Never fall in love

CAMILLA
~•~

To say that I was the least surprised by Sarah Holloway's reaction would be a gruesome lie. From the moment I saw her two kids at my door, I knew our meeting was going to be an awkward one. She would either be necessarily cold, or unnecessarily friendly. I had low-key wished she would choose the former, I could cope with that.
Sarah Holloway was, by every beauty standard, an astonishing woman.
She stood on lean and tall legs, not less than five feet and ten inches tall, almost the height of her darling husband.
Sunny blonde hair and blue eyes that completed her icy look. Her teeth were a sparkling shade of white, I could sue her dentist for such a perfection.
She had daring, yet, quiet eyes. It was a dangerous mix, one that I did not understand how she had managed to pull off.

When she walked into the room, she commanded my attention. I immediately saw why a man like mister Ivan had gone for a woman like her. She walked, talked, and even smiled powerfully. Her hands felt like riches when I shook them, and her voice pronounced her authority even before she did. She was by all grades intimidating.
What was with mister Ivan and having intimidating women flock all over him?
The lady in the kitchen that day had been one of them, but I had been too angry to feel the fear that grew in my chest.
But, Sarah Holloway was very different. At first glance, there was nothing to fear about her, but her smile was as devilish as they come.

She did not need to say the words out loud, but when she turned towards me as mister Ivan led her out of the room, I could hear the words in her smile.
"Stay away from my husband, my kids, and most importantly, my home."
Once she was done, she turned away from me, while mister Ivan dragged her out of my room and closed my door behind me.
I looked down at my half packed box.
Something in me told me to continue packing my clothes, to push everything I owned into the box and run out of here first thing tomorrow morning.
But, if I left, where would I go?
Freddie was still not speaking to me, and Tehilah had asked me out of her house.


Tehilah.
I suddenly remembered her call. She had said our father was back and he wanted to see me. But, I really did not want to see him.
The man had done more than enough damage to me already, to all of us in fact. I could not understand why Tehilah was so delighted to meet him.

I moved to my bed and crashed into it. I pushed my box down, making a mental note to organize it later. If I was going to leave here, I was going to have somewhere else to stay. That only meant I had to reach out to either Tehilah or Freddie.
This time, I picked Tehilah.

I took my phone and texted her. I told her to set up a meeting somewhere around town by 9am tomorrow morning.
It was not until ten minutes before she replied to me.
The venue was a three star diner, along Freddie's street.
A smile crept up to my face. The universe must have caused it all to align in my favor.
I had to make sure I spoke to Freddie tomorrow. We had never gone this long without speaking, it was starting to eat me up from inside.

I buried my eyes into my novel, in order to force myself to sleep. I could have easily closed my eyes and waited for sleep to take me into La La land, but I knew that would make me think of him.
Mister Ivan, and the way he embraced me earlier. The way his arms locked around my body like he never wanted to let me go.
And when he said he actually did not want to let me go, my heart melted in my chest.
I was growing more fond of him, and I knew that was wrong. Not only because he was married, but because he would end up hurting me. Men were always going to hurt you, even if they did not do it intentionally.
It was in their nature to cause pain to whoever was in love with them.
They just could not help themselves sometimes.

A good example; my father and mother. Taylor Theodore had been so in love with Aaron Theodore, that she could not see when he was slowly falling out of love with her. She could not see when he left his wife and children to be with her, that he was not a good man. She was in love with him, she thought he was in love with her too.
She did not know that he would leave her, just the way he had left his former wife. She did not also know that he would return to the same family he left for her.

"They are my peace." He had said.
I could remember how my younger self clutched the hem of Tehilah's dress in fear. I was only six when he left the second time. My mother lay on the floor, she held onto his trousers and cried her eyes out, pleading, begging for him to stay.

He looked down at her with pity, pity!
He pulled her fingers away from his pants and shut the door at her face. My mother was resilient, she flung the door open and chased after him, but my father's Mercedes was already out of the yard. She tried to chase him across the street, but how fast could her legs go?

I felt tears gather in my eyelids. I blinked hard to fight them back.

I knew, from that moment, that I never wanted to be put in that position. I never wanted to be at the mercy of anyone, especially not a man I was in love with.

I had just one basic rule; never fall in love.

And I was never going back on that rule, ever.