The Truth of Never (The Never Trilogy Book 3) Page 20

  The ride back to New York was a quiet one for me, but for her I could only imagine how tense it was. We didn't turn to each other or even speak until we were back at my apartment. Immediately we got in, I headed towards the guest bedroom to quietly check on her father and found him asleep, so I came back out to tell her.

  "Okay. Thank you." She turned around to leave but I caught her hand… and she froze. She didn't turn to meet my gaze, and I didn't need to see her face to know that there were tears in her eyes. Gently, I pulled her back towards me and into my arms, the familiar curves of her body settling perfectly into the hard planes of mine. She belonged to me, and no piece of paper would ever be enough to dictate otherwise.

  She was quiet at first, but then she started sobbing softly against my chest. I cradled her head in my left hand and with my right, encircled her waist and pressed her body to mine. We remained like that for quite a while without saying anything, but then she pulled away and took a step back. She still hadn't met my gaze.

  "I’ll come back to see him." She said, and made to leave but I didn’t want her to. Somewhere it registered that I was still pissed at her but at that moment, as I saw the sadness in her eyes, I didn’t care.

  "Are you moving anytime soon?" I asked, the words twisting my insides.

  She shook her head. "No, Wendy told Damian that I couldn't leave until my dad was done with his stay."

  "Okay." I said. "That's good. But… don't you want to wait until he wakes up? He’d love to see you."

  "Um, sure but I don't want to intrude."

  I almost smiled at her uncharacteristic display of politeness but the weight of our current reality pulled it back down. "You’re not intruding." I told her to take a seat on one of the kitchen’s barstools, and then headed to the refrigerator. "Have you eaten today?" I asked.

  "No."

  I pulled the refrigerator open and glanced at her. "What do you want to eat?"

  "Anything you have is fine."

  "Sweetie can you please think on it? I can’t concentrate enough to decide."

  "Sure." She got up and came to look in the refrigerator with me. "Um..."

  "There's not much here is there?"

  "There isn't." She answered with a smile and raised her enchanting grey eyes to mine. My heartbeat stuttered the moment my gaze met hers, and at that moment all I wanted was to kiss her. She was so goddamn beautiful. Instead, I cleared my throat and continued the discussion.

  "How about stir-fry pasta? I do have some linguine."

  "Okay, there are some vegetables here." She bent down to retrieve them. "Do you have canned diced tomatoes?"

  "I do." I answered and reached into the cupboard above me to retrieve the can. I showed it to her and she nodded in approval. Soon, we were working side by side on the counter as we prepared the vegetables. Our collaboration was effortless, and it would have been heavenly as we basked in each other’s presence but the air between us was still heavy with the fact that she had married someone else.

  Soon the meal was done, and we sat down at the kitchen bar-counter to eat together. We ate quietly, our focus pretentiously on the food and halfway through our meal, the guestroom door was pulled open and her father emerged.

  "Good evening sir." I greeted as he came towards us.

  “Hi dad.” Lenora said, and returned to her meal.

  I got up and went around the counter as her dad took the seat beside me.

  "Are you hungry sir?" I asked. "We left some food for you."

  "Sure, thank you." He turned to Lenora and asked. "Lenora how are you?"

  "I'm good, thank you." I heard her say. "I didn't know you were coming."

  "I didn't either- it was a last minute decision."

  "Okay. Thanks for coming.” She said, and that was where the conversation ended.

  As I reheated his food, I kept hoping to hear some more talking between them but the only thing that made any noise was the microwave. I was aware of their strained relationship, but I wasn’t happy that she also had to deal with this today. Today had been hell for her.

  I placed the food in front of him when it was ready and turned to Lenora. "Are you done?" I asked her and she nodded. I reached out to take the plate but she refused and brought it herself to the sink. After rinsing it and placing it in the dishwasher, she told me that she was leaving.

