Broken Bonds

Chapter 69

Reine Parker

After hearing Roman's words, I realised that I cannot possibly avoid talking about it forever and leave it hanging just like that. If I was able to take a step forward towards forgiving Uncle Ezra, perhaps this time I could try doing it again.

As the night moved on, I found myself getting more and more restless no matter how hard I tried to get myself to sleep. Sleep was probably out of the question now since I had so much things going on in my head.

Walking downstairs to get myself some water, I noticed a faint light was turned on near the kitchen, with a silouhette back facing me. Alexander emptied his glass as he reached for the bottle for more.

"You're going to die before you turn 35." I muttered, as I moved a few steps forward to stop him from inhaling the whole bottle of whiskey. He looked stunned at me sudden appearance, and hurriedly pushed away the glass in front of him. 

"You...I...I'm sorry for that half-assed explanation earlier on." He stammered, though I was not sure if he was drunk or simply caught off guard that I would appear at this timing.

He stood up from the seat all of a sudden, heading towards the stove, he pulled out a pot from the cabinet and some ingredients. Cocoa powder, chocolate bar, milk.... Was he going to make hot chocolate?

I stood from afar and watched as he skilfully added the ingredients one after another, and within minutes, the hot chocolate was done before he poured them into two mugs and passed one to me.

We sat on the kitchen counter, but I decided to leave one seat in between us. Carefully sipping on the hot chocolate, the side of my lips curved into a small smile. Alexander was the one who first introduced me to hot chocolate and I could not stop drinking it ever since then. 

"Roman was right," I broke the silence between us, while Alexander turned his head towards me and listened attentively, I continued, "Instead of bottling up my own emotions, I should let them out. It's ridiculous how I expect you guys to just figure out everything miraculously without me saying and get angry when you guys don't. And it's not like you guys are the brightest." 

"Back then, I was angry, disappointed and felt betrayed. But never once have I hated any of you, because I couldn't bring myself to do it. It was unexpected and difficult to accept the fact that the people whom I trust wholeheartedly didn't trust me instead. It's still hard for me to accept it now, not to mention for a 5 year old kid."

Looking at him, I asked, "Have you ever thought of a possibility that it wasn't me? Did it ever occur to you?"

"It did. The thought flashed through my mind for a split second, but I chose to believe the things which I could hear and see with my own eyes." His eyes held guilt and regret more than ever.

"But yet you chose to turn a blind eye to my pleadings when I sat outside your room for the whole day, begging all of you to trust me." I could never forget that day, right after dad passed away, I saw the disappointment and anger swirling in their eyes. It was probably a memory which I could never erase, together with dad's unclosed eyes even till his last breath. 

"I'm not saying this so as to hear an apology from any of you, but rather to hope that you will feel the anger and disappointment that I'm holding, even till this day." I added.

Nodding his head solemnly, he replied, "I understand, I will make sure to convey this to the rest."

 Taking in a deep breath, I replied, "I've let go of the past, because I don't want to live with it for the rest of my life, thinking whether or not should I have cleared things up. And I'm sure...dad wouldn't want to see us living like that as well. I'm not saying that I will forgive and forget, but at least, I want to give it a try so that I wouldn't regret in the future. We've all been through hell all these years, and now everything is over, we should try to be happy again."

I smiled, with a lone tear escaping from the corner of my eye. Alexander cried too, though I couldn't see it well under the faint lighting. 

"Thank you, Avery. I...I will make sure to to not disappoint that." He rubbed his hands over his face as he sniffled slightly. 

"You should thank Roman instead, he encouraged me to speak my mind. Though he said he was going to bring me back to England with him." I chuckled. 

"Come to think of it, dad's death anniversary is in 2 days time. Do you want to go together and visit him?" I asked, with Alexander's head snapped up instantly.

Unable to believe his own ears, he asked again, "Wait, wait, wait. Can you repeat that again? I think I'm hallucinating." I rolled my eyes at him, as I shrugged, "Nothing, I've said nothing."

A wide smile plastered onto his lips as he stood up from his seat, "I'm going to announce this to all of them now."

I let out an amused breath as I shook my head at him. He's definitely not the Alexander Romano I know. 

this is the end to Broken Bonds! don't worry that this is not a satisfying ending or somewhat because I will be uploading some epilogues on them but this is basically the official ending to this story

It's been a really long way since I've started writing this book and I'm really really grateful for all the support that you guys have been showing me

I've never expected that this book would actually exceed the viewership as compared to my first book, a.k.a Be The One.

personally I would say that I ended the story this way because firstly, I'm a total sucker for happy endings, so of course I wouldn't want this to end in a bad note whereby Reine would be still boring anger towards her brothers. Secondly, I did notice that some of you have commented that she should not forgive them at all but tbh I did consider doing that as my ending. But NOPE! as much as the brothers were total jerks, they had changed their ways throughout the timeskip. (if you have not noticed that, that's fine too because I would be doing some editing for the whole story once I have more free time this year) And lastly, I do actually feel a tiny weeny bit of pity towards her brothers, considering the fact that they were also lied to and manipulated by their 'mother'. (come on, I believe you guys would feel that way too, right? tell me yes please)

I've really enjoyed my journey here with all of you through this story and I hope that I would be able to bring back better writings in future <3

Happy reading! -7/1/2023