Bands of the Unpaid Dowry

Chapter 16

"Millicent." Jace's lost voice distractingly whispered as he stumbled through the road to the opposite side where a massive crowd was forming. People had their phones out, filming instead of calling for help. His disgruntled steps caused him to bump into people while his eyes furiously through the ground to find where she was. His breaths came out in harsh pants. His entire environment was lost to him; everything was muffled and discolored until his eyes fell on her, sitting on the paved pathway, a few steps from the car that had crashed into the motorcycle. There were spots of red on her pink dress. Her legs were propped up, hands splayed on her ears and her face was tucked into the cocoon that she had created. Millicent was shaking like a feather. Jace saw a man try to shake her out of whatever stupor she was in but she did not even raise her head. With his heart beating wildly and anxiously, he rushed to squat in front of her. The people who surrounded them began to whisper.

"Little M." Jace called her in a soft voice. She stopped shaking immediately she heard him, but her head was still hidden from him. Jace cautiously put his hand on her shoulder.

"Bro, you should send her to the clinic." He heard one of the spectators comment but everything they said was like smoke drifting liberally in the air to him. His stormy eyes were searching and waiting impatiently to see the doe ones he was used to seeing.

"Little M." He repeated and felt her shiver. Very slowly, her head lifted from the crook of her arm. Jace slowly exhaled in relief. His eyes dragged along the length of her body to reassure himself that she was not hurt anywhere. Those bright doe eyes were now dull and absent like she did not recognize him. He lifted his hand up to her cheek and seeing no change in her expression, he slowly guided her into his embrace. He felt her breathing stutter as his hands gripped onto her tightly coaxing her to come out of the darkness she was in. After about two minutes he sensed her hands grip onto his shirt, and he finally visibly relaxed.

Jace untangled himself after close to five minutes, when he felt her body shake uncontrollably. She was weeping and he could feel his heart break. Whatever was happening to her was more than the accident that had taken place in front of her.

"Let's go home." He wrapped his arm around her and gradually eased her into an upright position. That was when he saw the pool of blood that she sat next to and how people were dispersing after the victims were sent off in taxis. There was no sign of any police yet so he led her peacefully back to the car, strapping her in and driving her back. Millicent did not utter a word, still holding a lost look with streaks of tears dried on her face.

When he led her to the bathroom to clean her up, she still did not say anything. He wiped off the spots of blood from her and urged her to go change. He had not seen her in such a state and it frightened him that she was in such pain and it frightened him at how much he cared. He wanted to do anything he could to wipe off that look from her. So, though he was currently in bed trying to sleep, he could not because he worried about what was going on in the room adjacent to his. Jace shot up in bed when he heard the light knock on his door in the stillness of the house. He immediately descended and crossed the room to open the door where Millicent stood timidly with an aching and exhausted expression on her face. There were pools of tears gathered under her eyes.

"Little M?" Jace implored with a soft murmur. He saw her shuffle on her feet dressed in nightwear. When she failed to respond, he became increasingly worried and the crease appeared on his forehead. He called her again. "Millicent?" Millicent's eyes, which were looking at her bare feet, drifted up to look into his dark eyes.

"I'm sorry. I can't sleep." Jace simply held open his door and opened his hand to her. She looked at the open invitation for a second before steadily slipping her smaller hand into his. Jace led her to his bed, pulling open the duvet and she quietly slipped in. Slipping in himself, he slid down and turned to face her. She was staring even after ten minutes; her eyes were open and staring.