  After that she turned to her father. “Dad, I’m really sorry but I don’t have a guestroom. However I could sleep on the couch while you…”

  “Absolutely not. That would inconvenience you too much. Nathan has a pretty good space for me here. Nathan, do you mind if I stay here for a few days? If you do, I could go to a hotel. It wouldn’t be a problem at all.”

  “No sir I don’t mind- it’ll be an honor.”

  “Thank you.” He replied.

  “Okay then,” Lenora said.

  "I’ll take you home." I told her, but she refused.

  "You don’t have to. I'll just take a taxi."

  "I’ll see you off then." I said, and grabbed the keys to my apartment.

  "See you later dad." She said and walked towards the door. However just before we reached it, the sound of someone slotting a key into the key hole made us stop. Surprised, Lenora turned to me. There was a deep frown on my face as I pondered on who in the world would have access to, and be trying to gain access into my apartment.

  The moment I realized who it was, I sighed and waited as the lock clicked, and the door was gently pushed open. It was Stacy, and she was startled to see us.

  Lenora instantly lost her shit. "What the hell are you doing here?" She barked, and took a menacing step towards her.

  With a frown, Stacy took her gaze off her and settled it on me. "Nathan," she called softly. "I want to talk to you, please."

  "Okay." I said, needing to get her and Lenora out of the same room.

  "What do you mean you want to talk to him?” Lenora asked, inflamed just by the mere sight of her. “Is this how supposed colleagues arrange meetings with each other? You should have called first, and then asked for permission to come over instead of sneaking into his apartment like the demon that you are."

  "Excuse me?" Stacy said, offended but Lenora didn’t even flinch.

  "Hand that key over to me right now." She ordered, and held out her hand.

  "And what right do you have to ask for it? Aren't you supposed to be at your wedding night or something?"

  "Stacy get out of my apartment, right now." I said, pissed off at the words that had just left her mouth. She immediately turned an apologetic look towards me.

  "Nathan I'm..."

  "Get out." I repeated. "And hand the key over to Lenora."

  Aggrieved, and without taking her gaze away from mine, she threw the key to the ground and then turned around to leave. Lenora bent down to pick the key up, and banged the door shut. She held out her hand to hand the key over but I told her to keep it. With a nod, she turned around to leave but I put my hand on hers and stopped her.

  "Do you want to stay here tonight?" I asked, and she could tell that Stacy’s comment about her wedding night had gotten to me.

  "I do," she replied. "But… I don't want to worsen the situation."

  "Forget about that." I told her, and turned the key in the lock. We turned then to meet her father watching us and it startled Lenora because she suddenly stopped in her tracks. For a while there she’d forgotten that he was in the room.

  Recovering, she headed off to my bedroom while I went to sit by him.

  "All this is more complicated than I thought." He said, and I nodded.

  "It is, but we’ll find a way to resolve all of it."

  We were quiet for a while before he spoke again. "I wish I could do something for her. Be more at this time when she needs all the support that she can get."

  "Just being here is more than enough."

  "I doubt that. In fact I suspect it's adding a bit more pressure to her. Maybe coming was a bad idea."

  "It wasn't." I to
ld him. "And don't worry too much about her- she’s strong. She'll come through all of this."

  He turned to me. "You really do love her don't you?"

  His comment made me smile. "Yes I do sir. With all my heart."

  "Did she ever tell you about her mother?"

  "She did sir. Back when we were in boarding school."

  He sighed heavily, so I glanced at him. Just sitting here and talking to him reminded me so much of my father, and the more I spoke to him, the more intense the ache in my heart became. But I sat through it, and began conditioning my mind to the fact that he would be my new father. He wouldn't be able to take the place of Saint Nicholau but maybe his presence would be able to fill the void that had been burrowed into my heart.

  We spoke for a little while longer until eventually, he got up to retire to bed. I bid him goodnight and headed to my bedroom.

