His Queen (18+)

Chapter IX

THE GHOST

I gave you all of me,
my blood, my sweat, my heart and my tears.
Why don't you care?

***

CHAPTER IX

*****

NOTHING HAD CHANGED much in two years. The road back home was the exact same as I remembered it, and if I wasn't with Daniel, I probably still would've been able to find my way on my own.

When Daniel had said the driver was here, he meant the driver was there for me. All he did was guide us towards the black range rover before walking off in a different direction and getting into the driver's side of a different black car.

I remembered then how he didn't like being driven places when we were together. Again, nothing had changed.

Teo continued to sleep during the car ride. His face was pressed to my chest and he held on tightly to my top as he always tended to do when he slept on my body. This time, his grip was extra tight, pulling my strap down my shoulder but I couldn't find it in me to make him let go.

He had been through so much.

The driver didn't talk to me which was good because I didn't want him to. The whole two hour drive was filled with silence and the occasional whimper or snore from Teo.

I took that time to reflect on what I was doing, what I had done and what I was prepared to do. I really couldn't trust that Daniel wouldn't hurt me while I was with him but I had to choose between the lesser of two evils.

Daniel was the devil I knew and whoever was after me was the angel I didn't know so it only made since. And this angel was turning out to be a devil. At least, in some way, I had been with Daniel long enough for his actions to become predictable. He didn't get angry easily, but if he was that was when I needed to leave.

I needed to be on my 'best behaviour' because if I wasn't, I would have to resort to using Teo against him and that was the last thing I wanted to do. I knew Daniel needed Teo since he was his only son. It took a lot of stress of finding a wife off him. If he was willing to be there for his son, then I wanted Teo to enjoy having his father around.

Even if his father was the worst human to roam the earth. I would suck up my resentment and pretend it was okay because as much as I liked to deny it, he did have a father and he was very much alive. As long as he was willing to cooperate, I was willing to give co-parenting a try. Forgiving him for what he had done to me was a completely different matter that I wasn't even going to address.

The car rolled to a stop, effectively drawing me out of my thoughts as I looked out the window. The house before me looked very familiar and only brought a feeling of dread to my stomach even though this was the place that I called home for six years.

Now that I looked back, Daniel and I weren't the only toxic people here. It was like a curse had been placed on the estate.

I didn't believe in superstitions, but I still couldn't help but hold Teo to me a little tighter as I stepped out of the car. Even though nothing was different in the way things looked, I hoped and prayed that everything had changed in the way people acted because I had surely changed in my time away.

And I hoped for the better. But if assholes could still get the best of me–

“Am I seeing ghosts or is this real?” A low voice had broken me out of my reverie. I stood up straighter and turned around to meet the eyes of Margeretta who was staring at me with an expressions of shock on her face. “It can't be... Is that Araceli?”