When Love Falls Silent

Liam

I have been avoiding her since that day. She didn't approach me either except sometimes when we bumped on our way home from the office. I usually see her having lunch alone and so did I, I eat alone these days. The same workspace is making things difficult for both of us. We avoid each other yet somehow get together either for work or on our way home. It's hard to pretend now.

She seems fine though. She is sad but not heartbroken but for me it's different. My heart shattered every time I saw her. You can't avoid someone standing at your door trembling in fear, hairs messed up, and breathing hard. She is standing looking at me trying to act like she is fine but I can see she is barely holding herself. I tried to act rude again but I couldn't. I can't leave her standing there. I don't know what happened to her but it doesn't look normal.

I pushed the door and dragged her inside. She was trembling which was unusual. She sat on the couch and I sat on the opposite side facing her trying to guess what happened. She threw the papers on the table causing a thud to spread across the room. For the first time, my eyes fell on the papers she carried here which were earlier all focused on Grace only.

I drew attention to the papers taking in what they were about. It looked like office papers but had no idea how they concerned me. I leaned forward and took them and my heart seemed to skip a beat and my vision blurred out of thinking what would happen next. All truths I have been hiding until now are going to be unfolded in this room right now, and I don't know how to picture it. I did not take my eyes off the papers not because there was something new written there but because I was unable to face that one girl, one innocent girl sitting across from me with questions I had no answers to.

I slightly turned my head upwards and saw her pleading and fearful eyes looking at me. Don't ask me don't ask me, my head keeps saying but we can't go back from here. It's already happening. Do you know what good can hiding do anyway?

I don't know what's going to happen today but tomorrow I will make sure to use my office and project manager to give these papers to Grace for analysis. But for now let's just focus on Grace who is just about to break into pieces after hearing what happened with him in the past, the past they shared. So, Grace, I am about to break you with my words right now right here within moments and I know I can't stop it.

"It's true. He went to prison." I said looking straight into her eyes. She looks more like a status sitting than a normal living person. She has the right to know the truth but it will only break her further and she has already faced enough in past years. These events shall open a new wound inside of her when she has not recovered from the already present one.

Life has been unfair to her in a lot of ways. I see her sobbing but still she sat there eyeing me wanting more. Wanting more would break you more Grace, I am warning you. But I don't say it aloud because we are on the edge now and she won't listen to me. From now onwards what's going to be between us will be real and no hidden secrets.

"For murder crime," I uttered and took a deep breath. I never once took my eyes off Grace not because I wanted to see her world crashing in front of me but because I am so damn worried about her. I know she won't show me her scars but that does not mean they are not there. I can feel it even if she doesn't say anything.

Her hollow eyes pierced through mine before a tear fell from her eye yet she remained calm, she wasn't still she pretended to. "How?" she spoke at last, words on the edge of shattering but she kept it as composed as she could. As soon as I was about to tell him all the truth, she stood up saying "Don't bother telling now. I can figure it out myself." I stood to stop her from leaving though I know it's all in vain. She is not only upset about him going to jail but also mad at me for not telling her this earlier. She won't understand that I did what I did to save her from more heartbreaks but in this process, I ended up getting hurt myself because from that moment on we don't have anything left, she hates me as much as she regards me. She won't be able to understand my reasons and I never would blame her. It's just I tried protecting her and I lost.

I grabbed her arm but she shook it as soon as I tried to put her on hold. "Just one thing. Answer me one thing I wanted to ask you." She stared at me like I was the most vulnerable person alive. "From when you had it in your knowledge?" Why of all the times it has to be me with her arguing and fighting about something from the past. "2 years... but " yeah I knew it she wouldn't listen to me because she didn't let me complete before she hit me on my chest which caused me to take few steps back and then she left.

That's how it ended. It ended with her. Never mind, she was never mine anyway. But now she won't get away from me she can't. I lost my balance for one second, but that doesn't mean I won't stop her from going. I pushed past the door and there I saw her going down the road. Not far enough for me to stop so I ran there just as I overtook her and she bumped into me hard. "I know where he is now Grace." She eyed me hard but I don't care what she thinks of me right now. What's important is that she stays with me even when she is facing someone from the past. What's important is that I should be there because I know how much she is going to break herself from now onwards.  "I know where Daniel is".