Chapter 122
1365words
Mark sighed and rose up from his seat, his hand still firmly holding my wrist, not feeling the force of my tugging at all. He pulled me gently towards him until I had to crane my head back to look him in the eyes. "I am saying this because you need this."
"No, I don't." I disagreed with him.
He gave me a tender smile and used his hand to brush my bangs gently out of my face as they were acting like shutters, obscuring my sight. "The one skill that every killer acquires in their life is the skill to read the human body language. How they walk when they are nervous. How their eyes divert up to different directions when they are trying to come up with a lie. No small gesture gets past us unnoticed and from what I could deduce from your body language is that you need this conversation with your mom kitten."
My nose crinkled up in distaste. "Well, I think it's time for you to put on your reading glasses, because you're way off." I sneered at him; my words coated with derision.
Mark lowered himself until we were on the same eye-level, his hands resting on his knees for support as his back was hunched. The proximity between us contracted my airways as if he robbed the oxygen away from me and I had to swallow a lump of nervousness away. Mark's eyes flitted momentarily to my lips watching the movement before zeroing back on my eyes that were slightly shaking. "You're scared of finding out the truth whether your mom truly loves you, don't you? No, that's not it." He shook his head and corrected himself. "What you are fearing more of is forgiving her and having to go through all of that again, because the truth is kitten, you will always love your mother no matter what. You are just acting strong."
His words were like jabs to my stomach and knifes to my heart, carving out the pain that I had hidden away for years. My anger towards my mother was sincere and I am not sure if that will ever be snuffed out as she was the benefactor to my traumas, the reason why I had to close off my heart, why seeing older men made the small hairs on my neck stand up. But at the same time the memories that I had of my mother before the departure of my dad haunts me, making me hopeful for those days to return just to leave me with anguish as the clock of time will never be rewind back again. I will never truly be able to hate my mother, but it scares me that my feelings may be easily swayed if I let her speak and that she will ones more pull me back in that darkness where I had to crawl out using all my strength until my nails turned bloody and brittle.
With my eyes casted down, my hands on my sides balled into a pair of fists to suppress the upcoming tears I let out a low whisper that was akin to the quiet breeze of the wind, filled with lament, "So what? Even if you're right why should I go and see her? To reopen my wounds?"
"Yes." He deadpanned to have my brows knitted together and to have my watery eyes leveled up until they met his. The corner of his mouth turned up a fraction of an inch. "You go see her to reopen those wounds of yours and have them healed permanently. Tell her your feelings your story and go tie those loose ends. Whether you re-store your relationship or not doesn't matter. Fairly speaking I don't care if you will ever meet with her again after this, I prefer that anyway, but if talking things out with her will release you of your nightmares then I will do everything in my power to make that happen."
After his words silence fell inside the room. Neither of us exchanged a word, our eyes locked on each other as he waited for my response. I closed my eyes and inhaled a gulp of air to release it right out again. The reluctance that I had before came out together with my shuddering breath. "Alright," I started to open my eyes again. Giving a curt nod I continued, "I will go meet with her, but if everything goes wrong then I'll hit you." I said warningly.
Using both hands he ruffled my hair while releasing husky chuckles. "Everything will be fine, trust me."
Grumbling, I slapped his hands away and tried to smooth down my hair strands that went errant, sticking out in different directions as if electric currents was running through them. A smile pithily washed over my face. He was right. It was time for me to put an end to all of this. It was time for me to stop running away from her and start walking towards her.
"And with that said let's go shopping." Mark said, straightening his back up again.
Confusion took over my face-expression. "Shopping? Why?"
"To buy you some clothes of course!" Mark said it like it was a matter-of-fact. "You have to show her how well you are living right now especially after you had to show your bloodied rigid appearance in front of her yesterday. I can't have my woman looking like that can I?"
I rolled my eyes. "I am not your woman and what's wrong with the clothes that I am wearing right now." I said, using my hand to gesture towards my outfit that was attached to my body.
Mark lets his eyes glaze over my body up and down and said plainly. "You look like you're going to work."
"I thought that that was the point. It's a work day remember?" I reminded him.
"And I am the Co-CEO remember?" He retorted back. He then crossed his arms in front of his puffed-up chest and announced, "And as your boss I commend you to not work today and go shopping with me." Using his haughty posture, arms still crossed he pointed down at me with his index finger.
Mystified, I blurted out without thinking. "What are you? A child?" Which only earned a smug grin from Mark. Staring at him for a second I exasperated as I shook my head; having the feeling that Mark won't back down on this. "Fine, let me send Cher a quick message that I won't be coming to work today- ah"
Talking while letting my hands roam over my body, patting myself down in search for my phone to realize that I didn't had it on me. I had no clue what happened to it after I was drugged by one of Casper's lackeys. He most likely already got rid of it.
My arms went limp on my sides as I muttered petulantly with my head slumped down, "Great." Only to have a phone appear in front of my face. Obtuse, I blinked at it before raising my head, looking at Mark who was holding the phone.
"Here." He said and I took it. I turned the phone around in my hand to glaze over it. The phone was new and a different model compared to my old one. Unlocking the phone screen, I was met with a background picture which I used on my previous phone. Scrolling a little bit through it I found pictures that I had taken over the years and all my chat history.
"How? When?" I started flabbergasted only to close my mouth again as I wasn't able to sort out my thoughts, my fingers still scrolling around to find even older data.
