47. Chapter 47
C rispin
The trip to Harlech was five hours of nail-biting torture...at least for Crispin.
It was a Friday afternoon, traffic was slow and the clouds were heavy with impending rain. Rahul had brought his car, a sleek black Audi that still smelled of new leather. Lule beat Crispin to the front seat with the triumph of a victorious general.
"You've been delegated to the wastelands, Crispy," she said, shooting him a wicked grin.
He could do nothing but get in the back like a scolded intern.
Lule was dressed in an oversized hoodie that read I Am Allergic to Bullshit and Stupid Men and grey sweatpants.
She had shoved her feet up on the dashboard within minutes of the car starting and was already munching on Oreos, scattering crumbs with reckless abandon.
Rahul, in a soft black T-shirt and matching joggers, flicked his eyes to the mess but said nothing.
Crispin sympathised deeply.
"Is she always like this?" he murmured to Rahul. "You should have become a diplomat."
Rahul's mouth twitched. "You got the placid sister. "
"I'm going to burn holes through your skull using my super-duper laser vision," Lule muttered around a mouthful of chocolate biscuit to one or both of them.
They made two pitstops, both at Lule's insistence. One for toilets, the other for snacks. "Crispin, you're not yourself when you're hungry. Or maybe you are, and that's the problem.", Lule explained.
By the time they neared the sleepy Welsh town, Crispin had aged a decade. They pulled into the car park beside the Lion's Mane Inn under a brooding sky. The innkeeper informed them that Aria had left a couple of hours ago as it was her afternoon off. She had said she was heading to Harlech Castle.
The mist began to roll in like a ghostly wedding procession as they drove the winding road towards the castle. The hills grew steeper, the sky darker, and the castle's crumbling walls loomed on the horizon.
"Of course she was," Lule muttered to herself, brushing crisps off her hoodie and licking her fingers. "Brooding heights, windswept battlements. Just the place she should be going in her condition..."
Crispin's head snapped up. "What condition? "
The car went quiet. Even the rumble of the engine seemed to drop into background static.
Lule blinked. "What?"
"You said 'in her condition.'"
Rahul gave Lule a long, sidelong glance.
"Oh. That," she said hastily, waving a hand. "You know. Heartbroken. Just generally weepy and upset. Aria's been a bit dramatic of late, thanks to your fuckups, hasn't she?"
Crispin didn't answer. He was watching her too carefully now, with a slow narrowing of the eyes.
Lule shifted in her seat, suddenly finding her cuticle very interesting. "I mean, she's fine. Physically. You know. She's just...been through a lot. Like, emotionally. The usual post-breakup spiral. Chocolate, crying. You know the drill."
His bullshit radar was blaring.
Lule was many things, but subtle was never one of them.
He didn't press the issue, but questions had begun to burn in his chest. Was Aria ill ?
As they drove the winding road to the castle, Lule tried calling her sister again. Once, the call connected but all she could hear was wind.
At the castle gates, the ticket attendant was already half-packing up. "We close in half an hour, yeah?" he called out. "Better get cracking."
They agreed to split up. The air was thick with salt and mist, and a creeping fog flowed in from the sea like a living thing. Crispin made his way towards the round tower that overlooked the cliffs, his steps picking up pace as unease turned to urgency.
He didn't know why, but he knew she was there.
And then, through the curtain of mist, there was a blur of white. A wisp of a dress. A braid tumbling down a woman's back.
His heart lurched.
"Ari!" he called out, breath catching in the wind.
She kept walking.
"Aria!" he called again.
This time, she stilled, as if she'd heard something in the wind .
He broke into a run, sprinting up the steep slope to where she stood near the crumbling wall, her back to him.
When she turned, the breath left his lungs.
She was even more beautiful than in his dreams.
Her cheeks were fuller, her golden-brown eyes luminous. The wind played with the folds of her white dress and her lavender cardigan. She looked ethereal.
And Crispin-rumpled, pale, with hair tousled and eyes hollow from sleepless nights-felt like a bagman in comparison.
But he couldn't look away.
"It's not true," he said, walking towards her. "What they told you... It's not true. Please, let me explain."
She didn't say anything. Her face was like a blank slate. And that scared him more than any anger.
So, he babbled.
In broken phrases, he explained the chaos-the company, Marcus, the weeks of battle with his father. He told her about the vote, the smear campaign. His voice trembled when he said he had messaged her every night. That he hadn't known what they told her. That Helga did not exist for him .
When he said Marcus' name, he saw something flash in her eyes, a tightening at the corners of her mouth.
How did she know Marcus?
They were close now. He lifted a hand, slowly, like one would for a wary animal. His fingertips brushed her cheek. It distracted him. She looked healthier, stronger. Softer, somehow.
"You look amazing," he murmured, eyes searching hers.
"Really?" she said quietly. "You mean my body?"
He blinked, startled. Was that a trick question?
"You have the most luscious body in the world."
A strange emotion passed through her face, gone before he could understand it. She reached down and pulled the sides of her dress tight around her middle.
"What about now?"
Crispin's eyes dipped, momentarily caught by the way her fuller breasts strained beneath the fabric. But then his gaze dropped lower, to the visible swell beneath the dress .
And the word escaped him before he could catch it.
"Massive"
A beat of silence.
Then a snort.
They both turned to see Lule and Rahul approach from behind. Rahul's face was amused, Lule's positively gleeful.
"Massive?" Lule echoed, eyebrows climbing. "Really, Crispy?"
He looked back at Aria, her hand on her belly, a strange emotion trembling at the edges, a little teary.
He looked at the curve of her body.
Then her face.
Then back again.
"Aria," he said. But it came out like a question. Or maybe a prayer .
Her expression faltered. "You don't want the baby, do you? See, this is why I didn't say anything. I knew you'd freak out. And now I'm crying again, because apparently, that's all I do these days and I hate it." Her words tumbled over each other, uncontrolled.
Crispin stepped forward, but he didn't say anything. He just slipped off his jacket and settled it around her shoulders. "We need to leave," he said gently, glancing at the sky. "They're closing."
Lule paused to give Aria a quick, tight hug, then looked over at Crispin, her expression sardonic.
"It wasn't my news to tell," she said softly. "I knew she wanted to tell you herself when the time was right." Then she grinned. "But massive? Dude. You have no chill."
They all laughed-all except Crispin.
As they neared the bottom of the stone steps, Crispin reached for Aria's hand and enclosed it in his. Her fingers were cold as his warmed them.
"I don't want to say or do the wrong thing again," he said, voice low. "I've made so many mistakes. When I tell you how I feel about this...about you, I want to get it right."
Aria looked up at him, into those stormy, sincere blue eyes.
"Make no mistake," he whispered. "I want her. Or him. Whichever. Do you know? "
"Not yet," Aria murmured. "I've got a scan in a couple of days."
They walked in silence for a moment, feet crunching on gravel.
"Do you want to come?" she asked tentatively. "I mean...for the scan."
Crispin looked at her, eyes shining with something raw and filled with hope.
And he nodded.
As if words were no longer enough.