Chapter 276: ~ 275
Chapter 275
~Octavia~
The soft, melodic ring of my phone on the coffee table broke the heavy quiet that had settled over the nursery. I picked it up, it was Victoria calling.
"Victoria?" I answered quickly, pressing the phone to my ear.
"Hey," her voice came through the line, sounding incredibly small, raw, and completely stripped of her usual vibrant energy. She paused, and I could hear her taking a shaky breath before she spoke again. "Is... is he around, Octavia? Is Flynn there?"
I glanced toward the large glass doors that led out to the courtyard, then down the long, empty hallway. "No. He’s not here. He went out not quite long and said he wouldn’t be back till night. Why? Victoria, are you okay?"
"I’m coming over," she whispered. "I need to see you."
Less than thirty minutes later, the front gates opened, and Victoria was stepping into the nursery. She didn’t bounce in with her usual dramatic excitement. She walked in slowly, her shoulders slightly hunched. In her hands, she carried a beautifully wrapped gift box and a frosted glass jar containing a lavender-scented candle.
"I brought this for you, I forgot to give it to you yesterday." she said softly, setting the candle and the gift box down on the table. "The candle is for your room. To help you relax. And the box... it’s just some small things for you, not the baby. A silk robe, some high-end skincare. You’ve been pouring everything into Lael, and I wanted to make sure someone was looking after you, too."
"Victoria, you didn’t have to do that," I said, my heart melting at her thoughtfulness despite the massive elephant in the room.
"Yes, I did," she interrupted, her eyes suddenly filling with a thick layer of tears. She walked over to the sofa and sat down, burying her face in her hands for a brief second before looking up at me. "Octavia, I feel incredibly guilty. The way I rushed out of here yesterday... the way I just panicked and left you standing there without a single word of explanation. I basically ghosted my best friend when you’re already so exhausted. I am so, so sorry."
"Hey, look at me," I said gently, moving to sit right beside her on the sofa. I took her trembling hands into mine, squeezing them firmly. "You don’t ever have to apologize to me for being overwhelmed. But you completely terrified me. I’ve never seen you look that white. Please, talk to me. What is going on between you and Flynn?"
Victoria let out a long, ragged sigh, her gaze drifting toward the closed nursery doors as if she were terrified he might materialize through the wood. She took a deep breath, finally opening up to explain the mystery that had been tearing her apart since yesterday.
"It happened a while ago, when I went on that extended business trip to San Francisco," Victoria began, her voice dropping into a quiet, vulnerable whisper. "I met him at a club when I went to have fun. Octavia, it was supposed to be a reckless, stupid one-night stand. Just a passing moment. But the second we started talking, everything changed. I fell completely, helplessly in love with him over a few magical weeks."
A faint, sad smile touched her lips as she remembered, but it vanished just as quickly as it had appeared.
"We started officially dating," she continued, her knuckles turning white as she gripped my hands tighter. "We were inseparable for a full month. He was attentive, he was sweet, he was everything I had ever dreamed of. But then... one morning, I woke up, and he was completely gone. He disappeared without a single trace. He blocked my number, deleted his socials, and vanished into thin air."
"He just left?" I asked, my chest tightening with protective anger for my best friend.
"He left a note on the kitchen counter," Victoria choked out, a tear finally escaping and tracking down her pale cheek. "Just a few words. It said he couldn’t be who I needed him to be, and that he had a dark family shadow he had to face alone. It broke my heart completely, Octavia. I spent weeks crying myself to sleep, trying to understand what I did wrong."
She wiped her face quickly, her expression twisting into a look of profound bewilderment. "That was why I panicked yesterday. Seeing him standing right there, in your house, carrying a glass of juice like a normal person... my brain completely shut down. Octavia, what is he even doing here? What is the connection? Why is he in your home?"
I swallowed hard, the weight of the family secrets pressing heavily on my tongue. I didn’t want to say too much, especially since Franklin was already so deep in his own silent war, but I couldn’t lie to my best friend.
"He is Franklin’s cousin, Victoria," I revealed softly. "His mother and Franklin’s late mother were identical twin sisters who had a massive fallout decades ago. Flynn just showed up out of nowhere, claiming he wants to mend the old family wounds and be a part of our lives."
Victoria froze. Her jaw dropped slightly as she processed the information, her eyes widening in absolute shock. "Franklin’s cousin? Wow really?"
"Well, it is more complicated than you think," I explained, remembering what Franklin had told me.
"Flynn..." Victoria repeated the name, a hollow, stunned look settling over her features. Now that the initial shock was wearing off, I could really look at her. She looked utterly devastated, her skin pale, with dark, heavy circles under her eyes. It was obvious she hadn’t slept a single wink since running out of the estate yesterday.
The nursery fell into a deep, heavy silence. The lavender candle sat between us on the table, unlit. I looked at my best friend, seeing the profound ache in her posture, the way she was completely torn between the ghost of the man she loved in San Francisco and the reality of the mysterious cousin standing in my house.
There was one question that had been burning in the back of my mind since Flynn had confessed his feelings to me yesterday. I needed to know the absolute truth, for her sake and for ours.
I leaned in closer, keeping my voice as gentle and soft as possible. "Victoria... look at me."
She slowly turned her tear-stained face toward me, her eyes glassy and vulnerable.
"Do you still love him?" I asked quietly.
Victoria didn’t answer right away. She stared at me, her chest rising and falling with shallow, trembling breaths. She looked down at her lap, her fingers tracing the edge of her luxury handbag, before she finally let out a broken, whispery sob.
"As twisted and as painful as it sounds," Victoria responded, her voice cracking under the sheer weight of her heartbreak, "I never stopped loving him, Octavia. Not for a single second."
A cold, uneasy shiver ran straight down my spine as those words echoed in the quiet nursery. I leaned forward and pulled Victoria into a tight, protective embrace, letting her cry silently against my shoulder.
As I rocked my best friend in the dim light, my mind began to spin into a chaotic web of doubt.
What is the truth? I thought to myself, a heavy, frightening shadow falling over my mind. Is Flynn a villain playing a massive, intricate game... or is he just a tragic soul running from a past that is about to catch up to all of us?