THE APOLOGY

Forgive because you want to. Not because you have to, sweetheart.

***

CHAPTER XXLVIII

*****

I woke up with a start, my heart beating rapidly as I took in my surroundings. I was in a large, spacious room, in a bed with a canopy over my head and I was far, far from home.

I could tell that it was still daytime because the curtains that blocked my view of the outside, almost glowed as the sun hit it. I sat up in the bed, knowing that that was probably a good moment to panic, but I didn't want to think about it.

Despite my lack of enthusiasm to explore the matter, I still wiggled around and did a few keggles to see if anything happened and let out a surprised, but relieved breath once I realised that nothing did.

Or at least it didn't feel like anything did.

I hoped for my sake that that was the case.

Stepping out of bed proved to be a terribly difficult problem. Getting onto my feet, I wobbled like no tomorrow and before I could help myself I dropped onto my knees on the cold hard floor.

I gritted my teeth together as a headache boomed in my head, but I didn't care because I needed to get out. Very obviously, something must've happened to Pablo and Daniel and that was probably why they didn't come to get me.

I had to help them.

I placed a shaky hand on the bed and placed another shaky hand on the nightstand before putting all my energy into it and pulling myself up. Before I could fall again, I latched onto the bed post and held onto it while I regained my breath.

Unfortunately, that was the moment when the door to the room had swung open and I felt my heart beat speed up in my chest in fear. The fear turned to confusion once I finally set eyes on who it was.

“Pablo? What are you doing here?”

He closed the door behind him and walked over to me to give me a hand. Without answering my question, he wrapped an arm around my waist and guided me back to bed before sitting down beside me.

“Did they kidnap you too?” I whispered, crawling closer to me as he looked at me as if I was crazy.

“No, Araceli, listen.” He took my hand in his and peered deeply into my eyes. “Daniel and I—we planned everything that happened. We planned for him to attempt to kidnap you and we were monitoring the situation closely. I swear to you, we never left you alone. We were always there with you.”

I stared at him, letting his words fully digest before a bitter sneer fell onto my face. With as much energy as my weak form could muster in that moment, I ripped my hand out of his hold and backed away.

“Are you serious right now?”

“I know, it was stupid but it was all a part of the plan. We wanted him to kidnap you so he would call his boss and we would be able to get to him,” he explained, but I was still blinded by red hot anger.

“Why couldn't you tell me that it was all a part of the plan before I went seducing that idiot?” I hissed, surprised that I wasn't yelling my head off yet.

“I don't know why. The best person to ask is Daniel, but it was probably for authenticity or something.”

“Authenticity?” I glared at him, pressing myself as far as away from him as I could as he tried to scoot closer. “Pablo I cried for you. I begged for you to come save me and you're trying to tell me that you sat there, listened to everything I said and ignored me. Is that it?”

“I know it sounds bad—”

“What kind of a person are you?”

“Ara, please—”

“Don't fucking call me 'Ara'. Only people who care about me can call me that and you very obviously don't.”

He squeezed his eyes shut and stayed silent, letting me rain insults on him as he took them gently. A good few minutes of hateful glaring went by before I felt my resolve break, every bit of the past events hitting me.

I thought I was going to die. I honestly thought I was going to die.

I looked at Pablo, taking in his pained expression as he stared off into the distance. I didn't hate him. I couldn't hate him. And I knew I wouldn't hate him after he fed me whatever bullshit reason he and Daniel had to put my life in danger.

Again.

“Why?”

“We wanted to catch the man who was behind the attack. The man who's trying to get to you,” he answered, as if expecting me to ask the question. “We wanted to lure him into our trap and then capture him. Ensuring your safety.”

My heart skipped a beat and I looked down at my hands. In some weird way, they were doing it because they loved me, but still I was pissed.

“Did it work?” I asked quietly. There was a lump in my throat, and I felt speaking any louder would make my voice tremble.

“No.” I let out a bitter chuckle and turned away. “But we got some information out of it.”

“And that information is...”

“It's not just one person who is after you like we think. There's two of them.”

My stomach dropped at his words and all the blood drained from my face. “What?”

“We know one wants you because you killed Vincent. But the other one, we're still not sure of.” Pablo sighed and ran his hands through his hair. “They could form an alliance at any time and if they do...” he trailed off, letting a tense silence hang in the air.

“It'll be very bad for me.”

My voice cracked at the end of the sentence and before I knew it, the tears were trailing down my cheeks silently. As if sensing my sadness, Pablo immediately turned to me and pulled me into his arms.

I sobbed into his neck, just wanting to punch him and kick him and wrap him in my arms in a warm hug forever.

“Don't you ever fucking do that to me again,” I cried, squeezing my eyes shut as he pulled away to look at me.

I hated looking at people when I was crying because I could always imagine my ugly crying face and was only expecting the worst facial expressions from them because of it. He used his thumb to wipe the streams of my tears away, but they returned as fast as the left.

“I won't.”

“I mean it,” I said, glaring at him through the tears as he gave me a sad smile. “If I call you big brother, you always have to respond if you hear it, okay?”

“Okay.”

“Pinky promise?”

