Dedicated to Ms_wannabe_witch. I loved your comments!

chhavi26 You'll love this chapter.

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Chapter 27 | Unraveling His Secrets

"He was the horcrux, she didn't intend to create. He stole a part of her soul and kept it trapped forever."

-youownthewordsofficial

Sometimes in life you witness some things which seem to have no plausible explanation. It is in those instants when misunderstandings make way and you start making judgements. For Mallory, it was one of those moments. She stood in the doorway, gaping at the sight in front of her while Andrew didn't even bother to look up.

She looked around him where the contents of her drawer were sprawled across the floor. As she took a step closer, she realised it wasn't her things that Andrew was going through. They, in fact, belonged to Emily.

"How?" Andrew's voice was a whisper, as his gaze pierced her. "How do you have them?"

Silence.

"Mallory, I asked you something. How did you get her things?" His voice bellowed.

She stared wide eyed at Andrew, only it wasn't Andrew's eyes that stared back at her. They were Emily's! She blinked trying to clear the illusion. Was it a trick of light? It had to be. She closed her eyes trying to focus.

"Did you steal it?" Mallory felt a hand on her shoulder shaking her out of the trance.

She opened her eyes only to find Emily's eyes, an inch away from her face. Whimpering, she took a step back. How was it possible?

"This," Andrew said frantically, his hands held up a silver piece of jewellery, "Where did you find this?"

But Mallory was too dazed to answer as her mind went into a frenzy. In a spur of a moment everything was becoming clear to her. Her eyes widened, as a chain reaction began. Light bulbs glowing in her mind.

E ♡ C

They weren't Emily's initials, after all.

"Y-You..." she spoke up hesitantly.

"Answer me, goddamn it!" His voice screeched.

A shiver ran down her spine at the intensity of his voice. "S-Sherrif Johnson, he gave them to me."

"But why? Why would they give you her things?" His voice held grief and disappointment.

The florist kept talking about a green-eyed boy, just like Emily.

"I have been trying to get my hands on her things, but I never found them." He whispered more to himself than her. "What about this?" He held up the bracelet again.

"I found it in the cemetery," she replied, pinching the bridge of her nose. Why didn't she see it earlier? It was all in front of her eyes, right there all the time. She had been so close to the truth. In fact, she was right all along and yet she let her be carried away by Andrew's pointless arguments.

"Of course! I must have lost it when..." He whispered to himself as he sat back on the floor, his eyes staring at the piece of jewellery like it was the most precious thing in the world.

"Andrew..."

"You know, this," he linked the chain on his wrist, "It is the only reminder of Emily. It was a gift, actually. She gave it to me on my birthday. It has an engraving right here." His voice brimmed with sadness, with vulnerability as he felt the underside of the band. In all the while she knew him, Mallory hadn't seen him like that.

"E heart C." Her voice was barely audible.

Andrew's head bobbed up. "You know?"

"Ben has one too. Only his reads E heart B." She explained with a smile. "I guess Emily had her way of showing affection. She gave me a locket with our picture. Cliché. But I love it."

"Yeah." His voice was reflexive as he went through the collection of albums and photographs. He took out a pink shoe box and opened it.

Mallory shuddered.

She never had the courage to do it. Sure, she had taken Emily's stuff but she never went through it. Somehow whenever the thought crossed her mind, she would feel like she was invading her friend's privacy or something.

But Andrew clearly didn't have any such inhibitions. He desperately wanted anything that belonged to her best friend. And now she knew, why. He ransacked the shoe box which had more pictures, some hand made cards, scribbles, little pieces of jewellery. It wasn't much, but it was enough to make his eyes twinkle.

"Andrew..." She inched closer to him, sitting on the floor next to him. Her hand reached out to his hand. "How did you know, Emily?"

She knew it. She knew exactly what he was to her. But she wanted to hear him say it. She wanted him to narrate some other ridiculous lie. She wanted him to try and dodge her question. Tell her, how he was romantically involved with Emily.

Like that was possible.

He stared at her for a moment too long as if weighing what to say and what not too. Then with an exasperated sigh, he asserted, "I thought we already went over it. We were lovers."

Mallory smiled, "Andrew, how did you know her?"

He stared at her as if she were crazy. "Are you deaf?" He growled. His façade was back in place as was his attitude.

"Fine, let's put it this way. The band...it says E heart C. What does it mean?"

It had been a few months ever since Mallory met Andrew but she still didn't know more than a thing or two about him. One of them was that he was an infernally furious person who had a screwed up life and another thing that she knew about him was that he wasn't easily surprised or shocked. He was ready for almost everything. Almost.

That being said, she half expected him to be quipped with some explanation, no matter how unrealistic it was. But when his face paled, she knew she had hit a nerve. She had rendered him speechless and it was quite a sight.

