Chapter 87 #2
Davian hesitated, and the silence grew heavier with every passing second, until Tony grabbed him by the upper arms and forced him to look at him.
“Just tell me, damn it!”
“Anthony,” Father cleared his throat, as if he’d had enough. “It’s not Davian’s fault.”
Again, he looked at me, this time with disgust and resentment written all over his face. An expression I had often mistaken for home until I had learned that other fathers didn’t look at their children that way.
“It was her plan from the start. Don’t let her drive a wedge between you two.”
That manipulative asshole.
I wanted to clench my hands into fists, but my instincts forbade it, because they still feared the aggressive man hiding somewhere behind that strange facade. A man you’d better not provoke.
“Oh my God…” Tony let go of Davian and stumbled back. “All this time…”
He spun toward the window, raked his fingers through his hair and stared wide-eyed into nothingness, making my heart sink into my stomach.
“I’m sorry, Tony.” Lara stepped toward him, her eyes filled with tears, while Davian – distracted for a moment – stared at her in confusion. “I’m sorry…”
My brother raised a hand toward her.
“No.”
He spun around to face Davian, and his glare triggered a fresh wave of panic inside me.
“You… You slept with my sister?”
“Tony,” I managed to say, while Davian held his gaze. Rigid, devoid of any emotion.
“No!” Tony snapped at me, and I flinched. “Not a word, Gravia!”
Waves of Opulence
Ahmet Kenan Bilgic, Turgut Mavuk
He grabbed Davian by the collar of his shirt.
“You touched her?!”
Hurriedly, he shoved Davian – who more or less stumbled backward – across the room.
“While I was looking for the scumbag she’s sleeping with, racking my brain trying to figure it out, you touched her?!”
He shoved Davian against the wall, who continued staring at him as if he weren’t quite there.
Helplessness threatened to suffocate me.
What had I done?
Anthony swung, and everyone flinched as he hit Davian right on the nose and it cracked loudly.
I gasped, just like Brittany.
“Tony!” Lara managed to get out through her tears.
Instead of dodging, Davian turned his head back toward Tony, looking him straight in the eyes. Rigid, motionless.
Anthony swung again.
“I trusted you!”
Tony sounded desperate as his fist sent Davian’s face flying to the side again, making panic spread through my entire body.
“Joseph, do something!” Lorette cried out in alarm.
“Boy, that’s enough!” my father growled, but Tony swung again. And Davian looked him in the eyes once more.
“Tony!” I managed to get out somehow.
Enough. This was enough.
Lara and I lunged forward at the same time, and while she pulled my brother back, I placed myself in front of Davian, glaring warningly into my brother’s eyes, who stared at me as if he were deeply disturbed.
“Get out of the way, Gravia!”
“No.”
Someone gently moved me out of the way.
Davian.
I wouldn’t be able to hold him back. So instinctively I did the first thing that came to mind and let my hand find his.
Davian stopped.
The whole room suddenly fell silent, and I felt all eyes fall on our clasped hands.
Davian returned my gesture, sliding further into my hand, wrapping his fingers around mine and I wrapped mine around his.
For a moment, I felt strong. As if nothing in my life could ever bring me to my knees again, as long as Davian held my hand. As long as I could be with him.
Brittany looked as if she’d seen a ghost. Her eyes filled with tears, she spun around and rushed out of the salon.
No one paid her any further attention.
Anthony’s stare burned into our hands. Then he looked up. At Davian.
“You lied to me… You’ve been lying to me the whole time!”
“I lied to you!” I snapped at him. “I did, Tony. Davian never did anything! All he ever tried to do was protect me!”
Tony ignored me, trying to push past me, but I stepped back in front of Davian, blocking him.
“You godless bastard! I’ll kill you!”
Lara yanked him back.
“I’ll kill you!”
Just before he could break free from Lara, our father stepped between us and shoved him back before turning to face me, his gaze devastating.
“Get out of here!”
I swallowed hard as he moved his hand.
Davian immediately pushed me aside.
“I said, touch her and…”
“We’re leaving. Now.”
My grip tightened around Davian’s hand, and I pulled him with me as I turned and disappeared from the salon, past a distraught-looking Lorette.
Davian didn’t resist, letting me drag him along.
“Where do you think you’re going with him, Gravia?!” I heard Anthony yell before Lorette’s muffled voice rang out, but by then I had already pulled Davian through the back exit.