He wrapped his Pinky with mine and smiled at me. “Pinky promise.”

“I'll kill you if you ever pull that bullshit again,” I threatened, wrapping my arms around his neck and burying my head in the crook of his neck.

His chest vibrated against mine as he chuckled and he patted my back gently, letting me get tears and snot all over him.

“You have every right to.”

***

After having a proper meal, I found my energy levels rise significantly. So much so that I decided to take a shower and wash the days stress away.

I massaged some coconut shampoo onto my scalp before quickly rinsing it out. I never liked washing my hair because it always felt dry and brittle even with water running through it.

I then separated my hair into three parts and slowly worked the conditioner into each part, work from the ends up. I had just finished with the two front sections of my hair when I felt two arms wrap around my waist and pull me into his body.

I knew who it was immediately because that was what he always did when he was going to apologise. He placed a small kiss on my shoulder and I shivered, not wanting to be affected by his touch but failing miserably anyway.

“I'm sorry.”

I knew it.

His hand stayed firmly around my waist, not venturing anywhere else as he pressed his face into the crook of my neck and I sighed.

“I didn't... I never wanted you to get hurt. And... Shit.”

He was very obviously having trouble, but I didn't care. I wanted to hear him suffer like I did. Even if it was only for a bit.

“Hearing you beg for me and not doing anything killed me.”

I didn't know why my stomach flipped at his words and why my heart picked up, but I willed myself to keep calm and listen to his bullshit.

“I thought it was for the best, but when he almost hurt you, I realised it wasn't.” He sighed, letting his breath fan against my wet skin. “I'm sorry it took that much before I realised.”

It was way more than I expected from someone like Daniel and it made my heart leap like a lamp.

“Did Pablo tell you about how I exploded on him?” I asked and he nodded into my neck as I smiled. They were like two partners in crime. “You're lucky because I'm jot as mad now as I was then.”

I felt the tips of his lips quirk upward against my skin, but I wasn't done with him.

“I'm still pissed at you.”

I could almsot feel him rolling his eyes. Without saying anything, he placed one lingering kiss just beneath my jaw before pulling away from me. He reaches over me and picked up the bottle of conditioner.

“Let me help you.”

“Daniel, this isn't something you can help with,” I argued although I made no move to take the hottle from him. “This is four-b hair we're talking about it.”

“Then I'll learn.”

Before I could argue again, I felt his hand take my ends and slowly work the conditioner into them. I Moan crawled up my chest, but I bit it down and stayed quiet as his hands worked magic with my hair. There was just soemthinf extremely soothing ahout other people touching my hair.

He knew exactly what to do, starring from the tips and gently working his way up but never reaching the roots. His ran his fingers through the strands, gently detangling them before wrapping it up in a hun at the top of my head before my hair could curl up and shrink like it usually did.

He reached past me and turned on the shower knob, washin off his hands before switching it off.

“Where did you learn to do that?” I asked, still surprised at how gentle he was.

“I raised Emma,” was his simple response, making my chest tighten at the thought of Emma. I just wanted to speak to her and iron everything out once and for all.

I didn't want to believe that our friendship had just ended like that; all because of a guy.

Wanting to take my mind off the depressing thoughts, I took Daniel's hand and slowly guided him past my stomach, between my legs.

“You know, I need yo wait five minutes before I can wash this thing out.”

He wrapped his arm around my waist and pulled me into him, letting his other hand play with me as I let out a low moan. “Is that so?”

He asked, his voice coming out rough and deep as pressed a small kiss to my neck. He brought his hand up to my neck, pulling me in closer to him as he slowly eased a finger into me.

***

Daniel braided my hair.

It was difficult at first, but he worked his way around my curls and, after brushing it out and applying leave-in conditioner, he helped me braid it down my head in twin plats.

I was on the floor, between his legs as he gently brushed through the remaining half of my hair. “Don't ever cut your hair,” he said, working the leave-in that smelt like oranges into my wet strands before running my brush through the tips.

“I won't.”

In that moment, I felt like I had been transported home. Back to the times when I would sit on the floor between my mom's legs and she would help me take care of my hair before trying out wacky hairstyles out on me. I always went to school with something new.

My heart clenched at the though of my mother, but I pushed her away and focused on the present instead. I tilted my head to the side, making it easier for him to braid it down my scalp until he was tying it off with a black rubber band.

I didn't know why I always felt at peace with him. I knew he was troubled and I knew that he never let me in enough to help him, but it's like he didn't have to do anything to help me. All he had to do was look at me, or hold me or tell me to talk to him and then I felt fine again.

I got up, but instead of walking towards his bed, I sta on his lap and stared out of the window, resting my back against his chest. He didn't protest. He just placed his hand on my thigh, subconsciously rubbing circles onto my skin as he let out a breath of air.

“Are you going to leave?” I asked. I knew he was busy and I knew that the reason why he traveled here still hadn't been taken care of yet, but I just wanted him to stay with me for a while.

He stayed silent for a beat, but squeezed my thigh lightly. “No.” My heart hummed at the sound of his voice. “Not yet.”

*****

Yall always seem to have a reason to shout at me so whatever it is, I'm sorry. Okay?

Okay. 😌