The Sebana Heir

Chapter 44

Ria slowly freed her from his to fold her arms and pretend she was rubbing her shoulders from the cold.

"I'm sorry," he said, "For being such jerk. To you......"

"Yea, well I don't usually make good first impressions," Ria replied.

"No, it wasn't because of that. It wasn't about you suddenly becoming a part of our family or....... hitting me with a mop the first time we met or the fact you previously looked like a fairytale witch-"

"Hey!" Ria said shoving him by the shoulder while he laughed to himself.

"I'm just joking. But really, I wasn't being miserable to you because of any of that..... It's just that, the more I got to know you, the more I was reminded of someone," he told her, "Someone who let me down and..... broke my heart."

"Oh," Ria knew right away that he was talking about his girlfriend, Rachel. "Whoever it is, they must've been pretty special to you once, to leave you so heartbroken."

"Yea, and what they did drove out the worst version of myself," he added, "Some things you just can't forget, right?"

"Yea. So we accept it. To move on. That's what I keep telling myself. But I always can't seem to do that," she replied. Her words made him think for a moment. "You know.................I don't know which hurts more? To be scarred emotionally, mentally or physically? I know I've had a taste of the last two but, how does it feel like.........to hurt...... in the heart?"

"You'll feel like........like you wished you had never had any feelings in the first place. Betrayed. Broken. Empty," he finally answered and was silent for a while "......... you're right." Ria looked up to him with a confused expression. "You're not Rachel........ you're different. And I shouldn't have treated you that way just coz you reminded me of her." She then remembered their conversation that other night in the kitchen. She was now gazing into his eyes and feeling a strange connection there. She wondered if he felt the same way too.

"Is that also why you never hung pictures of yourself in the hallways?" she asked.

"Yea," he answered sadly, "Ever since, I've never wanted to see a photo of myself anywhere on anything."

"Are you reminded of the emotions you felt back then when you see a photo of you?" Ria asked, "And leaves you hurting?"

"Exactly!" he exclaimed.

"Yea. That's the one thing that keeps me from wanting to think and talk about the past," Ria replied. "Coz of having to remember all that's taking me a long time to move on from."

"Yea," he answered, knowing that Ria knew exactly how he felt and could understand him. Although they had different stories, they both went through a hard time facing their pasts and are both trying to run away from it instead of accepting it.

"Hey! Who's up there?!" a man's voice was heard from the rooftop exit. It was a hotel worker who came up to check on one of the ventilation systems and he wasn't too pleased to see the teenagers there.

"We better get back," Ria stated, taking her steps away from him and making her way off the edge. Hayne heard her apologise to the man and give quite a good excuse for being up there before disappearing down the short staircase to the exit.

She walked ahead as fast as her feet could take her, she didn't want to look back while approaching the elevator. She went down seven floors and was about to enter her hotel room when she got a text from Lynn, asking to see her. So she changed direction and walked further down the hallway to get to Lynn's room. Lynn had wanted to show her the evidence and discuss the documents that they had stolen, earlier that day.