𝐑𝐞𝐢𝐠𝐧 𝐎𝐟 𝐂𝐡𝐚𝐨𝐬 [𝟏𝟖+] ✓

34

Well, I disappeared for too long, but hey this chapter has tea and it's 4.5k, so I hope you'll enjoy.

━━━━━━━━━♚━━━━━━━━━

Katrina Diaz

"A day doesn't pass without Miguel regretting his parenting, Kate," said Mrs Lee, blowing the steam off her tea. "He wants to make it up to you in any way he can."

Gulping down my hot chocolate, I gazed out of the window at the snow-covered roads and trees, gazing at everything that had changed since my childhood, although there wasn't much I could recollect about this place.

I was in Frostburgh, living at my dad's and Mrs Lee's new home. Set behind a gated driveway, Mrs Lee's house was an ancient, stone-dressed, red-brick, two-storeyed house connected with an abandoned house on one side and facing the road on the other side. With bespoke interiors, the cosy house consisted of a generously proportioned reception room and two impressive bedroom suites on each floor. Every wall was decorated with aesthetic paintings and photos, unlike the cold house Matlida Diaz resided in.

After the night things went down, I had flown to Arkney and had booked a ticket to France to fool Hayden into thinking I would go there when in fact I had boarded a ship to Frostburgh in a disguise leaving my phone behind with a fake passport and fake visa, which I had managed to get from a man on the campus.

Lately, since my dad had been apologising a lot for being an absent parent in my life, I had asked him for a favour — to not tell Hayden about my whereabouts while I stayed under his roof. And he had agreed, giving me moments of peace I needed to gather all the pieces that Hayden had shattered.

My bloody ruin, Katrina.

How did I ruin his life? By merely existing? By being trapped in the bathroom? By screaming for help? Was this why Diaval was right?

Eyes stinging with tears, I wrapped my blanket around myself, accepting the soothing warmth the furry fabric offered.

"He is sorry for being an absent parent."

"I'm over it, Mrs Lee," I whispered, "If he would have seen my scars, he would have got me help despite my mum micromanaging. He never saw them. I won't fault him for it."

It was the truth. He was never home because of my mum's infidelity and she never gave a fig about me to tell him about my mental illness. A mental illness that I hid from all of my friends, scared that they would think I was a crazy witch. A mental illness that no one saw except Hayden.

Yet, that very man wished I was dead.

You ruined his life. For eleven years, he wondered how his daughter would look if you died...

Could I fault him for it? For wanting to see his baby alive instead of me? Who could fault him for that? But just if he knew everything from the start, he should have maintained his distance and not married me in the first place. Why did he lead me on, give me signs and help me when he knew what would happen, anyway? Or was it all in my head?