Chapter 52
Camila
When we arrive back at the mansion, it’s four in the morning, and I want nothing more than to get into bed, but I still have one more gift for him.
My heart hammers inside my chest, and the contents of my stomach threaten to come back up as we meander through the mansion to his room.
He pushes the door open. Only a light from the floor lamp shines inside. My eyes immediately cut to the green box on the bed. His gift. Sid is curled up next to it, fast asleep. Xander drops his keys on the side desk and recoils when he sees the box.
“What is this?” he whispers and tiptoes over to the bed. A smile touches my lips as I realise that he doesn’t want to wake Obsidian up, but I’m still fighting not to be sick all over his pristine, black carpet right now.
“Open it,” I whisper back, biting the corner of my lip.
My stomach lurches as he lifts the lid with his tattooed hands, finding the gift wrapped in white tissue paper.
He looks at me, raising a sceptical brow. I urge him on.
He unwraps the emerald green teddy bear, and I swear time freezes. He stills. I still. The very air around us stills. Hell, even Sid stops breathing.
His fingers tighten around the teddy as he stares at it with empty eyes.
Fuck.
His hand compresses the teddy repeatedly. I’m not even sure he’s breathing right now.
My heart squeezes. “I’m sorry, I—”
He drops to his knees in front of me for the second time tonight, and his muffled sobs fill the room as he grapples onto me, face pressed into my jumper, his body shaking with each mournful cry.
“Thank you, Angel,” he chokes out, and I realise he’s still gripping the teddy bear as he wraps his arms around my legs, quietly sobbing.
My chest constricts; my throat closes up as I let my tears slide. I unpeel his arms from my legs and kneel in front of him, taking his teary face into my hands, and place a kiss on his lips.
I so badly want to say those three words, but my own fear is pulling me back every time I think about it.
“This… It’s more than you know. Thank you for tonight,” he smiles, blue eyes crystal against the red of his sclera, that dimple making an appearance again.
He holds the teddy in front of him, hands trembling, running his fingers over the glossy beads for eyes, the stitched, black nose, and the small, silk bow around its neck. Sniffling, his tears start soaking onto the teddy.
“It looks exactly like the one I had.”
I gulp, desperately trying to get my words to form. “I know.”
He hugs the teddy into him, closing his eyes. His tears come faster.
In this moment, he looks just like that little boy with his dad. Before he was hurt. Before the only person that protected him all those years left. Happy. Cared for. A boy that should’ve never been broken in the first place.
Clearing my throat, I speak again. “Turn it around.”
He pulls away and turns it to look at his back. A single patch of faded green—the material a little matted—is stitched to the back. The remnants of his old teddy bear.
“He’s still with you, you know,” I whisper, clutching his hand.
Sobs rack his body again as he collapses into my lap.
His body relaxes after a few minutes, and silence wraps around us.
“He would’ve loved you,” he sniffles.
“My mum would’ve loved you, too,” I murmur as I stroke the length of his hair.
I wake up to an empty bed. I roll over, checking the time on the alarm clock that’s currently being guarded by Blossom—the name we decided to give the teddy. It shows it’s six in the morning.
It’s still dark outside.
Where the hell is Xander?
My head is spinning from the lack of sleep.
I realise quickly that this is usually the time that him and Jacques go out to see if they can get a trace on Luke.
I flip my old phone over since I resorted to using that one instead. Luke hasn’t bothered me on it at all, which has been strange for everyone.
But bile rises in my throat when I turn it and see the new messages, my head clearing like a lightning strike.
Unknown: Meet me at your flat or your pretty little boyfriend dies.
Unknown: I’m not fucking about. I know where he is. All it would take is one tiny bullet in the head.
“No,” I whisper. My stomach bottoms out. My entire body starts trembling, my phone shaking in my hand. And for the first time since the text messages started, I text him back.
Me: Leave him the fuck alone. I'm on my way. Just please don't hurt him Luke.
They haven’t found Luke. Because Luke is at my fucking flat.
He wins. He fucking wins. He finally found the one thing after all these years that would break me. And Xander is it.
I scroll through my contacts, finding Jacques’ name. I’m rushing out of the mansion, making sure Ezra doesn’t see me leave through the back door, and bolting towards Jacques’ empty car.
“Ello, luvah.” His cheery voice fills the speakers.
“Jac, I need you to—”
A sting.
Then nothing.