• Rose In The Dark • (GxG)

Chapter Thirty-Five

Omniscient

"There's something else that you should know..."

Only the next day after sharing a bed, for the first time in over two weeks, the coming of night surged inescapable thoughts for Milan. She had realized, in the last twenty-four hours, that she had yet to be completely honest with Noah.

The accident had interrupted her. And now, she could feel that it was time to come entirely clean.

In bed for the night, the older woman resided next to her, reading, as she herself was on her phone, texting Aspen. Having heard her, Noah glanced in her direction, the expression on Milan's face prompting her to close her book.

A sigh eluded her then, for by the looks of it she could tell that whatever was coming she wasn't about to like.

"I'm listening..."

Watching the way her lover's face was beginning to go from relaxed and at ease to serious, Milan concealed a grimace. Not breaking the contact between their eyes, she spoke soft yet clear, steeling her inner nerves for some sort of accountable courage.

"When I went to the hospital the first time, Aspen was there with me.... I asked her not to say anything to you either, even though she advised me to." Trying her best not to look away, Milan drew a breath, her eyes wandering Noah's features since she had yet to react. "And I did the same thing with Lisa and Brynn, at the funeral... I asked that they didn't tell you, because at first I had no intention of you finding out."

Silence, filled with tension, circled the room.

Not even moving for a moment as she registered those words and let them sink in, Noah eventually exhaled through her nose, her chest deflating as her eyes shut. Milan wasn't sure what all she was expecting in response, but it surely wasn't for the woman to almost smile as her head hung.

"You had no intention of me finding out..."

Her tone was mellow as she nodded to herself. A soft chuckle followed as her head shook before she sat back against the headboard, her eyes wandering the ceiling in a hint of disbelief.

"Noah..." Softness laced Milan's voice as she fought internally not to reach for her fiancé's hand, for she was certain the woman would pull away. "Honey I am so sorry-"

"You're sorry," Noah nodded to herself again, slowly and in a way that let Milan know forgiveness was not about to come easy. At all. "So, was I the only one who didn't know??" she looked at Milan, her eyes narrowing to match the growing irritation in her tone. "Who else knew about this, Milan? Your mother??"

The younger woman shook her head. "No, I-"

"Via? Ramzi? My mother???" Noah pointed to her own chest, and Milan shook her head even more.

"No, no one else knew- I didn't want anyone to know really, those were just the people around me at the times that it happened. It wasn't in my control-"

"But what you did afterwards, was..."

Upon that, Milan's head tilted as her eyebrows drew.

The stoic expression her fiancé wore scathed at her deeply as she regretted every choice she made to cause the look in Noah's eyes. Hurt and angered. All while her face remained impassive in a way that told Milan that her walls were beginning to rise.

"Please believe me when I say that I never meant to hurt you..."

"Hm," the woman's eyebrow twitched in a lift as she bit her lip, now staring ahead at the TV's black screen. "But you did anyway..."