t w e l v e || Nasty Divulgences and Trust Issues

|1st February 2019|

Several quick blinks and erratic heartbeats later, I still hadn't been able to grasp what exactly had happened− or rather, is happening.

Elliot's gaze towards me was unpretentious. And in that instant, with his shoulders slouching with humbleness, wet hair covering his forehead in thick locks, and the unfolded sleeves of his shirt reaching the tips of his fingers, I couldn't help but see him as the eighteen-year-old boy that I had been in love with- so full of...simplicity.

The gentle smile that broke on his lips next, although made my heart stop beating for a second, did nothing good to my mind. Elliot's brave entry into the room, despite my warning, quickly sent my blood levels high. But that was it; the blood was just starting to border high levels. Yet.

What actually made me want to chop Elliot's head off was the fact that somehow he held the upper hand here, too. That, somehow, he had made his existence known to Zephrine Wilson who I thought I had done a great job at hiding. That, somehow, he had gotten involved deep into my life even as I remained oblivious to his intentions and mindless shenanigans for nine goddamn years.

That, somehow, despite everything happening in the most bizarre of ways, something light yet heavy leapt inside my chest as the boy who stole my heart and the girl who shared my stolen heart with him shared smiles.

You're such a pathetic piece of ass, Celeste Wilson. You can even decide what you feel.

Zephrine waved Elliot to come closer. "Here," she said, patting the empty space on the bed beside me. "Come sit."

I locked eyes with Elliot, and unlike every other time when we would lock eyes and his visual features would be intent and mine would be the first to look away, the opposite happened this time as Elliot lowered his eyes to the floor. Yeah come, sit beside me, Elliot. Make my job of dicing you into nice little cubes so your flesh can serve as a nice three-time meal for my neighborhood dog easy, I told him telepathically.

As if my telepathic message had reached Elliot, he did not dare move an inch. He had used up all of his nerves for the day, I guess. He stood there, leaning over the doorframe with his hands hanging still by his side, his eyes hesitantly looking up at me and scanning my face for some cues. I gave away nothing, of course. It would be too stupid of me to react in front of Zephrine and Jael.

"He's my friend, mum." I turned to face Zephrine as she addressed me. Perhaps she'd seen the dirty looks I'd been shooting Elliot, and so decided to come to his rescue. "The one I told you about, remember?"

I instantly turned to Elliot once again, craving confirmation, and judging from the way his shoulders visibly tensed and he squinted ever-so-slightly in distress, I found myself answering my own question.

No fucking way...

To say my heart didn't do any violent activity at the realization would be equal to saying Elliot had absolutely no motive behind keeping contacts with Zephrine Wilson without my knowledge.

Now, ladies and gentlemen, I pronounce myself frantically furious.

But all of my anger and annoyance and desire to kill Elliot has to be contained until the ever-so-famous 'right' time graciously arrives on a chariot, hasn't it?

It happened all too quickly; my resolve to not say a word against Elliot in front of the two girls, or in this hospital, for that matter, but rather surprisingly, I found myself feigning a smile at Zephrine, miraculously suppressing the urge to express just how manipulated and betrayed I felt at the moment. I mean, like Elliot himself wasn't enough, he had somehow convinced Zephrine into teaming up with him, too. That sneaky little rat will surely see what a Satan I can become.

"You know him, darling?" I asked Zephrine.

"Yes, mum. He's the one I told you about," she repeated.

"Oh, but isn't the Aric you mentioned to me your classmate?"

Zephrine laughed, her cheeks moving backward to make space for a smile that stayed put much after she stopped laughing. "No, mum. My classmates aren't that..." she rotated her collarbone by a small angle to examine Elliot's physique. "Tall." Then, as an afterthought, she added. "Nor do they have so much hair on their face."

I nodded solemnly, pretending as if none of this bothered me as much as it actually did. And lucky for me, nobody except for Elliot sensed anything off in my demeanor. And I really couldn't care less about what he thinks of me henceforth because he won't remain for long enough to think. "Makes sense. How long have you both been friends for?" I asked her.

As it is, Zephrine is innocent, making it easier to get answers from her, as compared to Elliot.

