Shattered

CHAPTER TWENTY-ONE

(Nina's Pov)

Running my hand through Coco's fur, I sighed as she meowed in response, her warm, lazy body sitting comfortably on my lap. It was Monday, a day I had decided to call in sick for work, knowing it would sound believable to Chris the pig. Mostly because I could barely concentrate yesterday at work, after having found out some heavy information about Lucas, and ended up throwing up in the back alley during my break.

Besides, it all worked out. Karla took over my shifts, needing the extra hours and fortunately for her, her mother would be happily looking after Sherry; her daughter, over the week, allowing her to take up those extra hours.

"Thank you so much for being sick." Karla had excitedly said to me. "Hope you get better... Just as long as it's not by tomorrow!"

Some friend she was.

Half-smiling at the memory, I closed my eyes and rested my head back in a more comfortable position. Sick wouldn't be the best word to describe how I felt, but nor would it be completely off from being the truth. I just wasn't exactly sure how I felt. All I could say confidently without any doubt whatsoever, was that Lucas' truth had effected me. 

Greatly.

Even though he had explained everything to me, shared how his life had been affected by this transition, I just simply couldn't get the image of him killing all of those men out of my mind. The blood, the violence - it just didn't look like something my Lucas was capable of doing.

But that was the thing my mind was having a hard time understanding. Nine years had passed between us. Lucas wasn't the same man, just like I wasn't the same naïve teenage girl he had last seen me as.

Swallowing, I closed my eyes as I tried not think about it all. However, that failed terribly as expected. It had been constantly playing on my mind, my thoughts revolving around Lucas, wondering why on earth this had to happen to him. And also sadly pondering, if we hadn't lost nine years between us, where we would be right now.

That's what pained me the most. Knowing we had lost all those years of love between us. 

But maybe things would have ended up going downhill naturally for us. Maybe Lucas would have ended up finding someone else, or maybe I'd end up finding someone else. Maybe we would have naturally just grown apart...

Or maybe we'd up end being together forever. Maybe we'd be closer than ever. Maybe we'd be living together... engaged... married... Maybe even have children. 

My heart thumped in pain the more I thought about it. Biting down on my bottom lip, I sighed deeply, once again asking the big man upstairs why our lives were like this. My thoughts were abruptly interrupted by the sound of my phone vibrating. Coco meowed lowly at the sound, knowing the hand petting her would temporarily disappear. Rolling my eyes at her, I picked my phone up and let my eyes skim over it.

'Hey... Are you home?' - Lucas.

My eyes raked over his text, feeling my stomach clench tightly.

'Yeah, I am... Why?' - Nina.

My question was answered when the sound of knocking on the door abruptly sounded in my ears. Biting my lip, I couldn't control my heart which jumped up in both excitement, whilst my mind frowned, not sure if it was a wise decision to be seeing Lucas so soon after the bomb of loaded news had been dropped.

Deciding to ignore my mind, I walked over to the door, straightening out my hair that was slightly wet from the shower I took earlier on in the day, before reaching out to unlock the door. Instantly, the hard to miss aroma of Chinese hit my nostrils, my stomach making a small noise that I could only pray wasn't audible to his ears.