Mean Looking Sweetheart

CHAPTER 10

Avalyn's POV.

I stood in front of the window of his office and was looking out when he sat the cup of coffee down at his table, the same coffee I refused to have moments ago.

"I know you will hate to hear this right now, but you're not doing the right thing. Think of the dangers you are putting this child in by leaving these parameters." He said as he sat on his seat. I turned around and noticed his eyes, somehow tired and probably deprived of sleep. "She's not safe here either." His eyes changed as though pained by my words. He knew I was talking about the violence he showed me years ago.

"Look me in the eyes Ava, and tell me you believe I would hurt the child I saved myself. Or that I would hurt you in any way." He leaned forward and held my gaze. So he remembered the child. The 5 year old he talked about that night. She was the same child, Maria. How much horror the child have seen, yet she smiled like an angel, pure from those evils.

His gaze was soft as though begging to be trusted, yet mine was piercing. "You can hurt me, any moment and I do not trust you around us." He was clever enough to notice how I excluded Maria. "Ava, I would never hurt you..." His voice was soft and I was actually getting used to hearing only soft tone from him, never less.

"We are leaving the country. I have made my plans. And you are no one to interfere. Though I apologise for not being able to defend you anymore. I can not risk my daughter or Avery. I was foolish to step out in front of other's target." I stepped towards the table and took a sip from the cup before putting it back, because I was feeling my head pulsing with stress and tiredness.

He suddenly stood up and took my cup from my side and put it in front of him as he sat back down again. He looked almost eager as he shifted the cup until the side I drank from came in front of his and he drank from right there. The center of my palms tingled and my hands curled at the sight of him. I hid my hands behind me because I did not want him to see the effect that gesture had on me.

"I should have protected you earlier. Maria would have been so scared." He said as he put the cup back down. His eyes genuinely sad and concerned. "She was." I said and he nodded at that. " You adopted her. I would have guessed it, if I knew you any better." He said but I didn't reply.

"Somehow you were always kind. That's probably why everyone in this house loves you so much. I had to face hell from Louis, Anna and her son, after you left. I had to eat out for months in fear of Louis poisoning my food." I couldn't help but smile at that. I missed them. And I always will.

"They felt like family." I blurted out before I could stop myself. "They still are. We all are, so please stay, Ava." He tried to convince me which angered me more. "I am leaving. And no one is changing that." I almost shouted but he didn't say anything.

"There is no where you can be safe. You must stay here to be safe. There is no other way of doing it." He said this almost like a robot with no emotions but then he took a deep breath and continued with a voice full of softness and emotions.

"That's what i should be saying, but it would be a lie if I said this. Because that's not the only reason why I'm insisting that you stay." What is up with him? Why is he being so honest now? What can he gain by this?

"I have never been selfish in my life.." He said as he stood up and walked across the table. He stood in front of me and continued, "But this once, please let me be. We need you here. I need you here." His voice was barely a whisper at the end.

"You had me once, and you lost me with no regrets at that time." I was relieved, at the fact that my voice didn't quaver one bit.

His eyes screamed of regret, desperate to hold onto something to make me stay. That was probably the first time, I was able to read his eyes with this clarity. But years have passed, what can he possibly do? I tried walking away towards the door but stopped with a jolt.