Chapter 482: Because I am selfish.
Maurice.
Four years ago.
I stood in front of the dresser with my hands trembling so badly, I could barely hold my phone. Soon, the phone clattered to the floor but before I could pick it up, the door slammed open and Malakai stepped in looking all majestic in his dirty work attire due to his rigorous training.
His eyes, as soon as he stepped into the room, traveled from my face to the phone on the floor but before I could pick up the accursed object, he frowned and growled;
"Stop."
But I did not want to stop. I did not want to leave the phone there, knowing just who he was.
My limbs trembled with the desperate need to hide my phone, to hide the text which Ragnar had sent to me. The words on the screen had been short... brief. It read:
I need you, Maurice. I need to see you. It is urgent. Will you give me the chance to meet you? And our daughter?
To any sane person, that text would have come off as harmless but not Malakai. Malakai believed that he owned me. That I owed him my life for helping me hide my infidelity from the world. He believed that I wasn’t worthy of a second chance... and most of all, he believed that my daughter, Ragnar’s daughter, was filthy.
And so was her father.
My heart raced as he marched towards me, his eyes holding nothing but a void of craziness. When he came closer, I smelled the booze hanging around his cloth like a perfume; but most of all, I smelled the rage. The irritation.
He hissed; "What are you hiding?"
I shook my head quickly— a little too quickly. I rapsed; "Nothing."
But my response seemed not to sit right with him because his eyes then thinned with irritation. "If it is indeed nothing, then why are you so antsy?"
I should’ve come up with a response. I should’ve been smart with it as well. But something about his dark blue eyes and the way it gleamed with open malice made my tongue feel swollen. I couldn’t get the words out so I settled for shaking my head.
He cast one long glance at me and as if deciding that I wasn’t worth his time, turned away but not before picking up my phone. And then slowly...
His mood darkened further.
Before he stepped in, he was already mad. But one look at my phone’s screen and probably at the text sent from Ragnar, he exploded.
At first, I had squeezed my eyes shut and ducked, half expecting him to hit me like he always does; but the strike never came.
So I slowly peeled my eyes open and my breath hitched in my chest when I found him watching me... closely.
He smiled.
I flinched.
"Respond to him." He snarled, shoving the phone into my hands.
For a moment, I stood there, stunned and too afraid to collect the phone, but after he smacked my face so hard, my cheeks stung like it had been exposed to naked fire, I desperately took the cold device from his hands.
"Respond to that text!" He seethed one more time, sounding so dark, his voice made my skin crawl. "Tell him you’d like to meet and that you’ll go with his accursed daughter."
My eyes widened. I shook my head. "But I do not want to meet him."
Malakai looked at me like I was mad. His eyes thinned into fierce slits and his hands reigned down on my body like a disrupted stack of cards. The pain made me cry out in anguish, and in a desperate attempt to save myself, I screamed; "Okay, okay! I will meet with him!"
"Who said you will?!" He growled, "Who said I want you to meet with the bastard?!"
My throat closed up as I stared at my husband like he was an alien, and due to the fear coursing through my veins, I couldn’t even bring myself to ask why he wants me to fix a date with Ragnar when he knows he wouldn’t let me go.
However, just as the thought crossed my mind, he plucked the phone from my deft fingers and began to type away on it; and by the time he was done, he shoved it back into my hands.
I know I shouldn’t look but I couldn’t help it. So I lifted the screen, peered into it and my breath hitched when I saw his response. It read:
Okay. Friday is fine by me. Meet me at the pack’s border by 4:00pm. I’ll be there with your daughter.
Your daughter.
That should’ve been the clue. That should’ve told Ragnar off. But he probably didn’t sense the micro aggression in that text because he soon replied with a single word:
Okay.
And that was it.
After that day, I lost access to that phone because it suddenly became Malakai’s second phone. I also lost the rights to my freedom as I was denied stepping foot out of the house.
By Friday, the day Malakai had chosen to meet with Ragnar, I was locked up in one of the restrooms for the entire day, left to starve, and by the time I was finally freed, the first news I heard was one of Ragnar’s capture.
They said he was a thief who had tried to steal from Alpha Zach. They said that he had also tried to kill the Alpha. Overnight, he was branded a thief and a killer... and then he was executed.
But I knew the truth.
I knew that he was never a thief. Goddess, he was even richer than Malakai and Zach put together so what the fuck do they have that he would want to steal?
When out of curiosity, I had wondered how he was captured one day, Malakai had simply bragged to me, saying; "I only had to give his son that which he has always wanted."
His son.
My heart had lodged itself somewhere between my chest and my windpipe.
His son. Darius.
—
Back to the present...
"That is all I know about the incident from four years ago..." I let my voice trail off as my chest tightened with raw emotions. "I know I never sent you that text and I never knew that Darius was involved until after your execution."
Ragnar didn’t seem fazed by all I had said, but right now, I couldn’t help but notice that most of the initial coldness that had surrounded him earlier had worn off, and in its place now was pity.
He pitied me.
He sighed. "Thank you."
But I did not respond right away. I simply nodded.
"You wanted to know how I escaped..." he suddenly said, snapping me out of my reverie, and once again, I nodded.
I had half expected him to tell me some mind blowing tale but to my utmost surprise, he simply shrugged and said emotionlessly; "I didn’t escape. It wasn’t me that was killed. It was Theon."
Not many people knew about Theon but I did. I opened my mouth then and there to console him but the words would not form so I lowered my head.
"I am so sorry."
"You shouldn’t be," he drawled, sounding honest. "You were innocent. The only crime you committed was loving me... and then hurting my daughter."
Those words sent another wave of tears burning at the corners of my eyes, but this time, I didn’t let them fall.
I had missed him so much over the years that the only good dreams I had were ones which he appeared in. But now... now that he was in front of me, I couldn’t bring myself to say that to him.
He also looked like he had a lot to say but he held back from doing so, and after a moment, he finally called out;
"I’m leaving."
My heart sank. I didn’t want him to go.
However, I didn’t say that to him. I couldn’t do it. So I settled for the best— closest to sane— thing to say. I drawled; "Okay,"
Ragnar turned away from me to walk away but just as he took his first step, I called out again;
"When you see Leilani, tell her I am sorry. Tell her I did what I did to protect myself because I was selfish... and in a way, I protected her from dying too. Tell her that I will not die until she forgives me and that I am ready to wait for as long as it takes."
He did not acknowledge me, he simply stood there, and when I was done talking, he continued to walk out like I had not just spoken.
And goddess, that shattered my heart into a million tiny pieces.