Nadia's POV

"C'mon baby, get up. We gotta go."

I slowly fluttered my eyes open as I felt Danny gently shake me to wake up. I turned over on my side, facing him as I looked at him with a lazy smile. I loved gazing into his eyes; his face was admirable.

"You know we could just lay here right? That doesn't sound so bad. I'm actually really comfortable." I snuggled up against his chest, smiling to myself as I heard Danny chuckle. His arms warmly embraced me.

"It's gonna get dark soon. Sunsets don't last forever baby. Let's go before we miss it." Danny lifted himself off our bed, carrying me to tag along with him. I wrapped my legs around his waist and my had my arms over his shoulders, giggling as he playfully spun me around.

He grinned at me as I quickly cradled his face in my hands, leaning in to give him a passionate kiss.

"I love you." I whispered against his lips, feeling the rush of butterflies in my stomach.

I sadly opened my eyes, ending the romantic memory that played in my head.

I glanced up at the ceiling of the hotel room, quietly sighing to myself as I took in the silence around me. I hated that I missed him sometimes. I missed his smile and his eyes when they used to look at me in a loving manner.

I missed who he was before California and Vegas. I missed who he was even before Leo and I met.

Well, besides the time he just left me without warning.

I thought about what Amelia told me. Maybe I did need to give myself time to heal. Who would have thought being in a hotel room would be triggering enough for me to have a breakdown? I guess therapy didn't seem so bad. Deep down I'm just afraid to go.

God, I wished things were so different. But everything that happened wasn't all bad. I got closer to Christian and at least he was a ray of sunshine in my current storm.

I heard the front door unlock, swiftly sitting up on the bed I chose, turning my head towards the door. Christian quietly stepped in, glancing at me with an adorable smile on his face as he quickly waved.

"Hey." Christian gently shut the door behind him.

"Hi." I mumbled, smiling back at him. I looked at the white paper bag in his hands.

"Uh, I got us some tacos while I was out...if that's okay." He lightly chuckled.

"Yeah," I nodded. "That's fine, thanks Christian."

I got up from my bed, walking over to the round dining table, taking a seat. Christian put the bag down on the counter, silently walking to the table to join me. He let out a deep sigh as he took a seat in front of me, resting his arms onto the table as he clasped his hands together.

"How are you feeling? Any better?" He softly asked.

I slowly nodded. "Yeah, I'm okay. I took a shower while you were gone so, that helped calm me down a little bit." I still felt somewhat embarrassed that I had a breakdown in front of Christian. Understandably, he gave me some time to be alone afterwards.

"I'm really sorry being in a hotel room is um...triggering for you. I promise we won't be here that long." Christian reassured me.

"Christian, it's fine, really, I'm okay. Don't worry about it." I brushed him off. I really wanted to stop talking about my trauma. I observed Christian's face, trying to find a way to change the subject away from me. My eyes landed on the scar on his nose.

"Um, is that scar on your nose from..." I timidly trailed off.

"From snorting coke?" Christian laughed, quickly swiping his nose with his thumb. "Nah," He shook his head, leaning back onto his chair.

"It's actually from when I went to rehab. I got in a fight with this other kid after a group counseling session." Christian chuckled to himself. "When he started losing, he thought it would be funny to slash my nose with a razor blade. You know, because I was a coke addict."

"Oh, gosh." I winced, wondering how painful that must have felt. "How bad did that hurt?"

Christian playfully scoffed, grinning as he thought about my question. "In the moment it didn't really hurt that much since I was running on a lot of adrenaline from our fight. But afterwards, yeah it stung real bad."

"Where'd he even get a razor blade from?" I laughed.

Christian shrugged. "I asked myself the same thing. He always used to hide it from the medical staff and nobody ever snitched on him." I laughed along with him as he smiled, reminiscing on that memory. "Man, that was a crazy time for sure."

"How long were you there?" I asked.

Christian sighed. "Well my mom wanted me to stay there for a 90-day program because she didn't wanna fucking see me after I OD'd, but my dad got me out of there after 30 days."

I sadly gazed at him, wishing his mother didn't treat him so coldly. "Did you ever relapse?" I softly asked, hoping that wasn't too much of a serious question.

"Surprisingly no. I didn't." He replied. For a moment Christian had such a positive smile on his face like he was proud of himself. It was heartwarming.

"I guess enough time had passed for me to realize I didn't want my dad or even Danny to see me at such a low point again. And I kinda hated the fear I put into them after my overdose, so yeah." He shrugged. "Mentally, I was healthy enough to know I wanted to stay clean."

I warmly smiled at him. "I know it was a long time ago, but I'm proud of you Christian. That's not an easy thing to do."

He lightly smiled back at me. "Yeah I know, thanks Nadia."

Christian loudly cleared his throat, sitting up in his seat. "Well, that was kind of a heavy convo." Christian chuckled. I giggled, subconsciously mirroring his posture as I sat up straight. "We should probably end it with some good news." He glanced at me with a playful smile on his face.

I raised an eyebrow at him, trying to keep my smile hidden as I anticipated his answer. "What's the good news?"

"Detective Myers found Maia's location with the help of local and state police here. She's being arrested tomorrow."

My face lit up as I gasped. "Really?"

Christian excitedly nodded. "Detective Myers said we could witness her arrest too. Just as long as we keep our distance from the scene."

I stood up trying to process how thrilled I was to hear we were one step closer to hopefully seeing Maia behind bars. "Oh my god, I-I don't know what to say I just-I didn't think it would happen so fast I-,"

"Hey, hey relax." Christian chuckled at my enthusiastic rambling. "Remember she's just being arrested. There's still a lot that's up in the air right now. I know this is good news, but it's just the beginning."

I sighed, feeling deflated as I sat back down realizing Christian was right. I was getting ahead of myself. Christian empathically looked at me, placing his hand over mine as he noticed my dampened mood. "Look, I'm just as excited as you are, but we've gotta be realistic about this."

"Maia's been able to go undetected for months Nadia. There's no way she's not going down without a fight."

...
Maia is finally making her reappearance in this series lol I'm here for it, let's see how she handles herself under the law...
side note: the next chapter will start in Jason's pov and just a quick refresher he's the guy Maia hired to kill Danny so 🤭 until next time...
Tysm for reading 🤍