  The lights were turned off but with the lighted skyline from beyond the windows, I could clearly see Lenora as she slept on my side of the bed. After changing, I lifted the duvet and gently slid in next to her. Although she didn’t stir, I knew that she was awake so I put my arm around her, and drew her even closer to me.

  "Why aren't you asleep?"

  She turned around to face me. "Considering my present circumstance, wouldn't it be strange if I could fall asleep that easily?"

  I brushed tendrils of hair away from her face. "It wouldn't. Go to sleep, today was incredibly exhausting for you."

  “Okay.” She said and snuggled even closer to my chest. However, a few minutes later she spoke again.

  "I'm sorry."

  "It's okay." I replied.

  "I really am."

  I smiled, and leaned forward to plant a tender kiss on her forehead. "I know you are. I'm sorry for being so mad at you earlier."

  "It's fine. Honestly I expected worse. Did you go see Damian?"

  "No. For both our sakes its better if I don’t go searching for him just yet."

  "Why?"

  "Because if I see him, I can't guarantee that he'll be alive when I'm done with him. So I'm avoiding him, until my anger has subsided."

  She sighed heavily.

  "What a day, huh?"

  "It was unbelievable. And about my dad, what happened? Why did you go to Miami?"

  "I called him a few weeks ago to introduce myself and ask for your hand in marriage, but I also needed to see him so I went over after I left San Francisco. It was there that we saw the news and he decided to come along."

  "Why didn't you tell me you were going there?"

  "I'm not sure. You haven't really spoken about him much so I didn't really want to spring it on you. Hope you were not too flustered?"

  "I probably would have been but right now there are bigger concerns on ground."

  "Everything will be alright."

  "I'll try to believe that." She said, and not long after we were both asleep.

  « CHAPTER 14»

  Lenora

  The constant ringing of the doorbell roused me from a dreamless sleep. I opened my eyes and sat up to see that it was still dark outside. Then I turned to Nathan who was already up as well.

  "What's going on?" I asked, as he quickly put his shirt on.

  "I'm on it." He quietly said and left the room. However when whoever it was began to pound on the door, I quickly got dressed and left the room. My heart was pounding within my chest.

  What was going on?

  I was just entering the living room when Nathan pulled the door open and to my horror, two police officers walked in.

  "Nathan Roque?" One of them asked.

  "Yes." He replied.

  "You're under arrest for kidnapping.” He said, and started reading him his rights. I hurried towards them as they handcuffed him and tried to stop them.

  "What do you mean he’s under arrest for kidnapping?" I asked, horrified. "He didn't do anything wrong."

  The second officer came over and tried to stop me from interrupting the arrest. "Ma’am, I’m going to need you to step back.”

  "Lenora call Peter and tell him to come over to the station." Nathan calmly told me. "And don't worry, I'll be fine."

  "Nathan..." I called breathlessly, tears in my eyes.

  "Don't worry." He said, just as they started leading him out of the apartment.

  I nodded and immediately ran into the bedroom to retrieve my phone. Because I was so nervous I could barely string a sentence together as I spoke to Peter, but eventually he understood what I was saying and told me that he was on his way. My dad had woken up then but he chose to remain in the apartment, so that he wouldn't be in the way. I left him and was on my way.

  I got to the elevator and pounded on the button that would bring the car up. However when it eventually came and dinged open, I found Damian waiting inside it.

  “What the hell are you doing here?” I asked, and then it hit me. I was the one he was being accused of kidnapping.

  Tears blurred my vision as I marched up to him, and struck him across the face with a blow so hard it hurt my wrist.

  "How dare you!" I spat, and gripped my wrist to manage the pain. "What the hell is wrong with you? Is all of this a joke to you?"

  He sighed. "Don't hit me again. You'll regret it." He leaned forward to press the button that would take us to the ground floor, and soon we were on our way.

  “You have two options." He said. "I'll allow you to come with me to the station to give your statement, and there you can say that it was a misunderstanding and that you weren't held against your will. But if you piss me off between now and when we get there, I'll turn around and take you home. He'll spend an even longer time locked up, and might even be charged. The choice is yours.”