She looked thoughtful as her eyes turned to the ceiling. Then, when she finally decided upon a period of time, she spoke up. "I think it's been a year."

I nodded. "Aha. And where did-"

"Am I like, the only one who hasn't met your this-guy-reminds-me-of-a-certain-somebody client? You don't take Zephrine to office, so how does he know her?"

All heads turned to Jael, who stood at the foot of Zeph's bed, a frown drawing her eyebrows together as she cast me a stern look.

It's true that Jael and I have always, and perhaps will continue to always keep harassing each other's happiness until death does us apart, but this one time looked like it was destined to be an exception in our history of pointless arguments; because this time we both had question marks printed all over our brains regarding the same matter.

"Remind me to get an auditor checkup done for you before we leave this hospital. You seem to be incapable of hearing loud and clear talks."

"I was texting Daniel, alright?" she held my phone in the air, giving me a bland look. "He'd asked how she is. So we were just talking about her."

"Well," I drawled out, deliberately prolonging my lame explanation. Not my fault I didn't see her texting him, okay? "Chuck the matter, yeah? He's really not that important, you know?"

To Elliot, my previous statement would seem insulting, and to Jael, it would seem as if I was trying to shift topics. But the fact is that I'm doing neither. I'm just making sure he wouldn't be misfortunate enough to see death in Jael's eyes because that girl will certainly kill him once she gets to know it's Elliot standing behind her and not Aric like I manipulated her to think he was.

"You don't get to decide his importance, Celeste," she told me sternly. It felt as if Jael was still mad at me for lashing out at her earlier, and that according to her, this- the act of shoving my ass down the stinking tunnel of public disgrace by standing up for someone I was noticeably mad at was the best way to get back at me. Pity she assumed I had much to lose with the coming of a downfall.

I lifted my right shoulder in a shrug. "Well, seeing as on the left side of his brain, there's nothing right, and on the right side, there's nothing left, I really don't think he would mind."

"Mom," said Zephrine, her lips setting in a thin line as she scowled at me. "Why are you insulting my friend?"

I almost shrank inside my cloths at Zephrine's comment. Friend, wow. Is this why I have lived so long; so I can see my daughter take a stand against me in support of someone who I am certain isn't friends with her just because he likes being friends with innocent nine-year-old children.

I licked my lips, unsure of what to say that wouldn't make me sound like a horrible person to my daughter. "Well, he's between the Wilsons now, Zeph. I'm sure he knows that here, we don't insult, we describe."

Oh, damn, damn, damn Celeste Wilson, you're on a freaking God-like roll tonight! What power the divine art of being witty gives you, cheered my subconscious.

"But mom, it's not fair. He buys me cookies every time he comes to meet me at school." Zephrine started protesting.

He buys you what again? Those same round sugary, chocolaty delights that I buy for you from the confectionary near your school?

Oh, Elliot. You are dead meat.

"It's okay, Zephrine. You can calm down. I don't mind." It was Elliot consoling his little friend. He had stepped into the room, standing far from the bed, yet somehow very close to Zephrine. I looked at him, not looking away until I was sure his brain had interpreted the dirty look I shot at him. His face turned wry and he eventually looked away.

"Honey, you should rest. I'll come to see you later, yeah?" I said.

I was back to being moody; everything happening around me has had a huge toll on my limbic system, explaining why I was so irritated when all Zephrine had tried to do was make me understand why I shouldn't be rude to her friend.

I got up from her bed and walked to the door before she could reply. I heard Jael sigh behind me before she, too, bid her byes and followed me out. Elliot, however, as usual, did not do the same.

I didn't want to leave him alone with Zephrine, but I doubted he would listen to me were I to tell him to leave because if there was anything I could see and grasp from his expression, it was that, that even if Zeph would end up narrating the dumbest story to him, he would listen to her because he just wanted to see her smile and be happy.

He turned around to see if the door was closed, and I quickly moved away from the doorframe. I think he knew that I hadn't quite left them both alone, or perhaps even saw me looking into the room through the thin line that I had kept open, but either way, he didn't make any issue out of it.

