Brother's Best Friend || l.h.

Chapter 13

-Ashley-

"What's a pretty girl like you wdoing sitting out here all alone?"

-

I felt my entire body go cold.

I hadn't heard his voice in what seemed like a very long time. This voice was the creator of my vicious nightmares that I had only barely been able to escape. This voice was the voice that threw harsh words at me every day for a good three years of my life, the voice that brought me down. I'm finally able to get back up again, and it comes back.

"What do you want," I spoke without looking at him. He laughed darkly and slid on the bench next to me, throwing his arm around the back of where I was sitting.

"Oh, I just wanted to enjoy the company of Ashley Swan. Is that too much to ask?" He said. I nodded, but didn't speak. I was still sitting straight, my body rigid and my hands balled into fists. He laughed again and scooted farther away from me. I was confused.

"How did you find me?" I asked, afraid of the answer. I looked into into his hazel eyes and cringed away from him instinctively. I saw his eyes flash with something before his face fell. He looked away and spoke.

"It isn't hard to find someone who is dating one of the most famous boys in Australia," he said, his voice holding a tinge of regret.

"Okay, that still doesn't explain why you would come to me. I hate you. I don't want to see you. Ever. I'm not really getting why you don't understand that," I said. Brody's eyes flashed with hurt before they went blank again. He nodded. I could see him cracking. his dark aura vanishing.

I wasn't expecting that reaction.

Still, I kept my ground and stared menacingly at him until he answered.

"I deserve that," he paused for a moment, "I wanted to come her to apologize for everything that I did to you. Everything that I said, all of that,"

I stared at him.

He sighed and pulled out his wallet, I watched as he searched through it before pulling out a few photographs. The first was a beautiful girl with dark-brown ringlet curls and tanned skin. She had shocking blue eyes. In the photo, she's largely pregnant.

"This is my girlfriend, Lauren. This was about a year ago. She's pregnant with my baby in this picture," he pulls another one around. This held a small toddler with dark hair and hazel eyes-eyes that matched Brody's.

"This is my daughter, Isabella. She's almost two now, but she is a handful. She is bouncy and bubbly and beautiful, just like her mother," he admired the photo before he slowly pulled his wallet back out and sliding the photos back into the side. He dug around in his pocket some more before he pulled out a tiny square box.

"I am planning on proposing to Lauren, officially making her a Welsh. But, I couldn't do it until I cleared my conscious. I had to track you down and apologize, not that I ever expect you to forgive me, before I popped the question. I couldn't marry another woman without knowing that you knew how sorry I was for testing you the way I did," he explained slowly. I took a second to take a look at him.

He looked much different from the last time I saw him. He was cleaner, his appearance. His hair wasn't shaggy as it used to be. Instead, he had a head full of carefully styled hair. He was wearing a white T-Shirt and khaki pants, sporting white Converse. I took in the change, and finally, I accepted it.

"I will never be able to forget what you did to me, and the months that followed. But, I am willing to forgive you, on the condition that you don't ever even think about hurting this girl like that. You have a beautiful family, Brody. I wouldn't want you to ruin that over your temper and drinking," I spoke quietly, still looking at him. He looked up at me and smiled softly, sending a small smile my way. I smiled back and slowly, and hesitantly, wrapped my arms around his neck, hugging him.