"I-I..."

"Come here. Come with me." She said getting up from the floor and for once he complied with her without any questions. Maybe, he was too dazed to argue. Taking his hand, she led him to the bathroom at motioned towards the mirror.

"What?" He finally regained his senses still looking dumbfounded.

"Look..."

"Look at what ex-" He began and stopped abruptly.

Silence.

"Care to explain?"

Silence.

"I am talking to you, Andrew."

Silence.

"Hello. Andrew?" She waved in front of him.

He blinked repeatedly. "I-I need to go."

"What the hell?"

Andrew ignored her and made his way back to the room. Carefully moving past the photographs that laid on the floor he made his way to her bed and picked up his jacket. Wrapping it up frantically, he fumbled with his lens case and shoved it in his pocket.

"Wait." Mallory hollered but was promptly ignored as Andrew made his way towards the door and brisk walked through the stairs.

"You stay right there, Cole."

Andrew froze in the middle of the room and slowly turned around. Satisfied, she practically ran towards him.

"You can't just go away just like that without any explanation."

"There is nothing to explain." He replied his face devoid of all emotions.

"Are you for real? Andrew, Cole. Whoever you are."

"I don't know what you are talking about." He said and starting moving with renewed energy.

"Coward!" She hollered.

He turned back and with one swift motion his hand went to her chin lifting it up with slight force. "What did you just say?" He whispered cocking his head.

"You heard me." She smirked.

"Mallory Millington, I am anything but a coward." He retorted and then took a step backward becoming aware of their proximity. "You know it better than anyone else."

"I thought so too, An- I mean, Cole But no. You are most definitely a coward. Agreed, you are not afraid of guns and gangs. But you do hide behind this façade of yours, the mysterious guy who no one approaches, you my dear are afraid of your own feelings."

"Don't talk about the things you don't know about."

"Then tell me about it. I am more than willing to listen. I know what I am thinking is true. You know that too. It's high time, now. Why don't you acknowledge it? Why are you hiding? You already told me about your one man revenge plan. How can this secret be any bigger than that? Don't just stand there, say something Cole Clout!" She waved her hands in front of his face.

Silence.

Mallory gazed at him, waiting in anticipation for his reply but there was none. It was deafening silence. And just when she thought he would go to the door and bolt out, he surprised her by sitting on the couch instead.

"Wilson."

"What?" She blinked. What just happened?

"Cole Wilson." Andrew replied.

"Emily Clout, Cole Wilson. That doesn't add up. So, does that mean you're not-"

"Mallory, for once can you stop interrupting me and just listen?"

"Fine. Then stop taking dramatic pauses."

He narrowed his eyes but chose to ignore it. "Emily Clout was an alias, well initially anyway. Bill and Sue weren't her...our...they weren't our real parents. They were Emily's caretakers. But later because of something..." He shifted uncomfortably in his place. "...they got her legal custody."

"So, what you are trying to tell me is that the girl I call my best friend, I don't even know her real name?"

"Mallory, you don't realise how screwed all this is. It's far deeper than a fake name!"

With a sigh, she whispered, "Carry on."

"Wait, before I do, how did you figure this out. How did you find out that she is my sister?" He said the last part almost proudly.

"Funny, that you ask. Just look at yourself in the mirror." She gave a wry smile.

"I am not talking about today." He shrugged. "When I told you that me and her were romantically involved..." This time he visibly cringed. "...why didn't you believe it?"

"An--Cole, she's my best friend. Don't you think I'd know about it." She tactfully dodged the question.

"No. It was something else. You were so sure that I couldn't be in a relationship with her. You found the idea ridiculous. So, tell me. Do you think I can't love anyone? Is that what you thought?"

"Seriously? When did you become a melodramatic insecure teenager?" She smiled. "And to answer your question, it's nothing like that."

"Look, you were very adamant about it. The only reasons I could think of were either this or you know something about Emily that I don't." He looked at her expectantly.

Mallory pressed her lips in a thin line. "If she didn't tell you herself, I don't think I should."

"What?" He hissed. "What is it, Mallory? A secret boyfriend or something? I need to know."

"Not exactly."

"Spit it out." He growled.

"Stop making a mountain out of molehill!"

"Then, tell me!"

"Emily was a lesbian."

• • •

Marko shook his head slightly to clear his blurred eyesight. His hands were tied in his laps. While his feet were tied to the legs of the chair. He woke up drowsy yet again for what felt like the hundredth time.

He looked towards the small window which was nailed shut using wooden planks from inside. From the small crevices, faint light entered the room. He thought about all the time he had spent formulating escape plans which involved that window. But, it was futile.