He walked closer to Zephrine's hospital cot and took a seat on the other side of the bed, opposite to where I'd been sitting, his left side facing me. I saw his lips turn upward in a smile from where I stood near the door. Zephrine returned his soft gesture with a toothy grin of her own, and once again, I felt jealous. I couldn't understand why I was feeling this; it was clear that Zephrine only considered him a good friend, and obviously, there's a lot of difference between what one would feel for a friend versus what one would feel for their mother.

Still, despite my heart launching its reassuring theories that my daughter loved me the most, I couldn't help but doubt if she actually loved only me to such an extent. Because if that had been the case, then she wouldn't have hidden from me the fact that her friend, Aric, wasn't of her age, or the fact that he didn't attend her school, or even the fact that he used to buy her the chocolate cookies from the confectionery near her school that to date, I thought only I did.

This isn't entirely betrayal since I'm sure Zephrine doesn't even know what betrayal means, but boy does it still hurt like one.

"Are you okay?" he asked her, his voice soft and comforting.

Zephrine's smile seemed permanent as she spoke. "I'm feeling lovely, Aric. How are you?"

"Did they hurt you, doll?" he inquired, dodging her question.

I gritted my teeth, my eyes narrowing to slits as I willed myself to not attack him from behind and tell him how he cannot address Zephrine as 'doll' because only I have the copyright claims for calling her that.

Stop it, Celeste. All you've done since you came here is whine like a baby and punch like a goddamn WWE contestant. I know this is a super hard thing for you to do, but please try to behave like the twenty-seven-year-old that you are, my subconscious rebuked me.

Wow. So now I'm whining like a baby.

"No, prince, they did nothing to your doll," replied Zephrine, giggling as if this was the funniest thing ever. Where her sense of logical reasoning has gone to, I have no idea; although now I kind of understand where this habit of losing her common sense when Elliot is around, came from.

Her own mother.

Yeah, thank you for the virtual standing ovation. I'm forever grateful.

I allowed my fingers to play with the edges of my cardigan, careful not to make my presence known to either of them. Jael had taken a seat on the benches outside a while ago, yet, here I stood, shamelessly eavesdropping on the conversation of the two people who I thought had no clue of each other's existence.

At least, that was what I thought was the case for Zephrine. Elliot, on the other hand, I had assumed had no clue of how Zephrine looked, or which school she attended, or that she likes to have her cookie with cold coffee.

Either way, today has proven to me how I've been living under a huge rock until now.

"I'm sorry," he whispered then. "I really-"

Zephrine shook her head at him, a frown starting to etch into her forehead. "Princes don't say sorry, Aric. It doesn't suit them."

I almost groaned out loud in exasperation. Thanks to the endless movie marathons consisting of only Barbie movies that she and her little girlfriends have during the weekends, they all have literally painted the most superficial picture of princes and princesses. I guess I might have to stop her from going for any of these movie marathons anymore.

Elliot chucked at what she said. From the looks of it, they both enjoyed each other's company very much.

My blood boiled again, reaching dangerous temperatures this time. Maybe I was angry because Elliot had kept contacts with Zephrine behind my back, or maybe I was angry because Zephrine hadn't told me about it. But these are all just possibilities of why I felt so angry.

What I was certain was a key element behind my anger, though, was the particular truth lying naked right before my eyes that although Elliot had walked out on us nine years ago, not showing even one of the hundredth portion of how much affection he was showing towards Zephrine now, he, for some very, very mysterious reason, had come back into her life.

Only, as her friend and not father this time.

He stood up from her bed and I quickly got in a ready-steady-go position. When he would turn, I'd have to leave this place and go sit beside Jael, and then put my acting skills to test by pretending as if I hadn't just been eavesdropping on their oh-so-sweet conversation. "You got this, princess. Everything will be okay."

Zephrine once again smiled that toothy smile of hers. "And even if it isn't okay, you will make it okay, no?"

My eyebrows rose in the air, my lips parting as I secretly shot Zephrine a dumb look. Why is she flattering him so much? Did she want another cookie from him or what?

Zephrine Wilson, I will buy you a whole cookie producing factory. All you have to do is send this person away from you, forever, and never ask for him again.

