn't even occurred to me to try and find out who was behind this whole thing. I was too focused on comforting Mateo that I couldn't think of anything else. I realised in that moment that he was probably still crying the way he was because he was still in the room of the incident.

I turned around, seeing both Anna and Lucy, the person that must have hurt him. I let out a deep breath, wanting to control my anger before it got the best of me. Silently, I shuffle over to Anna and hand her Mateo who struggled to stay with me, but I didn't want him to see what was going to happen next.

He only cried louder, but she cooed to him and carried him away from the room. A couple guards seemed to have run down at the commotion and while some looked like they planned on leaving, others seemed to linger. They probably knew that this situation was only going to escalate from here.

I turned to Lucy, not missing the way she took a small step back in fear.

“So?” I inquired, folding my arms over my chest as I approached her slowly. “Are you not going to explain this to me, Lucia?”

“My name is Lucy,” she hissed, but that was the last thing I cared about.

“I don't care.” I took another step closer to her. “All I care about is what you were doing alone, in your room with my son and why his hair is on your vanity.”

She remained silent, her eyes darting from me to the hairs on the table back to me again.

“Am I talking to a dead body?” I asked, reaching my hand out and striking her left cheek.

“Araceli!” a familiar voice yelled, grabbing a hold of my arm and yanking me back. “Calm down.”

“Let go of me,” I fought against Daniel's hold, wanting to break free so I could deal more damage to the bitch that was crying on the other side of the room. “Leave me alone. Stop touching me.”

He hadn't listened to me. Instead he grabbed the both of my arms and pressed my body right against his so I couldn't move hands.

My struggling died down, not because I wanted to heed his command but because I knew I would be free faster if I did. Unfortunately, right at the moment I had finally calmed my breathing, that had my heart rate increasing all over again.

“You,” I hissed, narrowing my eyes at Celeste as she took a cautious step back with a frown on her lips.

“Me?”

“Where's Mateo?” I asked, taking a step back from Daniel so I wouldn't feel suffocated anymore. He let me but still kept close in case I were to attack her.

She opened her mouth to speak before closing it and pressing her lips into a thin line. I watched her as she looked at her surroundings, eyeing everyone there before setting her eyes on Lucy who was huddled in the corner with her knees up against her chest. Probably just so people would take pity on her.

Finally, she looked back at me, her eyes narrowed into narrow slits. “How should I know? He's your child.”

I had no idea how I was supposed to react. Was she being serious right now? Did she actually think that that was the right thing to say to me after putting my child in danger?

I took a step towards her, but Daniel grabbed my arm again, stopping me from getting any closer. I wasn't too bothered because unlike Lucy, Celeste wasn't scared of confrontations. She pushed past the guards at the door and stepped up to me, an impatient look on her face.

“Are you being serious right now?” I asked, glaring daggers at her as a laugh bubbled out of her chest. “You think this is a joke, don't you?”

She said nothing, folding her arms over her chest and smacking her gum as if I was the one in the wrong for being angry.

“God knows what that bitch would've done to my son if I hadn't come the time I did.”

“Okay?” she said, her nonchalance taking me by surprise. “Then yell at her not me. I don't know why I'm the one you're getting pissed at.”

“Because Mateo was supposed to be with you!” I exclaimed, stomping my feet because I just couldn't see how she didn't get it. “This was the house that I almost died in, for fuck sakes. I only trusted a few people to watch him and you were one of them.”

“Okay and I trusted you not to go behind my back and sleep with Daniel two years ago, but look at us now.”

Daniel let go of my arm at her words, making me whip around to see the glare that he was shooting her. Before he could say anything, I spoke up.

“Are you serious right now?” I asked, making her snap her eyes from Daniel to me. “You're trying to justify hurting Mateo... with that?”

“I'm not trying to justify anything. I'm just trying to show you that trust gets broken.” She pointed an accusing finger at my chest. “You yourself should know this.”

