Obsession (18+)

Chapter 26

Who was I without Jesse De Rose?

In my eyes I was a simple father—a bad one I'll easily admit. A simple man that had suffered the tragedy of his dead wife four years ago.

Tragedy is what everyone made it out to be, but was it really all that negative and bad that she had passed? To me it was far from that. Sure, maybe I had some sense of longing and had to raise my fourteen-year-old daughter by myself at the time.

But I couldn't get past the strange, overwhelming feeling of relief.

Still, I accepted the looks of pity and sorrow that people gave me; the facade that I put up was more than convincing to hide my true feelings. The true feeling of ecstasy.

Many times I had referred to myself as simply being divorced rather than explaining that my wife had passed away. The reason being because I didn't need them prying away at my life and asking me multiple questions that they felt I was obligated to answer. Eventually one question would lead to another and soon enough, they would find out what actually happened if they pieced it together correctly.

To them, I was a widower—a husband who's wife had passed away and had not remarried since then. I despised the title, really. It it seem as though I was pathetic enough to not move on and still mourn Loren when I had wanted nothing more than to divorce her long before her expiration date.

She was the one who made me believe that I was insane the minute she found out about my infatuation with Jesse, and tried to implement it in my mind that I needed help when the only help I wanted was from the girl herself.

Loren had used my horrible past against me to insist that I had developed a mental illness because Jesse De Rose filled the empty void of love that I longed for.

She wasn't entirely wrong. Jesse did fill a piece of me that was hollow. But, that didn't mean there was something wrong with me.

There was nothing wrong with me. I was completely fine. My mental health was fine. Everything about me was fine.

And my life sure is fine now that Loren is out of the picture.

I pulled the blanket covers over Jesse and I's body as the shock still ran through my veins because of what happened earlier.

It's not my fault.

The taunting, the jealousy, the talking back. It was all too much for me.

I guess it was highly unlikely that she would hold it against me in the long run considering she was still wrapped up in my arms in the end.

Love, they say, is a wonderful feeling. My heart beat a little faster, my mind was a little clearer, my life was a little bit better. All because of her.

***

"Oh god, Carissa. How much longer?" Jesse groaned impatiently, leaning her head lazily against the sofa.

My eyes flickered to the exposed skin of her neck as she sat next to me while we waited for Carissa to finish getting dressed after changing for the fifth time. We were supposed to become the ultimate Paris tourist today as going to the Eiffel Tower was next on Marcos' the to-do list.

Checking the time on the watch clasped around my wrist, the time read 6:25PM. We were supposed to be out of the room by 6:00.

I placed my hand on Jesse's knee, stroking my thumb back and forth on her warm skin. She tilted her head in my direction, blue eyes connecting with my brown ones. My lips lifted up into a slight smile as she raised her eyebrows back at me before lulling her head to the side so that she was leaning up against my shoulder.