It was always written ✔️

Chapter 36

Birds chirping, and the distant rumble of cars is what allowed Alayna to assure it was definitely the day.

There was also the window, that had become her lone accomplice, it was guarded by steel bars but past them she could see a tree, an ash tree specifically.

She would watch it float in the wind, allowing the wind to take control, full control. Something she wasn't fond of. Especially as of now, when her fate lied in the hands of her lawyer. The one she pulled out of retirement to fight her case.

A jingle of keys turned her attention to the solid steel door of her holding cell, where a female officer stood. The woman's stern stare worried her, as if she had the power to determine whether she was guilty or not. Her straightened lips seemed as if she had never smiled. Her posture immaculate, and not a hair out of place.

"Come, you've got someone to meet you."

Alayna obliged immediately, pushing herself off the floor and walking through the door that had held her a captive, for the past week and trailing behind the lady whose name she couldn't remember.

They moved through passages of different sizes, making sudden right turns and walking through big metal double doors which had to be locked after every use.

The cuffs on her wrists stuck as a reminder of what that stupid boy had done.

These were the days she was supposed to resting, not locked up in a dingy prison in Karachi.

They were lead to the meeting room, where she saw Mikhail sat with a styrofoam cup in front of him. His face aged, his hair a mess, his eyes bled red with unrest.

When he saw her, he immediately stood up and pulled her into an embrace.

One hand firm on her lower back and the other in her hair, keeping her close to his chest.

They sat in their perspective seats, and looked. Eyes locked, staring into a future they both dreamed of and now coming to terms with the fact that it was possible that it wasn't going to happen.

"We've got solid evidence, you've got a chance." He breathed out.

He pulled through his golden locks.

"Don't leave, Mikhail." Was all she could mutter.

He looked up immediately, eyes widened, as if he had been caught red handed committing a crime.

"Yana-"

"Don't call me that if you're going to do it regardless."

"Don't leave me Mikhail." She whimpered, glossy eyes and a sunken heart.

She could tell, his demeanour, she had experienced it before, his unsettling stare, his awful small talk, it was just like last time, only it wasn't. They were married. They had a kid. They had a built a life, and now it was crumbling.

For the third time, she begged, "Don't leave me."

His only reaction was to gulp and look away.

"Alayna, I love and have only loved you. I have made sure that the shadows of our past won't catch and I'm ensuring that." With that final word, he left.

She watched his back, as he walked to the doors, pausing before he stepped outside, he turned and smiled. And suddenly they were back to where their story had began, the stolen glances and hidden smiles.

It was all fading now.

*

She sat between the wall and the only woman she had acquainted herself in this hell hole.