But I had a feeling that would be too much to ask for. In fact, my heart sank into my intestine as I realized that Zephrine would rather give up eating cookies than end her friendship with Elliot.

If only I could tell her what he's done to her mother...

Elliot cast a faint nod at her. "Take care, Zephrine. I'll see you later."

He turned around after Zephrine and he waved each other bye, and I quickly moved away from the door to sit beside Jael. She looked up at me, confused as to why I was out of breath.

Oh, Jael, if only I could tell you how my life has been bungee jumping like crazy since the past few weeks, you would buy me tubs of ice-cream and cookies, and give me sympathetic looks instead of confused ones.

I saw Elliot exit the room from the corner of my eye and go somewhere but I kept my eyes trained on my nails, as if the semi-chipped blue nail paint was the most alluring thing the human eye can perceive. To say I was mad at him would be the understatement of the century because my anger had now reached levels where I was willing to hire men to shoot him. Still, I stayed silent. Not because I was scared, but because this is a hospital- the same place where my mum had taken her last breathes, making it sacred to me. And I had to be a real halfwit to scar a sacred place.

"Hey, when can we take Zephrine home?" asked Jael from beside me.

I turned to her, shrugging in response. "No idea," I said. "The doctor didn't say anything about it."

"Let's go ask him then."

And so we did. We found the social worker we had been looking for talking to a nurse down the corridor, telling her something with gestures. We walked towards him, and he turned to look at us. For someone who was merely his patient's mother, he excused himself and greeted us with lots of concern, and I was once again reminded of how and why he felt so out of character as a doctor. "Yes?" he asked, looking between Jael and me in a questioning manner.

Jael spoke up for me, "Hey, we're Zephrine Wilson's family. We wanted to know when we can take her home."

The doctor nodded as if he has been asked the same query several times before today and so understood our concern. "I understand your situation, miss. It's normal for any patient's family to want to take their injured family member back home as soon as possible. But I must tell you, she's a little girl. It's important that we get all her check-ups done once again, for which she will need to be kept here for another day. You can get her discharged by tomorrow evening."

I frowned. Why get another round of check-ups done when the last one was done merely a couple or so hours ago. "But why? It's just a fracture, right?" I questioned him.

The doctor passed me a solemn nod. "You're right, miss. However, these are matters of the human body-"

Out of nowhere, Elliot's form came into view from beside me. I pretended to ignore him, turning away from him. "What's the matter?" he asked no one in particular. He looked like he'd made a visit to the lavatory because his face was wet with water. I felt him dab the moisture away with the backside of his sleeve before looking back at the doctor.

"Ms. Wilson and her family want to take Zephrine Wilson home. I was telling them how they must wait for another day so I can get her check-ups done." the doctor told Elliot.

Elliot must've told the doctor that he was just a friend or something akin to us when I was away because judging from the way he (the doctor) had mentioned us to Elliot, it kind of showed that he didn't think we were one happy family, which, although is the truth, is a little surprising that Elliot had done the honors of clarifying to the people around.

"Can we talk?" asked Elliot.

The doctor nodded in response and together, both the men walked away from us to have a conversation that God knows why Elliot had to make in private.

Jael and I shared confused looks before looking back at the men who animatedly moved their hands in the air, trying to get some point across to one another. I wondered why Elliot had pulled the doctor away from us, why he felt the need to talk to him with so much confidentiality, and also what was it that had made him want to do it that way.

Was this his way of getting back at me for secretly listening to his and Zeph's conversation?

Oh, Elliot. How childish can you get?

Funny that you're asking this, my subconscious retorted at me.

They appeared to have arrived at a reasonable agreement before they finally made their way towards us.

This time, Elliot spoke up first. "She'll be discharged within two hours. You both can rest until then." Elliot didn't look at either of us as he said this, and I was left wondering why he who always loves to hold people's gazes to a point where it became an untold challenge would feel the need to look away.

I wanted to ask him about what he'd told the doctor that the latter had somehow agreed to come down to just two hours and not a whole day, but Elliot suddenly looked very tired. He looked like he had been facing a battle against himself for the whole time he was here, and that he couldn't wait to get back home and sleep for the rest of the day. So I stayed mute, thinking it best to let him attain peace of mind.

