Whisper of the lies and pasts👥🍂

Ch7-Shadows of Alex's pasts🌑👣

The past doesn't go away just because you try to outrun it. It follows you, quietly, waiting for the moment when you're weakest. And when it strikes, it doesn't just hurt... it changes you.

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The night air was cold, but the warmth of their shared space lingered between them. Lavender sat quietly beside Alex, her hand gently resting on his, fingers intertwined like a silent promise. She could feel his tension, the subtle tremble in his movements, the way his breathing had shifted into something more labored, more heavy. They were in the same park,-a place now charged with too many memories, traumas of their pasts..

After everything they had shared, Lavender knew that the silence wasn't just a space between words-it was a heavy moment, a waiting room for confessions long buried. She felt his pain, his turmoil, but she hadn't yet heard the story he needed to tell. She could see the torment on his face, the shadows in his eyes, the regret and the fear in his motion and it was then that she knew: if she didn't let him speak, those shadows would consume him. Would kill him.

"Alex, talk to me," Lavender's voice broke the quiet, soft but insistent. "What happened? What did you do? What's your past"?

He turned to her, eyes filled with an intensity that spoke volumes of regret, of battles fought within himself. For a moment, there was hesitation. It was as though he were trying to decide whether to let her in, whether to allow her to see the man behind the carefully constructed façade. But there was something in Lavender's steady gaze that made him feel he could finally be vulnerable.

"I was my father's son," he began, voice tight. "That's how I define myself. That's how I let the world define me. That's how my past defines me"..

Alex's words echoed in the quiet night, and the weight of them settled on Lavender's chest like a stone. She knew that his relationship with his father was complicated, but she had no idea it was this deeply rooted in his psyche.

"Richard..." Alex's voice faltered for a moment, a bitter twist curling on his lips. "He wasn't a good man, Lavender. He wasn't even a human sometimes. Or, he wasn't a human in front of family"..

Lavender stayed silent, letting him continue, her grip tightening around his hand to know more.

"He taught me everything I know. But not the good stuff-the hard stuff. He taught me to be cold. He taught me that love was a weakness. That kindness was a joke. He made me see the world in black and white. No in-betweens. No space for mercy. Only as games.."

Alex looked away, his face hardening. The memories were too fresh, too painful. Lavender felt the tension in his shoulders as if he was trying to hold himself together, piece by piece.

"Richard made his money in ways most people would call unforgivable," Alex continued, bitterness and guilt dripping from each word. "Deals with criminals, manipulation, and deceit. But I did it all willingly. I followed in his footsteps. He made me the puppet and he became the player, he showed me light to the worst and I followed that. I thought it was the only way. I thought if I did it all just like he did-if I became just like him-then maybe I'd finally earn his approval. Maybe he'd finally love me."

There was a brokenness in Alex's voice as he spoke, and Lavender's heart ached for the boy who never got the love he deserved, the man who carried that unhealed wound. The man who was dying for love..

"He used me, Lavender," Alex whispered, his voice barely audible. "I did all of his dirty work, all the shady deals. I was just a pawn in his game. And I let myself be used because I thought I had no other choice. I thought if I became ruthless, cold like him, I could survive."