“And so to get back at me, you put my child in danger. That's what you do?” I stared at her, really stared at her.

Everybody in that room most likely knew that Celeste didn't like kids, but I wanted her to empathise with me on this because it wasn't a matter of wanting kids or not. It was a matter of simple human decency and even though I didn't believe I was the best person to preach on that, I was still going to do it anyway.

“I know I hurt you and I'm sorry, but whether you choose to forgive me or not, leave Mateo out of whatever we have between us.” I pointed to her and then to myself as I spoke. “He has nothing to do with this.”

She held my gaze for a second before dropping it down to her feet. She shook her head before turning around and walking away. “Whatever.”

I took in a breath, wanting to calm myself before snapping my eyes to Lucy. If there was something that Celeste was right about, it was the fact I should be pissed at Lucy, but I wasn't going to waste my strength fighting her.

I walked up to her closet and pulled everything out of it before picking up as much as I could and walking over to her open window. Without hesitating for a second, I chucked all of her clothes out the window, making a distressed cry escape her lips.

She got up from her huddled position on the floor and ran to the window looking down at the clothes I had thrown onto the wet drive in the heavy rain.

“What are you doing?” she almost screeched, watching me as I picked up another bunch of her clothes and walked to her window. “Stop!”

Before I could chuck the clothes out, she grabbed my arm and turned me away. I hadn't let a single thought cross my mind when I sent my palm across her face again, slapping her so hard she fell onto the floor in tears.

“Who told you you could touch me?” I asked, sending my foot into her stomach like Lola had done to me before she was thrown out. “Who told you you could touch my son?”

“Boss, should we do something?” I heard one of the guards ask Daniel as I continued beating Lucy who was lying on the floor in tears.

“Please,” she begged, directing her words to Daniel so he would intervene. “I was only trying to help you.”

“How so?” Daniel asked, making me take a step away from her so she could answer. “What were you trying to do?”

“I wanted to test his paternity, that's all,” she cried, blood spilling out of her mouth. “I didn't mean to hurt him.”

“What do we do boss?”

“Help her,” Daniel said, surprising me before nodding in my direction. “Help her throw her things out.” He turned to Lucy. “If you're not out in the next five minutes, I'll shoot you myself.”

Lucy let out a terrified scream once I had grabbed a handful of her hair and began yanking her through the house. She hadn't fought me, but I still kicked her and pulled her hair along the whole journey to the front door until I finally threw it open and pushed her out. The rain didn't hesitate in soaking through her clothes as she fell down the stairs, landing on the wet ground on her hands and knees.

“Your clothes are on the other side of the house,” I said, giving her an evil smile. “I'm sure another bitch will get it for you. The guards know you only have five minutes, so if your on my property for longer than that, I'm not liable for whatever happens to you.”

I slammed the door shut, not listening to whatever else she had to say. Turning around, the first person I set eyes on was Daniel who was watching the drama unfold from the doorway.

Before I could start yelling at him, he spoke.

“Pack whatever things that are important to you and come down here in half an hour. You're leaving.” Then he left.

*****

I know it's late but at least I posted at all today.

I literally fell asleep and then woke up at half twelve to 99+ notifications lmaoo. The last time I had that much unread notifications was when I was on hiatus for like six months.

Not when I decided to take a 3 hour long nap. Anyways, here I am. I decided to shave at like 1 in the morning so after posting this I'm gonna try and go through all of your comments.

Also, I would just like to say that a lot of the time I may not be on wattpad, but I always see and appreciate all the support you guys have given me. This year, His Woman passed the 50K mark (which I had never thought it would do), His Queen passed the 10K mark and I've gained 600+ followers and new friends. Yall mean so much to me and I really want yall to know that.

Usually, I show my appreciation in the form of bonus chapters but I can't really do that now. I will in the future though.

Anyways, thank you all again. Bye!

Ps. Warcraft is so fucking said wtf tell me why my dumbass decided to watch it