Jael nodded at him, grateful. "Thank you," she muttered before turning to me. "I'm going down to get some coffee. You want something?" she asked. I had a feeling that she was still mad at me, but knowing that she hadn't allowed her anger to stop her from fulfilling her responsibilities as my younger sister, I smiled.

If only we shared this trait. Maybe then I wouldn't have been so violent with Elliot today.

Don't get me wrong. I'm not regretting my actions; no, I think he deserved what I gave him. Still, a voice inside me reminded me that now, there remained absolutely no difference between Elliot and me because we'd both allowed our minds to get to us.

She waved her hand in front of me to catch my attention. "Hm?" I heard Jael's voice again.

I shook my head to empty the thoughts previously occupying it. "Yeah, coffee."

She turned to Elliot after that, asking him the same, but he politely declined the offer. Jael shrugged and turned away, not really over-thinking about why Elliot, somebody who literally loves coffee, would not want to drink it when feeling low.

I slowly walked towards the benches, my mind elsewhere. After I sat down, my eyes instinctively turned to look at Elliot once again. He was standing in the same spot, his phone in his hand as he frantically typed away at it.

For a moment, I thought it was either of his parents or Olwyn that he was texting, but realizing that Elliot wouldn't look as angry as he looked then, I concluded that there had to be another person altogether causing him the anger.

Suddenly, he looked furious to the point where he seemed ready to wreak havoc right where he stood, but something dawned upon him, I guess, so he shut his eyes tightly before putting his phone away. He raised his palms to his face, and foreseeing what he was going to do, I winced in pain. His expression mirrored mine when his fingers absentmindedly brushed against the gash on his cheek where I had punched him, and he quickly pulled his hand away, flinching in pain.

Acting on instinct, I almost got up to go soothe his pain, but just then, his eyes turned my way.

I sat back down, forcing my emotions to stay put because Elliot had sort of betrayed me by keeping contacts with my daughter without my awareness. His gaze rested over mine for a few seconds afterward, burning with an emotion I didn't want to witness coming from, so I looked away, drumming my fingers on the bench just to pass time.

Please decide upon your sentiments towards Elliot Bryson, Celeste. And please hurry up. I'm starting to think I live in a pigsty and not a mind, except it's your disturbing train of thoughts that play the pig's role here, my subconscious told me.

I opted to take a nap, then, because considering my mental stress, getting involved in a conversation with my subconscious was the absolutely last thing I had the energy to do.

I closed my eyes and leaned my head back on the wall. Slowly but steadily, I felt a sense of serenity kick in as sleep began engulfing me. And it not been for a person who I surmise was brought up in the tropical forests and so hadn't been taught how to walk like the other humans - with gentle steps and all, I would've actually slipped into a nice slumber. But I'm not entitled to such basic human comforts also, you see.

I begrudgingly opened my eyes to look at the person who despite being a close relative of the gorillas was behaving like one herself.

And wow. Turns out, my own sister is the unwell bred human here.

Recalling how she'd gone down to get coffee for us, my gaze flew down to her empty hands. "What, no coffee?" I asked her, dropping the whole walk-like-other-people sermon.

"We need to talk," she told me, sounding damn serious.

I wondered what the matter with her was, why she would first awaken me with her inhumane walking style, and then bring me no coffee, and then tell me that she wanted to talk to me. Then, when I saw that she wasn't bulging in this regard, I sighed and sat upright. "What's the matter?" I asked, looking up at her form.

"He's Elliot."

Not a question, not an answer, but a statement that left absolutely no place for an argument.

It was then that I wondered if there was a single thing in this world that I could do rightly. Like, see, Elliot has been friends with Zephrine for a year now, and all along, I had been living under the illusion that she had no clue who he was. And now, when I had tried my best to keep Elliot and Jael away from each other so she wouldn't find out who he actually is, just when I was about to sleep, she found out.

The look on her face was identical to the one that Elliot had worn not a while ago when he had been texting God-knows-who. Except, knowing Jael, I knew that unlike Elliot, she didn't care what people thought; she did what she wanted to do.

