𝐈𝐧 𝐲𝐨𝐮𝐫 𝐦𝐞𝐦𝐨𝐫𝐲 | Levi Ackerman X Reader

| CHAPTER 6 |

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You blinked a few times as you pulled yourself back from your thoughts and that memory. Your gaze remained locked onto the giant billboard, as its vibrant colors proudly displayed the Eldia Group logo against the gray skyline.

Memories began to flood your mind, as the bittersweet feeling of reminiscing that event reminded you of just how drastically things have changed over the past year.

With a soft sigh, your expression began to falter, and the weight of nostalgia suddenly settled heavily inside your chest. You couldn't shake it.

A year ago, there was still this naive hope inside of you that you were harboring, and you were blissfully unaware of what was swirling beneath the surface of your family's tendencies.

That lunch, even if back then it felt like any other get together, you could easily tell that the air was tainted somehow by the division your family was going through, and that you knew was deepening and worsening.

Things are a lot different now than they were back then and regret continued to gnaw at you  as you reflected on how you allowed it all to spiral out of control.

Your family has only gone further towards the path of greed of ambition, and they couldn't hide who they really were anymore, and what they truly wanted. Their masks were slipping more and more with each passing day.

There used to be laughter that filled the air, that was truthfully just an attempt in trying to liven up the dark environment you were surrounded in, and now it was just replaced by whispers of so much rivalry and deceit.

You haven't talked to your cousins as much either since then. Somehow, things drifted away on their own and conversations became scarce, and each interaction felt like it was tainted with taint that you had no idea where it came from. It happened from one day to another, and it still puzzles you to this day.

That was yet another reason. To fill the absence of the lack of communication you held with the few people you actually got along with, you isolated and shielded yourself from the toxic web and everything you knew, which you began to assume was the very root of the problem, clinging to your strict and rigid work life.

You recognized that this wasn't a healthy choice. You weren't blinded or oblivious to that fact. But deep down you knew that you should reach out again, reconnect with those who felt like the only ones you could lean on, and be more open.

But what held you back from doing that before was the prospect of facing relatives who only relished and lived off of conflict, and fed off it.

You really didn't want to pretend anymore that you weren't surrounded by people who wished the worst for you, constantly. It was exhausting.

The alternative you chose meant you didn't have to feign happiness or gloss over their hurtful comments as if they didn't affect you at all, pretending it doesn't hurt. You were existing by your own terms, your own rules, and not by anyone else's. But sometimes you wondered if the solitude was really worth it.

The situation has only escalated since then, and it's worse now than ever because Grisha announced that he would soon declare who in the family would get his inheritance, including the entire conglomerate.

This just ignited a war within the family, and every gathering now felt like a war zone as your relatives are now pitted against each other and nothing was genuine.

Everything had a facade. There was an internal struggle for who would increase their power and legacy, and it was a battle of attrition against their own blood, and against people who were supposed to love and care about each other.