NINETEEN

Yalda’s gaze flickered to the screen of her phone when it lit up with a soft ping from the nightstand. She realized she hadn’t paid any attention to it since she returned from the office, but how could she anyway? How could she possibly have paid any attention to it when she had been occupied with other things; pleasurable and painful things?

Alexander had eventually ordered dinner, and as they ate in silence, she realized that it was the first actual food she was eating in about four days. Alexander had gone to his study after dinner, and she had simply stayed in his bed waiting to fall asleep, and that was when her phone pinged.

She reached out and picked it up. Her brow arched slightly on seeing two missed call notifications and a message from an unsaved contact. She tapped on the message first, and the short text was displayed:

"Good evening, Ms. Harris.
It’s Jaxon. Tried calling, but you weren’t picking up."

She had completely forgotten about Jaxon or the fact that she had given him her number, but now that he texted her, she recalled everything; how intrigued she had been. She concluded that he intrigued her only because he was nothing like what she was used to; he was warm, humorous, and courteous. Not that she cared much, but it seemed she hadn’t realized how much she actually appreciated all those from a man until he came along.

Nonetheless, she wasn’t going to lie here thinking of him after just being fucked senseless. She typed in a quick reply:

"Hi. Good evening.
Sorry I missed your calls, I was occupied."

She waited a few seconds for a response, and when she didn’t receive one, she decided to set the phone aside and go to sleep. But just when she was about to return it to the nightstand, it began vibrating softly as her ringtone played. Her eyes widened on seeing that he was calling, and for a moment, she didn’t know what to do.

What was she even doing?

She dragged in a deep breath and cleared her throat quietly before tapping on the answer icon.

"Hi," she said.

"Hello, Yalda," his smooth voice replied from the other side. "How are you doing?"

"I’m good, thank you," she replied. "How are you doing?"

"Likewise. Thought you went to bed already," he said. "What are you doing?"

She shook her head, though he couldn’t see her. "Nothing much. I was just about to fall asleep," she told him.

"Oh? I apologize for calling so late then," he said. "I didn’t think you were one of those girls that went to bed early."

She chuckled. "Well, I am," she replied.

He also chuckled. "Then I can’t ask you to go out to dinner with me, right?" he said.

What? Had he really just suggested she have dinner with him?

"Yeah, I had dinner already," she told him.

"That’s fine. I’ll just have to be earlier next time," he said. "Will you have dinner with me tomorrow then?"

Her eyes widened slightly. Somehow, she had thought he would let the matter be. He spoke again before she could.

"Don’t get skeptical, I’m not asking you out on a date," he said. "I’ll pick you up after work tomorrow, and we can go have dinner wherever you want."

She chuckled awkwardly. What could she possibly say to that?

"Sounds good?" he asked her.

"We’ll just have to see how tomorrow goes," she replied.

"Fair enough. Looking forward to hearing from you tomorrow," he said. "I should let you go to sleep. Goodnight, Yalda."

A faint smile curved her lips for reasons unknown to her. "Thanks. Goodnight," she replied.

And with that, the call came to an end.

She blew out a breath before setting the phone aside on the nightstand, and it was then she realized she was smiling. She cleared her throat once more as she wiped the smile off her face. Why was she smiling? What was she doing having night calls with him when he was Alexander’s friend? He wasn’t even going to be here for long; he’d do his thing, and he’d be gone like he had never been here at all.

She pulled the covers over herself, and the softness enveloped her. She shut her eyes, and it wasn’t long before she drifted off into a dreamless slumber.

Meanwhile, Alexander sat in his study nursing a bottle of wine while trying his best to numb his mind; he didn’t want to think about his life, his past, or the woman sleeping in his bed right now.

His gaze lingered on the rich red liquid in the glass in front of him as he stared absentmindedly. His head ached so badly that his nose would have started to bleed if he hadn’t taken his meds. He probably should have gone to bed, but the fact that Yalda would be right there stopped him; he only needed to look at her, and the numbness the wine had placed on his mind would be undone.