My point being? This was my cue to do anything but lie and face public mortification as its result.

I lowered my eyes to the floor, not willing to look into my sister's eyes and see how she thought of me as an utter fool. I had a feeling she would grill me to crispy steaks before even thinking about exterminating Elliot.

"You knew about it?" she exclaimed. I could feel people turn towards us at her sudden outburst, but as usual, she didn't give them a damn as she continued to drill holes in my skull.

I finally looked up, guilty. "Jael..." I muttered.

She shook her head, taken aback by the fact that her own sister had kept things from her. "Unbelievable..." she voiced slowly, and when my head once again lowered to the bleached floor. "Are you fuckin' kiddin' me?" she exclaimed.

I winced because her voice had reached an octave higher. I could feel her cross her arms over her chest demandingly. "So then maybe you'd even know why he has hired these people to come to attack you both earlier today. Mind telling me why?"

I looked at her, pursing my lips. "No, I-" I paused, her previous statements only now registering to me. What was she saying? "Wait, what again?"

"Ah," she nodded. "So now you're going to pretend not to know anything, huh?"

I placed my index finger in the air, standing up to match her height. "Jael, what did you say before this?"

"Drop the act, Ce-"

"Fucking tell me what you said before this, Jael!" I yelled.

She looked floored down by my language, eventually leading to her lowering her gaze. After a minute of silence, she finally sighed and told me something that I had to shut my eyes and clench my fists to keep from believing. "I said that you must also know why your so-called friend had hired those men to come and attack you tonight."

I sucked in a staggering breath, energy suddenly vacating my body as my mind struggled to accept the revelation.

Why would Elliot do such a thing? What would he get from it?

No, no, no, no. I refuse to believe that Elliot can stoop to a level where he would pay people to hurt me and my daughter. Like, what's the point, anyway? He seems to be great friends with Zephrine to want to do something as disgusting as that, and he won't do it to me cause...well, cause I haven't done anything to him. And regardless of what I make people around me think of Elliot to be, he isn't a bad person.

"You're kidding me, right?" I asked her slowly.

She placed her palms on my shoulder as if to physically shake some sense into me. My wide eyes looked into hers to see that they had lost their anger now, instead replaced by commiseration towards me. Good lord, what the hell is happening? "I wouldn't be telling you this if I hadn't heard him scolding those people because they'd hurt Zephrine."

Something about what she said revved my memory. I thought back to Elliot and Zephrine's friendship, and then to how adamant Zephrine had been about having an ice-cream. It was foolish of me to not have realized it until now that Zephrine was never really a stubborn child. Keeping aside the fact that I did everything in my power to fulfill her needs without her asking for the same, if there was anything I disagreed upon with her, then she would drop the matter and never talk about it.

Unlike how she had been so rigid about eating the ice-cream tonight.

My eyes widened as everything clicked in its place. Zephrine knew Elliot's plan from before. Yet, she'd foolishly put her life and bones at stake and convinced me to go out with her.

But I lacked evidence, you see. So I turned to Jael for assistance in the matter. "Hey, do you think Zeph knows about this?"

If my theory is right and Zephrine really knew about Elliot's plan, then my goodness, my daughter deserves to be on the screen, acting. Because from the way she had behaved back then, I was certain she was actually scared.

Jael dropped her hands from my shoulders, shooting me a dumbfounded expression. "How will I know?" she asked defiantly. "Do I look like Zephrine to you?"

I grit my teeth, realizing that she was about as clueless as I am.

Guess we'll just have to ask Zephrine.

I turned around to do the aforementioned when I suddenly bumped into somebody. Looking up, I discovered that the person because of whom I was on the verge of losing my shit, in a hospital at five something in the morning had the audacity to come and stand in front of me.

"You." came out my gritted greeting as I put a feet's distance between us.

Elliot looked breathless, like he had just run to me from the other side of the hospital. Looking at him, I recalled how, when I'd called him from back in the alley, he'd sounded breathless. My theory that he had actually contracted those men, and that he knew I would call him, and that was why he was awake at that time, only got proved further.

