Chapter 294: ~ 293
Chapter 293
~Flynn~
The morning felt completely different as I walked down the path of the estate. For the first time in a whole long while, I felt like a truly free man. The heavy, suffocating weight that had crushed my chest for years was gone. I was no longer looking over my shoulder, searching the crowds for my mother’s dark shadow. She was behind bars. Her power over me was broken.
In my hand, I tightly clutched a small scrap of paper. Written on it was an address, the exact apartment building where Victoria was staying right here in the city. Octavia had kindly handed it to me just before I left the house. She had given me a warm, encouraging smile, after Franklin told me that it was time to fix what had been broken.
I walked out to the main road and hailed a yellow taxi. As the car drove through the busy city streets, my mind raced. I was a mess, but, I was moving toward my own future, not a path forced upon me by someone else.
When the taxi finally pulled up to Victoria’s apartment building, my stomach twisted into tight knots. I walked up the stairs slowly, my boots feeling heavy against the concrete. Standing outside her door, Room 4B, the silence in the hallway was deafening. My heart was beating so incredibly hard and fast that I could actually hear it ringing in my own ears.
I took a deep breath, raised my hand, and knocked firmly on the door.
A few agonizing seconds passed. Then, I heard the sound of footsteps approaching, followed by the sharp click of the lock turning.
The door swung open, and there she was.
Victoria stood in the doorway, wearing a simple gray sweater, her beautiful hair tied back. The moment her eyes landed on my face, she froze. Her eyes widened in absolute shock, the color draining from her cheeks. Before she could even utter a single word, her expression hardened. Pure, fiery anger flashed in her eyes.
Without saying anything, she grabbed the edge of the heavy door and swung it forward with all her might, intending to slam it right in my face and lock me out of her life forever.
"Victoria, wait!" I panicked.
I didn’t think. I quickly stuck my right foot out, wedging my boot into the doorframe. The door slammed hard against my palm and foot, stopping it just an inch before it could click shut.
Victoria stopped pushing against the door, her breath catching sharply in her throat. She glared at me, ready to shout, but then her gaze dropped down. She noticed my left side. Her eyes widened as she stared at the cast that held my arm completely frozen against my chest.
She looked back up at me, the intense anger in her eyes momentarily melting away, replaced by a wave of pure confusion and deep worry.
I knew I only had a small time before she forced me to leave.
"Please, VK," I begged, my voice cracking with emotion. "Just give me ten minutes. That is all I ask. Please, just let me come in and talk to you."
Seeing me standing there, looking so broken, messy, and desperate, her fiercely protective heart began to soften. She let out a long, shaky sigh, slowly released her grip on the door, and stepped aside, leaving the path open for me to enter.
The second the door closed behind me, the quiet apartment felt incredibly small. Victoria didn’t sit down. Instead, she immediately began pacing back and forth across the room, her hands flying into the air as she started fussing loudly over my injury.
"What happened to you, Flynn?!" she demanded, her voice loud, shaky, and full of frantic energy. "What did you do to your arm? Why are you in a cast? Were you in trouble? I didn’t know anything!"
She took a sharp breath, suddenly stopping her pacing. She looked at me, her face turning incredibly cold again as she remembered the pain I had caused her. She shook her head, tears springing to her eyes.
"No, stop," she cried out, throwing her hands up. "I can’t do this. I cannot sit here and care about you or your injuries when you completely ghosted me! You left me alone in the dark for a long while, Flynn. Not a single text. Not a single phone call. You just vanished into thin air and broke my heart, and now you just show up at my door expecting me to fix you?"
Her words cut deep, because I knew I deserved every single bit of her anger.
I took a slow, gentle step closer to her. I kept my movements calm and my voice as soft as possible to help quiet her frantic spirit down.
"VK, please. Sit with me," I said softly, guiding her toward the small fabric couch in the center of the room.
Surprisingly, she sat down, though she kept her arms crossed tightly over her chest, staring away from me. I sat down right next to her, leaving just enough space so she wouldn’t feel cornered. Taking a deep breath, I opened my mouth and began to lay my entire soul bare to her. I didn’t hold anything back.
I explained everything from the very beginning. I told her about my mother’s terrifying, absolute madness.
"She threatened you, Victoria," I whispered, my voice trembling as the memories surfaced. "She told me that if I didn’t leave you she would destroy your family. She had people watching your parents, your siblings. I didn’t ghost you because I stopped loving you. I ran away because I was terrified."
I told her about the car crash, explaining how my mother had intentionally caused the accident just to use my broken body as a distraction to kidnap Franklin and Octavia’s baby girl, Lael.
As the entire, dark truth finally came pouring out of me, I watched Victoria’s expression change. Her defensive posture slowly collapsed. The cold anger in her eyes completely melted away, replaced by large, heavy tears of pure disbelief, horror, and profound sympathy. She covered her mouth with her hand, realizing the nightmare I had been trapped in all this time.
Once I finished speaking, the room became incredibly quiet. Victoria didn’t stay mad at me, but she wiped her wet cheeks and firmly began to scold me.
"You are so foolish, Flynn," she whispered, her voice cracking as she looked at my tired face. "How could you not trust me enough to tell me the truth? We were supposed to be a team. We loved each other. We could have gone through this entire nightmare together, hand in hand. You didn’t have to carry that awful weight all by yourself."
I looked down at my lap, the guilt washing over me. "I know. I was so scared of losing you that I made the wrong choice. I am so sorry, Victoria."
She reached out, her soft fingers gently touching the edge of my white cast, before she looked back up at me. A small, tender smile appeared through her tears.
"I forgive you, Flynn," she said softly. "But we cannot just jump back to how things used to be. My heart needs time to heal. We have to take things very slowly."
A massive wave of pure joy hit me, and I smiled through my own tears, nodding rapidly. "I don’t mind taking it slow, VK. I don’t mind starting over from the very beginning."
Wanting to make this a truly brand new start, I slowly stood up from the couch. I cleared my throat, put on a nervous, boyish smile, and stretched out my hand toward her, pretending we had never met before.
"Hello," I said, my voice full of genuine warmth. "My name is Flynn, and I am completely in love with you."
Victoria stared at my open hand for a second. She stood up and placed her hand inside mine, her skin feeling incredibly warm against my palm.
I stepped a little closer, looking down at her lovely face. My gaze dropped to her lips, my heart completely full of hope and happiness.
"Can I kiss you?" I whispered softly.
Victoria didn’t say a word. She simply gave me a gentle nod, her eyes closing.
I leaned down slowly, wrapping my good arm around her waist, and kissed her softly. I was finally home.