Home At Last

7 hours later, I stepped into the elevator, grinning like an idiot in anticipation of seeing Leah again. As soon as I stepped off the elevator, I knew she wasn’t there. It was too quiet. After a quick search that resulted in more questions than answers, I left my office building, heading straight to the Adams’ house. I let out a sigh of relief when I saw the lights on in the house. I went up the stairs and turned the knob, frowning when it was locked. She always forgot to lock the door, so why was it locked now? I knocked before stepping back to wait for her to answer it. She pulled it open before taking a step back, watching me through hooded eyes.
“Hey, Leah,” I said, breaking into a smile, her presence erasing every last single doubt that had been in my head.
She raised her hand to tuck her hair behind her ear and my hand shot out to grab her wrist. She immediately started tugging at her wrist.
“Let me go, R. H. M.”
I pushed her sleeve up, revealing the many bruises on her arms before my eyes snapped to hers. “Who did this to you?”
“No one. Let me go!”
I turned her arm every way possible before looking back into her eyes. “Did you do this to yourself?” I snarled.
“Why does it matter to you?” She spat. “Just go away, R. H. M.”
“Not until you talk to me! Why did you move out of my place?” I asked.
“Because I don’t want to be with you, R. H. M. I don’t want to be the other woman. I don’t want to be here anymore. Now, let me go, and leave.”
“What in the hell are you talking about?” I almost yelled as I pulled her against my body. “There isn’t anybody else.”
She jerked herself away from me. “You’re lying,” she whispered. “Please, just go away. I can’t do this.”
“Tell me what I did, because right now, I’m confused,” I told her.
She tugged harder on her arm. “Please, just go away.”
“Princess–”
She raised the hand that I didn’t have in my hold and slapped me. “DON’T CALL ME THAT! I’M NOT YOUR PRINCESS!”
I let her go to touch the cheek she hit. “You hit me!”
“Just go away, R. H. M.”
I continued to stare at her in shock as she slammed the door in my face. My chest tightened painfully as when I heard her start to sob. I put my hand on the door as I called to her softly.
“Come on, Leah, baby. Let’s talk about this. I forgive you for hitting me. Please, just let’s talk about this,” I begged.
After about 15 minutes of pleading with her to talk to me, I left to go back to my office. I hated that I hadn’t put any cameras inside it, except for the main office. I was now seriously regretting not putting cameras everywhere else in my office building. I had no idea what could have triggered to react that way to me. She was my only woman and I adored her more than anything. I had to figure this out and fix it. I wanted to be with her. I needed her to want me back. And I had no clue how to get us back to where we were before I left that morning. Once back on the top floor of my office building, I began to slowly make my way through the rooms, starting with the main office. I turned all the lights on to see if anything looked like it had been disturbed.
All my paper files had been ruffled through, but I knew there was nothing in there that would have upset her. The paper files only had generic information. Names, birthdates, addresses, and the date, times, and police reports of Eden’s member’s attacks. There were also before pictures of how they looked upon arrival along with after pictures from when they finished their programs.
I could tell the drawers had also been opened and closed but there were no items in there except the typical office supplies. Pens, stapler, staple remover, white out, unused memo pads, sticky notes, and paper clips.
Next, I checked the bathroom, searching through the cabinets and finding nothing, not that I thought I would. After the bathroom, I went to my main desk, quickly searching through it before pulling open the bottom drawer where my small safe was. Inside the safe was everything important to Eden. Members' treatment plans, social security numbers, and Ramira’s notes from each person. Also locked inside were all my flash drives of Diadra, Janice, and my daughters. I lifted the safe out so I could check it thoroughly. There were no signs that it had been tampered with. I pulled my keys out to see if it went into the lock, which it did immediately. I held my breath as I opened it. I quickly made sure that everything I had put inside was still there before closing and locking it again. I put it back in the drawer before wandering into the bedroom.
I glanced around before sighing. What the hell happened? I knew there wasn’t anything in here that would have upset her, so why was she angry at me? After doing a thorough check of the room and finding nothing, I threw myself down on the bed to curl up around the pillow that Leah had slept on. As I slid my hand under it, my hand hit something small and hard. I sat up, moving the pillow. I blinked in surprise when I saw my laptop laying there with a flash drive laying a few inches from it. I picked up the drive and computer before settling back against the headboard to look through what was on this flash drive.
As soon as I put the drive into the computer, a window popped up asking me if I wanted to open the drive files. I clicked yes and the file menu opened. As soon as I saw the names of the files, I knew this was why she had run. I slammed the computer shut before curling my fingers around the drive. How could I have been so stupid to leave this particular drive where she could find it? I jumped up to go back out to the main lobby where my tools still laid. I grabbed the hammer before going to sit at my desk. I held one side of the flash drive as I lifted the hammer. I brought it down repeatedly on the drive until it was nothing but busted pieces that couldn’t be put back together. When I was done, I leaned back in my seat with my eyes closed, trying to ignore the way my heart was barely beating.
“I wouldn’t want to be with me either with titles like ‘Our Valentine’s Day’ and ‘Our 12 days of Christmas.’” I muttered.
I hadn’t seen that flash drive in three years. The last time I had listened to the recorded audio of Diadra and I having sex, I had gotten so frustrated that I had thrown it against the wall. I was so angry that not even hearing her moaning in the throes of passion had been enough to make me cum on the rare occasions that I had been able to get an erection. I never thought about the drive again so I never retrieved it from under the bed. Now, just like not putting cameras up, I regretted leaving it where it fell. I sighed as I ran my fingers through my hair. Ramira had been right. I shouldn’t have handled my feelings for her the way I did. I never wanted to lose her because of a misunderstanding. And it really appeared like I had. If she had been right about Leah, I couldn’t help but think she was right about everything else too.
I sighed again as I sat up to grab a piece of paper and a pen. I tapped the pen four times on the desk as I debated whether or not this was a good idea. I clenched my jaw tightly. I wasn’t sure if it was or not, but Ramira thought this would help me heal. Truly heal, and not just because I wanted to put a bandaid over my hurt for Leah. Making up my mind, I started to write. The words started off slow before picking up as it got easier. When I was done, I got up to go into the bathroom to stand in front of the mirror. I took a deep breath before starting to recite the list of things I loved out loud, stumbling and hesitating on the word love each time. Two hours later, I sank to the floor with the paper clenched in my hand as tears coursed down my face as I said the list thing on my list.
“And I love Leah…”