His moist eyes, however, showed me other scenarios. They looked helpless, tired, and they also looked hopeful. I wanted to lash out at him at once, but caught up with his eyes, I couldn't. All I did was helplessly let my hands fall by my sides, uncertain as to whether or not I wanted to know if he'd done what Jael had told me.

But I had to find out the truth, didn't I?

"Did you send those guys?" I finally propelled my question at him.

He tiredly raised his hands in the air in surrender, quickly speaking up. "Celeste. This whole marriage thing was just to get you back. I swear I didn't want to-"

I held out my hand, palm facing him as I flit my eyes away from his. "Yes? Or no? Just tell me that much."

His hands fell to his sides, his back hunching as I felt him say something that, despite our current situation, set my heart on a fire with flaring flames. "I love you, Celeste. I would never-"

My eyes squeezed shut on their own accord. I could feel myself tearing up, but I still kept going. "Yes or no goddammit?"

When Elliot's eyes lowered to the white floor and when he, with great shame and difficulty muttered a " Yes," in response to my query, I staggered back, my eyes shutting on their own accord.

"Really? You've stooped to a level where you're paying people to throw your 'daughter', as you claim her, at walls just to what- win me back? To a level where you're fine if she ends up getting fractured bones-"

"No, no. That's a lie. Her bone isn't fractured. The walls in that area had previously been fit with layers of blankets so nothing would happen to her."

"Stop it, Elliot. Please, just stop this." I said, rejecting the idea that Elliot had gone ahead and bribed the doctor into lying. No wonder why he had that confidential conversation with the doctor; he was wooing him again.

"Celeste," he whispered softly. "I'm sorry..."

There's a thing about emotional pain that no stranger can cause it to you. If it's happening to you, then it's happening because of something that someone you've thought highly of, has done that has shattered your expectations of them.

Like, c'mon, imagine if some random person from the road just walks up to me and tells me that that he paid some burly-looking men to come and attack me and my daughter at midnight. It's a given fact that I'd be angry that he owns such an inhumane personality, and perhaps send him home with broken bones and an FIR filed against his name. It's also a given fact that although I'd feel upset about humanity being shredded down to bits and pieces by the so-called humans themselves, I wouldn't be upset at him. Because he doesn't matter to me.

But that's not my case, you see.

That person isn't a stranger and I'm not angry at him.

No, I'm angry at myself because I had allowed myself to think of him as a civilized, level-headed human and not the callous critter that has become of him in the years that he was away.

I don't even know who he is anymore.

In order to express the various emotions whirlwind-ing inside the walls of my conscience, each creating a tsunami of its own kind in the wake of its motion, I did the one thing I'm good at- I punched him.

Only, that wasn't what I stopped at.

I told him many things afterwards, yelling and not caring a single bit about the attention that my loud voice was bringing to us. Ha, as if the punching hadn't put us in the spotlight already. I told him that I hated him, that I never wanted to see his face again, that even if he would be the last person remaining on this planet, I would never talk to him.

He listened to me with his eyes on the floor, quietly, without flinching away at my words.

But when I told him that I felt ashamed of myself for falling in love with him, I could swear that that's when I witnessed the broken boy inside of him resurface.

His struggle to keep his tears under control looked real, and when a single drop of salt water escaped his eyes, I moved back, unwilling to let his emotional state get to me.

If he had actually loved me and had planned all this just to win me back, then he wouldn't have done what he did today. Then, he wouldn't have devised a plan that would end up getting my heart broken in a way worse than how it had been broken nine years ago.

He wouldn't have dragged things until this point.

"Leave this place now." was the last thing I told him, not looking at him.

He didn't ask or tell anything after that, just turned around and walked away, his let-down shoulders reflecting his let-down hopes.

I didn't want to look at his retreating figure, but my eyes seemed to have their own plans as they continued to stay glued to his form which only became smaller and smaller by the minute.

The pain having been evaporated, there remained only a numbing ache inside my chest as I wondered if everything I had told was necessary.

###

Do share the book if you've liked it, and if you've found any plotholes or something off about it, kindly notify me ASAP! I'd love to hear suggestions on how I can improve as a writer!

Wait for the next one, it's got something nice. (maybe?)

With lots of love,
xxRubaxx