It's a fact that you can't help who you fall in love with. And for Rosaline Davenport and him, it definitely shouldn't have been each other.
Because, sometimes, love stories have blood on them.
[warning: this is the mother of all slow-burns]
•...
Oops! This image does not follow our content guidelines. To continue publishing, please remove it or upload a different image.
【 43.
Forty-three
Muhafiz 】
▄▄▄▄▄▄▄▄▄▄▄▄▄▄▄▄
[ Muhafiz • protector/defender ]
▄▄▄▄▄▄▄▄▄▄▄▄▄▄▄▄
ZACHARY DOESN’T FALL asleep after staying up the entire night talking to Rose, both of them having been awake long enough to witness the sunrise.
Funnily enough, that’s exactly what it felt like earlier to watch Rose smile in such an awestruck manner while her eyes filled with tears of joy—like the sun that once sunk inside her heart rose up again in the moment she learnt of Felix’s fate.
He realises he witnessed two sunrises this morning, and Zachary instantly knows it’s the one that occurred inside Rose that has seared itself into his memory.
Thinking about anything memory-related reminds him of Rose saying she would erase the one of Felix from that night ten years ago if she could.
God, those words made his heart jolt in his chest when she uttered them.
Does that mean Rose doesn’t mind forgetting the traumatic events of her life? Does that mean she’ll actually be okay with not knowing about Palm Street?
Zachary presses his lips into a hard line, thumb and index finger pinching the bridge of his nose as he slips into deep thought. If… if Rosaline would prefer never being reminded of what happened twenty-four years ago, then… then is his presence by her side only threatening to burst open that dam in her subconscious? Is he a walking, talking, breathing trigger of her childhood trauma? Is his involvement in her life doing more harm than good in the long run?
Because if the suspicion that planted itself in his mind since the night Isabelle visited him turns out to be right, then there’s no bigger trigger than Zachary himself.
Maybe Wynona Williams will get back to him with a negative response. Maybe she’ll tell him his suspicions don’t have any element of truth to them.
Zachary glances at Rose from where he’s perched on the edge of the bed. She’s asleep on the camelback, tucked into the corner with her arms hugging her knees and her back against the armrest, her entire body leaning sideways into the sofa’s back.
She fell asleep somewhere during the comforting silence that followed after her hug, where she spent several minutes just basking in the half-light of the sunrise with a tired, content smile on her face. Zachary was lost deep in thought himself and when he turned to face her, found her sound asleep with a sense of calm she didn’t carry before.