He glanced at his wristwatch; it was 9:48 PM. The night was still young. He would have gone for a drive, but how sure was he that he wasn’t drunk or at least tipsy? He wasn’t scared of getting in an accident and being hurt; he was more concerned about hurting something while he was at it; he had done enough.

His gaze flickered to his phone when the screen lit up. A notification was displayed on the screen that he had a message from Maya Blackwood. He didn’t bother reading it now; he wasn’t in the mood to indulge the flirtatious woman.

He picked up the glass and drained the content before setting it down. Deciding to damn it all, he pushed his seat back and rose to his feet; he was going to bed regardless of whatever memories his mind would conjure when he saw Yalda. He made his way out of his study and down the dark and quiet hallway till he got to his bedroom.

As expected, Yalda was asleep already. He walked up to the bed and climbed in beside her, and like always, she stirred to her side so her face was buried against his chest. He draped an arm over her, and it wasn’t long before he also fell asleep with the exact same dream he always had for the past twenty-five years; it always started with the pungent smell or propane gas, then the sound of gunshots, and then wild flames bringing everything down.

.......

*TWENTY-FIVE YEARS AGO.*


It was usually quiet at the dining table, but things seemed to be different that evening. Gabriel Monroe and his wife Lana barely noticed their seven-year-old son quietly watching them in the heat of their arguments.

"You'd throw away everything we have for her? A whore?!" Lana spat angrily.

"Don't call her that. And what is it that we have, Lana? Tell me." Gabriel replied bitterly.

"Our son!"

"Don't bring Alexander into this." He said as he rubbed his temple exasperatedly.

"Then don't bring a whore into our lives." Lana told him as she rose to her feet angrily.

"I'll say this for the last time: she's not a whore," Gabriel said, his sharp grey eyes boring into her intensely. "And I'll do whatever I please."

Lana couldn't stop herself from grabbing her wine glass and smashing it against the table angrily.

And it wasn't just the sound of the glass breaking that had caused Alexander's breath to hitch sharply, it was the little piece that cut through his skin and impaled his flesh. He sat there cradling his bleeding finger.

He wasn't sure if his parents had simply ignored him, or if they had been too upset to notice.

He could picture the lady they were arguing about, he could picture her lustrous wavy hair, her hazel eyes, her olive skin; he had thought she was pretty. But then, his mother had said she looked like a whore and nothing more.

He wasn't particularly sure what being a whore entailed, but he could tell it was nothing good from his mother's disdain.

"She'll ruin everything. You'll ruin everything!" Lana said bitterly.

Gabriel shook his head.

"What do you care if everything is ruined, Lana? You only care about yourself," Gabriel said.

"You think she cares about you? Don't be delusional. People like us, we have no such thing as true love," Lana told him. "She's after your money, your name, your fame!"

"And you?" he asked her. "Aren't you here for the exact same thing?"

She chuckled humorlessly.

"Our parents had an arrangement; don't make it sound like you did me a favor," she said.

"An arrangement which was more beneficial to your father because he was going bankrupt," he pointed out. "You're nothing without me, Lana."

A moment of silence stretched between them. All the while, Alexander continued to clutch his finger tightly while trying his best not to draw their attention.

"You'd do well to keep that in mind. I can very well change my mind and break what wretched agreement there is. You've given me a son, an heir; that's all I needed from you," Gabriel warned.

Lana tried her best to restrain the tears that stung the back of her eyes, but in the end, they slid down her cheeks bitterly. She wiped them off sharply, and her eyes hardened to the point that she seemed almost unrecognizable to Alexander.

"I will not let you humiliate me, Gabriel. I'll kill us all if you bring her into our lives," she warned. Her voice had lowered an octave, and there was a darkness to her tone that shouldn't have been disregarded. "I'll do it."

With that, she pushed her seat back and stormed off. Gabriel wasted no time in standing up and also storming off.

And it was only when they were gone that Linda, the oldest house help, rushed to Alexander to tend to his bleeding finger tenderly.

"Goodness, it must hurt so much," she said quietly.

Perhaps it did, but he couldn't feel a thing at that moment; he just sat there staring at where his parents had just been.