The Mechanic

FORTY TWO

A/N
Hello, hello, hello, how low 👀
It's been ages, I know. My deepest apologies for being ghost for so long. Things are tough. But I'm baaaaack. Let's have a quick recap before we proceed. 😊

PREVIOUSLY ON THE MECHANIC

Despite the fact that Hunter and his pals are practically lurking around Jade, she still chose to move to New York with Harry. They decided to live together, and Jade was quite hopeful that things would be okay, even though Harry is still stuck in the messy world.
However, Harry's secrets poured before Jade's eyes when she decided to gave Hunter a visit. She learned that Harry had been married before to Melissa, Louis' sister, who eventually died after a year of being married to Harry. Drug overdose took Melissa's life, and Louis blamed Harry for her death. Truth is, Harry blamed himself too.
Shattered, Jade decided to leave him, but changed her mind when Harry told her the whole story. She felt sorry for him, for all the shit he had to endure, so she swallowed her pride and stayed, even if she was extremely hurt.
She tried to live with it, tried to convince herself that Harry had valid reasons to hide a part of his past. But one night, while she was in Harry's auto shop, she found a heart-shaped box, which contained all these little memories of Harry and Mel. It affected her in a way she couldn't explain. Something seemed...off.

Is she just being paranoid over a simple box? Being unreasonably jealous? Or maybe her guts are right and there's still something she needs to know?

Time to find out.

***

"Angel, are you alright?"

I lifted my eyes from my plate and gave Harry a nod. "I'm okay," I said, then brought my attention back to the food before me.

"You don't like the pasta?" Harry asked again, placing his fork down.

"It's good. I like it," I replied, followed by a big yawn that I failed to control. "Sorry."

Worry gleamed in his eyes. "You're overworked. You've been working for fifteen hours for two weeks now."

He was right. My job had been demanding lately and kept me in the office until ten or eleven in the evening. It was tiring, but I didn't mind. Harry was mostly out anyway because of his job, so I was always alone in our apartment. I'd rather stay in the office and make extra money than pace back and forth in our bedroom and worry about his safety. Work was my destruction. A destruction that I badly needed ever since I stepped into Harry's auto shop and found the heart-shaped box.

An ugly sensation soured in my stomach upon remembering that night. I promised myself I wouldn't think about the box or about Mel that much. She played a huge role in his life. He wouldn't just forget her, and I understood that.

But sometimes, like tonight, I would find myself breaking my own promises. I knew it was stupid to be bitter over a dead person's personal belongings, but a part of me felt uneasy about that box. Weird, I know.

A part of me was in doubt.

A part of me was doubting Harry.

I wasn't sure if he'd been completely honest with me, or if he had another secret under his skin. I wondered if he had another scar that was waiting to be sliced open again. And dear God, what would it be this time?

"Angel."

Harry's voice filtered through my pool of unwanted thoughts. I snapped my eyes back to him. "Did you say something?"