  "Damian...” I said, amazed. “You're so evil."

  "You can think whatever you want, but understand that this is all the mercy that I’ll be granting you. The fact that we got married today might have been a joke to you but it isn't to me. So don't mock me.

  *

  Almost an hour later, I had given my statement and was seated at the back of Damian’s town car, on our way to his house. I hadn’t been able to see Nathan and neither was I able to contact Peter because my phone’s battery had run down.

  When we arrived, he showed me to a room on the second floor. I immediately requested for a charger and was able to bring my phone back to life. Immediately I dialed Peter’s number, and almost collapsed with relief when he picked up.

  "How is he?" I asked.

  "He'll be fine." He answered "We're trying to get him out now but it might take a little bit more time.”

  I sighed. "Okay."

  "Don't worry too much." He said. "The accusation did seem accurate since you were supposed to have been at Damian's, especially tonight, but your statement should be able to clear it up as a misunderstanding. Where are you now?"

  "I'm at Damian's house. I'm more or less confined here until he says otherwise."

  "That's unacceptable." He said, the anger apparent in his tone. "I'll get you out of there soon, just..."

  "No, don't bother about it. It's better for everyone if I stay here for now so that this storm can settle. I'll be fine. Just tell me when you’ve gotten him out so I can speak to him."

  "Okay." He said. "Please take care of yourself."

  "I will." I told him. "Please take care of him."

  "Of course."

  I ended the call and just then, there was a sharp knock on the door. I didn’t answer it, so Damian pulled it open and walked in.

  I glared at him. “I don't want to talk to you." I said but it didn’t move him.

  “Listen to me.” He said and proceeded to address me.

  "I'm only going to say this once; I don’t want to have to keep you confined here but I'm pleading with you to please not piss me off again like you did tonight. I don’t think there could have been a greater way for you to insult me by spending tonight with Roque, but for the sake of peace, I'm going to let it slide and keep the promise I
made to you that I was going to drop all of this. However, you have to fulfill your end of the bargain which was to be my wife, so if you go against our agreement again I will allow all hell to break loose.”

  As I stared at him, a couple of retorts came to mind but I couldn’t work up the effort to say anything. I had been completely drained. So I watched him leave, and then ran my eyes around the room that represented my defeat. Damian was cruel, but for there to even be a sliver of hope that everything would return back to its rightful place, I had to make some adjustments and in the meantime, conform.

  Nathan

  It was the afternoon of the next day before I was eventually released, and on my way back home. Peter was the one driving me and for the first half of the journey, neither of us said anything.

  However when we were almost arriving at my place, he spoke. "Have you made up your mind on how to proceed?"

  "I have." I told him. "I was trying to be careful before, because of the ties that we have and the people involved but not anymore. I want him charged for everything he’s done so far."

  "Okay, but in order to do that we have to be able to obtain concrete evidence against him. First of all we have to find a way to prove that the letters were forged, and the best way that can happen is for us to bring his witness over to our side, and be able to obtain her testimony that he convinced her to participate in his scheme."

  The reminder of the altercation that had transpired between Stacy and I the previous night came to mind, and it made my spirit a little more heavier than it already was. "That's going to be a bit difficult. I'm not currently on good terms with her."

  "Well, we need her, so we have to find a way to appease her. Do you have any idea why she turned on you in the first place?"

  "At first it did boggle me, but after seeing Lenora get married yesterday I finally understood why. Siding with him helped his plan, and severed my legal ability to be with Lenora which is what she wanted."

  "Has she ever expressed her desire to get back with you since you broke up?"

  "She has but, I turned it down."

  "Hmm, it makes sense then. Allowing Lenora to get married to Damian doesn't necessarily give her access to you but at least it gives her a bit of hope when there was previously none. Do you have any record of her asking you to get back together with her? Maybe a text or an email?"