𝐓𝐨𝐰𝐚𝐫𝐝𝐬 𝐓𝐨𝐦𝐨𝐫𝐫𝐨𝐰

13 - Damages.

He didn’t.

Oh sweet skies, no, he didn’t.

Elsa was so sure she would draw blood with how hard her teeth dug to her bottom lip, since she was getting Elgon’s cryptic message and it earned a terrible notion in her gut. Her lungs were struggling to breathe since she just couldn’t drink in all the strong, mocking tension the menace was making between her and... Was Claire shaking?

She knew. When she shouldn’t have.

Guilt bloomed greatly within her. Of course Claire deserved to know—but out of all the people that could tell her... It had to be him.

Not this way.

Her heart felt like it could be ripped out of her chest and it’s so damn painful. Cheeks flushed, she did everything beyond her willpower to avoid going horrendously hysterical. Her knuckles are already white with the way her fists were clenched, and soon she realized, her daughter wasn’t the only one who’s beginning to lose restraint.

Aiden cringed, and hesitated if he should run forward and just take the shivering little girl in his arms. But he can’t. Not now, at least. “Oh.. no, Claire...”

And there she finally heard it. A pitched cry, soon accompanied by an unsteady wail, and everything seemed to fall apart in Elsa’s perspective excruciatingly and she hated how every shattering piece mocked her. Her knees felt like buckling; and the wetness prickling her lashes was equivalent to the child silently trying to acknowledge the revelation.

Breathe.

The paper—the one that had St. Anne’s Orphanage imprinted on it—fell from one of the brute’s hands tantalizingly to the petrol scented ground, and Elsa’s eyes rushed to flicker over the ridged document and she didn’t even make an effort to pick it up.

Baby... Please breathe...

“W-what’s the other one?” Aiden scowled, and he bent down to snatch it because he knew the woman beside him obviously couldn’t, and his heart ached to kiss even a single tear away to let her know that he cares, unlike the smug blond crushing the cancer stick with his heel.

Elgon smirked, “That’s not for you to handle.”

A marriage contract.

“Simple deal. You sign, I give back your precious little Claire, Arendelle... And if you love your daughter enough,” Elgon huskily said, “Future Mrs. Davis.”

Bile threatened to rise up to her throat; but she had to keep going. She had to be strong. The situation’s still under her control, and everything is going according to the plan and just like how Heine has called it, she is luring in the hungry cat successfully. She just has to cope until then.

Elsa gritted her teeth, and she did her best to jam her hand inside her pocket to pull out a sole pen—not before Aiden caught her wrist and she found the fearful tears in his eyes and he was shaking his head that she wouldn’t... she wouldn’t do this. Elsa knew Aiden didn’t know the plan the executive director formulated via text during the drive, therefore the secretary was clueless.

Soon the ink met the space above the horizontal line, and there was no flaw with the intricate signature she left on the sacred page. And as Aiden’s heart grew numb every passing second, it finally broke.