Lara appeared beside us, and Davian stopped immediately on the long gravel path beneath the bare linden trees, staring at his daughter as she looked up at him in shock.
“Lara, you knew…”
Ashamed, I pressed my lips together as Davian trailed off and the color drained even further from his face.
“Yes.”
She stared at him for a few seconds before snatching the car keys from his hand, turning around, and hurrying to the car.
Davian watched her go, unable to move.
“She knew…”
“For a long time.”
Runway to Us
Ahmet Kenan Bilgic, Turgut Mavuk
He looked at me.
“I didn’t tell her. I would never have…”
He turned me toward him and drew me into his arms. Overwhelmed, I stumbled against him, letting his gentle embrace close around me as he pressed my head to his chest and brushed his lips against my hair.
“I wanted to tell her. Today…” he whispered.
I inhaled sharply.
He had wanted to…
“Please, no matter how she reacts, stay with me. Stay in my life.”
My vision blurred.
I wanted to promise him, wanted to stay with him. But it was as if I could feel the shock from just now deep in my bones.
Yet I couldn’t help but nod, feeling the relief that hit me out of nowhere.
He wanted me to stay with him, didn’t plan to cast me aside after I had served my purpose. He wanted me.
“Let’s get out of here, please, before I change my mind and go back.”
He grabbed my hand hastily, pulled me toward the car, where he let me get into the passenger seat while he slid into the back seat, and Lara drove us home to Fade Into You by Mazzy Star, without either of us saying a word.
She had barely parked when Davian got out of the car and disappeared – hastily and with his hands clenched into fists – into the house.
Longing
Gustavo Santaolalla
We both stared at the front door as if we could hear something through the car, as if we were both hoping he would come back. But he had no reason to.
Distance. From me. That was what he needed.
“I should leave…” At that very moment, my voice broke, and tears began to blur my vision as my voice grew quieter. “But he wants me to stay.”
A glance at Lara told me she felt sorry for me. The little bundle of misery that had somehow made its way into her colorful life and was slowly but surely staining everything good with black inkblots.
“You don’t want to leave. And I don’t want that either.” Her hand landed on my shoulder, and she gently stroked the spot. “There’s no reason to leave, Quill. We’re your family.”
Something about her words tore at me unexpectedly fiercely, causing me to start sobbing.
“No… No, don’t say that. I’m not cut out for families. I destroy everything good that I…”
“Quill…” She turned to me, her hand on my shoulder. “Hey. It’s not your fault how you grew up, okay?”
“I…” My clumsy search for words ended with despair practically tumbling out of my mouth. “He…”
On the verge of breaking down, I blinked away the tears.
“You both deserve a life without drama and chaos. Every day I wonder which one of you will look at me first and see the real Quill. Gravia Onera Richter. The walking time bomb.”
Lara’s gaze grew more serious, more intense.
“You’ve always been Quill to me.” She lifted one corner of her mouth encouragingly. “The girl who drags me out of my daily grind whenever I desperately need it and who showed me how plastic my old friends had been.”
I shook my head, more and more vehemently, not wanting to let her words get to me, because she was just as well-meaning as her father.
“Too much, Lara…”
More tears. Too many.
“I’m feeling way too much right now and I don’t know what to do with it…”
A panic attack was brewing. I could feel it, wanted to gasp for air, but instead tried to breathe in calmly.
“I need time… A few days… A week…”
I didn’t really know how long or what exactly that meant.
All I knew was that the two people who meant the most to me in my miserable life needed a break from me, even if they probably wouldn’t understand that.
Once they had a break from me, they would see things so much more clearly, realize how much better off they would be without me.
“What do you mean by time?”
Lara wouldn’t understand…
“Quill?”
Davian wouldn’t understand…
“I have to get out of here.”
Frantically, I unbuckled my seatbelt, ready to put my words into action before Lara even had a chance to let her warmth of heart override my reason.
“Quill, Christmas is only a week away,” she began, and I thought I saw desperation in her eyes. Or was it in her voice? “Please don’t leave us alone.”
“Trust me, Lara.” I pushed the car door open. “You need this just as much as your dad does.”
She wanted to say something, but I slammed the door shut, hating myself for it.
Lara wasn’t aware of her power. Neither was Davian, whom I had to somehow get past before I left here.
We are ink butterflies.
That’s what you always told me.
And somehow you made me
forget our tattered wings.
Before you let me fly.
– Blue