Deeper Healing

60| Why Her?

Nikolai Coleman

"What the fuck did you do, Isla?"

Her pupils seemed to dilate, her face turning red as I strode into her apartment.

She backed away from me, her hands trembling and tears filling her eyes to the brim. I wasn't sure how, but she'd fucked up and done something so big she was panicking.

That thought only fuelled my panic.

"Where is he?" I asked her, striding to the living room. "Where the fuck is my brother?"

I couldn't find him in the living room, prompting me to move to the kitchen and dining room. "Alexander!"

Isla followed me with every step I took like a tail. "He's not here, Nikolai."

I turned to her sharply, startling her so hard she jumped. "Your mother already told me he was here so tell me where the fuck you're keeping him."

She wouldn't speak, just staring at me with tears spilling from her eyes. "Nikolai," her lips quivered.

"Move," I said gruffly, attempting to walk past her, but she blocked me from walking out of the dining room.

"We can talk about this, Niko."

"What the fuck is this and why do we need to talk about it?" I demanded. "Why does your apartment smell like bleach, for God's sake?"

She hated the strong scent of such detergents and right now, we were breathing a strong scent of bleach. I didn't want to even imagine what she could have used so much of it for.

"Stop yelling! You're going to make me panic and do things I don't want to."

I took a few steps towards her, following her glistening, darting eyes. "Things like what exactly, Isla? What happened to you and what is this?"

Talking to her was a waste of time. I probably had way more important things to do than focus on getting the truth out of her right now.

I shoved her aside, making my way towards the main hallway with the bedrooms. She wasn't having it, gripping me hard by my elbow and viciously dragging me backwards.

"We just end this right now," she said, grasping firmly onto my elbow while her eyes followed mine. "We could put an end to this madness and go back to our normal happy lives before all this bullshit came along."

"You mean the bullshit you initiated, to begin with, by relentlessly attacking and fucking up Leilan—"

Isla screamed hysterically, clutching her head before grabbing a vase from its stand and shattering it violently on the wall.

"Leilani! Leilani! Leilani!" she yelled in my face. "Why the fuck is everyone so fucking obsessed with her? What's so goddamn special about that fucking homewrecking bitch that drives everyone so crazy they can't stop talking about her?!"

I stepped closer to her, glass from the shattered vase crumbling beneath my shoes. "By fucking obsessed, are you referring to yourself because from where I'm standing, you're the deluded, hypocritical mastermind obsessed with everything she does and fights to ruin every good thing she has!"

"Stop defending her so much when you have no fucking idea how much chaos her presence has caused in my fucking life!"

At that moment, I realised Isla and I might have been best friends for years but I didn't really know her. I'd never seen her like this, swearing so much with her voice so highly pitched yet raspy with raw emotion.

Bitterness. Anger. Resentment.

It must have taken years of taming and shielding it within with a fake smile and false elegance until it'd gotten to a point so critical it drove her crazy.