The boy made sure he was drugged all the time. Somehow, he always knew when he'd wake up and be in the cottage before he had a chance to do something.

With him, he'd bring food and water and would untie his hands while he ate. The boy would stand at one corner, watching him like a hawk, a gun loosely hanging in one of his hands and sedative in the other. Every once in a while, he'd untie his legs and let him move his limbs, a luxury Marko's victims didn't have. In those moments of freedom, he didn't dare to make a move lest he should be killed.

All he did was curse himself for being captured by someone half his age. He had thought himself to be invincible. But he could only imagine the humiliation he'd suffer if the word got out. Not that he had a lot of time to dwell upon it in his unconscious state.

Even though he was enraged and wanted nothing more than to kill Andrew, but he was helpless. Bound to the chair he tossed his head back letting his thoughts consume him as he waited in anticipation for his daily dosage of drug. It was addictive, really.

But even after a long time, when no one came. His mind started running wild. Had the boy forgotten? Not likely. He must have been stuck somewhere.

It was Marko's lucky day.

He tried to break free of the ropes but they bound him too tightly. The boy had skills like he'd been trained for militia. He had skillfully tied him, gagged him and left him in the middle of nowhere.

But, what Marko had learnt from Antonio's imprisonment was that even the best of the best made some mistake and thus with a renewed sense of interest he scanned the room to find something that would help his escape.

And he did.

He found Andrew's mistake.

• • •

"Emily was a lesbian?" He repeated.

Mallory nodded.

"But...why--how? Why wouldn't she tell me?"

Mallory shrugged.

And then he did something totally unexpected. He started laughing hysterically. It was the most absurd thing Mallory had ever seen. She had never foreseen that the first time she would see Andrew show any emotion other than anger would be like that. He was always controlled and composed. Hysteria and him was just impossible to believe until that moment.

"Andrew." She kept a hand on his shoulder.

"I am a fool. The biggest idiot ever," he began rambling. "Every time I called her, I'd tell her to be safe. I would go on for hours asking her questions about any suspicious thing she had seen and fuss over it. We'd go on about every single person she had seen that week but never once did I ask their names. I knew everything about her life, but I never really knew her."

"Andrew it's okay..." She took his hand and squeezed it.

He went on without paying her any attention. "I call her my sister and I don't know about her interests. I was always too busy for her. Whenever she wanted to tell me anything other than what I needed to know I would always ignore her..."

"Andrew..." She moved a bit closer to him.

"She wanted to talk to me. She wanted to have a normal conversation more times than you can imagine. But, I? I was never interested. It's all my fault."

"Andrew..."

"And now she's gone. And I didn't even have a chance to know her. I have never felt more ashamed of myself. She knew me so well, but I didn't make an effort. I was so obsessed with protecting her. She had almost become a thing to be protected. I forgot that she's a human being too. I-"

Mallory kissed him. She leaned in and smacked her lips on his. For a moment Andrew was dazed, his body froze and then as if on their own accord his lips responded with same intensity, moving in synch with hers. Her hands laced in his hair pulling him closer while his hands encircled her waist. They devoured each other hungrily with a raw sense of passion.

And then as if jolted by an electric shock, Andrew broke it. One moment they held each other in their arms and at other he had gotten up and stood ten feet away from her.

"Mallory..." He whispered at loss of words.

"Andrew..." She bit her lip, unsure. "I-I am sorry. I don't know what..."

"It's wrong. This is wrong. I am sorry. I can't do this. Not right now." He stumbled back a few more steps.

"I understand. But before going tell me what you were going to. Tell me your story at least."

"Right now, I cannot." He looked down. "But I will meet you later. I promise."

"Okay." She whispered.

Silence.

"I gotta go." He said awkwardly.

"Sure." She said following him to the door, for the third time that day. "See you around."

"Hmm." He stepped on the porch and then turned back. "And Melly?"

Melly? "Yeah?"

"Don't mention about the Cole thing to anyone."

"It's not like I was going to announce it on a loudspeaker!" She jested.

"I mean it. No one. Not even your mom or Jake or Ben."

"But why not them?"

"Umm..." Andrew looked at her as if deciding if he wanted to tell her.

"Oh, just say it."

He took in a sharp breath. "Because Cole Wilson is supposed to be dead."

• • •

Punch that star till it becomes as orange as Donald Trump.😂

Heya readers!

So, it's official, I suck at writing romance. How did you find the first kiss? I feel really weird. xD chhavi26, you wanted it for a while now, didn't you? :P

Anyway, how did you like the chapter?

Btw, TTBYM's one year anniversary is coming up and I am planning a special update. Let's see if I make it or not.

Until next time.

God bless you all. ❤️

-Ridhima 😊