In the Beginning

Explain

As we finished breakfast I couldn't help but smile at Hayes. It was the first time in a long time that I had been happy. Or that I didn't feel lonely. I guess Hayes caught me staring at him, "I love that smile," he smirked. I giggled and looked away. I felt like a school girl with crush. I felt my face getting hot from blushing. "Stop, you're making me smile even more," I laid my hand on his thigh. He leaned in closer, "I guess I just have that affect on people." I rolled my eyes and tried to remove my hand from his thigh but he quickly grabbed my wrist and brought closer to kiss me on my forehead. I couldn't help, but laugh! Words can't describe how much I feel towards Hayes. "You're delusional," I responded. He got up from the table, "But you still love me anyway Stephanie."

He grabbed our plates and insisted he'd clean them. "I will clean these and you go sleep. It's still early." I walked towards him and hugged him from the back while he washed the dishes. "How about when you finish washing those we both go to bed and maybe we can do some naughty things and then go to sleep." I could see him grinning, "That is a very tempting offer, but I can't. There's things I have to do. But what if when I get back we can do some of those naughty things for the rest of the day. And night." He finally finished cleaning and turned around to face me. He placed his hands on my waist and I placed my hands around his neck. "Are you going to tell me what some of the things you have to do or are you going to try to distract me with sex?" He looked down as if he was contemplating what to say next. "No, but I didn't want you to have to think about anything else but resting. I will tell you later." "Once I'm rested? And you promise, right?" He kissed me on my forehead. "Yes, Stephanie," he whispered. 

We walked over to his bed holding hands. I got in and he made sure the sheets were covering my whole body. He leaned down and whispered, "I will see you later. Sleep well." I guess I really was exhausted because I fell asleep quickly. Yet a few minutes later I felt Hayes kiss me on my cheek right before he left.

I woke up a few hours later to check my phone. The time read 11:57am. I woke up to even brighter sunshine beaming through the windows. Hayes still wasn't back. I got up and walked over to the bathroom. After I brushed my teeth and washed my face, I looked into the mirror and I could not believe my life. This morning was the first deep sleep I was in without a nightmare. I was healing. I was a greek goddess. I was falling in love with the king of the underworld. I was queen of the underworld. Things had changed so fast in these past weeks. Although I needed to save my mom and get these people to understand that Zach was the one who ruined their lives, I never felt better. Suddenly there was knock at the front door. I thought it was Hayes returning, but wouldn't he use a key? I started walking towards the door, but then my anxieties stopped me in my tracks. What if it was Zach? Or Valentina? Or Emilio?

I took a deep breath and kept walking. They were not going to keep my scared for the rest of my life. I slowly opened Hayes's front door and to my utter surprise it was Henry. He looked as if he hadn't slept in a few days. His curly hair that had framed his face so neatly a few days ago were greasy and falling out of place. His clean shaven face was started to grow stubble and he looked scared and timid. Like a dog that had its tail in between its legs because it knew that it had done something wrong. I stood back and crossed my arms. Part of me wanted to help him, but a much bigger part of me never wanted to talk to Henry ever again. He looked at me "Stephanie- I- I'm sorry- I-" "Henry stop. Please just stop! You have no right to be here right now. Actually I think you should leave, before I call Hayes." I tried to close the door but he held it open. He was surprisingly strong. "Stephanie, I know Hayes isn't with you. Will you please let me explain? You have to let me explain." He made me so upset. "I don't have to let you do anything and what do you mean? Do you know where Hayes is?" Henry responded, "If you let me explain, then I will tell you where Hayes is." I know I should trust that Hayes will tell where me went, but this was a tempting offer. "Come in," I said.

As Henry walked in he kept looking around and what it seemed like admiring Hayes's apartment. "I'm guessing you've never been here before." Henry laughed, "No, Hayes is very private." He took a deep breath, and then didn't say a thing. I was getting antsy. "Well, are you going to explain yourself or not? Because if you're not then what the hell are you still doing here?" He walked closer to me. I stepped back. I guess I was a bit scared of him. Of what he might tell everyone. He broke my trust. "Stephanie, I don't know where to start." "How about you start on why you ratted me out to Zach." He sat down at Hayes's dinner table. "I was the one who planted In the Beginning in Zach's office four months ago." This was shocking to hear.  I needed to sit down too, so I did. "Keeping going," I responded. "This past year was really bad for business. Nothing was going on in the town and I needed a good story, so one night I decided to go through Zach's desk in his office. There was a sealed drawer, but I managed to open it. It was book called In the Beginning." He continued, "I thought to myself what would be so important about a book that he had to keep it hidden, so I read it. I thought that maybe what was in the could be true and I was going to write about it in the newspaper, but Zach figured it out. He came to me and demanded that I give him the book back. Of course he got upset and threatened to get me fired, so we compromised. I don't lose my job if I got you to come to New Mount." "Henry, what do you mean?" "Zach made me plant In the Beginning in his bookcase because we knew that Hayes would find it and look for you. You two are fated lovers after all. Zach wanted to lure you here so that he could kill you." I jumped up from the table, "Is Zach going to kill me?!" "Stephanie, please calm down and sit. I'm not done explaining." I sat down. "The plan was to kill you, but when you didn't realize who you were as soon as you got here, Zach changed the plan. But then you started questioning things. I had to tell Zach and that was the night Helen kicked you out." "So is Zach going to kill me or not?" He shook his head. "I honestly don't know what he has planned, but I think he wants you alive." "How do I know that any of this is true and you're not just keeping me busy so that Zach or Emilio can come kill me now?" He took a deep breath. "You don't know, but I wanted. No, I needed to explain myself. I felt terrible for my part in what everyone did to you. I'm sorry. The only thing that relieved me was knowing that at least you had Hayes and Danielle." "Thank you Henry, but I still can't trust you. But this is a start, so long you don't rat me out again." "I completely understand." I asked: "Now tell me where is Hayes?"