Hearts Between The Pages (Heartwreck #1)

Chapter 27

Chapter 27

The Root Of Poems

My back was turn against the door.

I pretended to be asleep as I hear him opens the door and his footsteps approaching.

My heart went wild against my chest when I felt his presence behind me, standing there to watch me sleep.

I was so tempted to open my eyes.

I was so tempted to scream and cry and ask him to end all of this. To end his pain, to end mine, and to end us.

But I remained acting. It's the only thing I'm good at.

I kept on acting asleep.

I hear him blew out a deep sigh.

"I wish I could stop all the pain... even just for a minute," I hear him whispers before I heard his footsteps again, but this time, he went inside the bathroom.

When I heard the shower opened, that was my cue to stop pretending.

He takes twenty minutes showers.

I have fifteen minutes to silently cry and the five remaining minutes left is what I'm going to use to continue pretending to be asleep.

***

It takes every ounce of me not to kiss the sleeping Archean as I lie on top of him on the lounge chair.

To kiss him because I love him, to kiss him because of how brave he was after everything that's happened to him. I can still see and vividly remember how strong he was back inside that Volkswagen parked in front of his house where his bitter memories from childhood lie.

I saw him forgive even when it was the hardest thing to do in this world.

We were about to leave, but the door suddenly opened and from it, there came out a woman in a wheelchair, looking so thin and lifeless, with a cloth wrapped around her head. There was a beautiful woman behind her who pushed the wheelchair.

They both stopped at the concrete and I saw how Archean froze as he looked at them. The woman on the wheelchair was absentmindedly staring at absolutely nothing while the woman behind her, she was looking towards our direction with confusion.

"That's Gianna..." Archean breaks. I look at him, he's still looking at them through the windshield glass.

"She called that day when we had our first fight. She said that she only got four months to live," he says as he pushes out a bitter chuckle. "But now look at her, she's still alive. What a fucking lie," he says through clenched teeth.

"Archean..." I call his name, sadly.

He didn't look at me. He keeps on looking at her. "That's why I took you here after four months, because I was hoping that when I get back, she's gone and buried ten feet underground."

I didn't say anything. I don't have to. There is nothing that I could say that would take away the hurt and the pain as he looks at the woman who made his childhood life miserable.

"Liv?" he tilts his head to look at me, and immediately, I meet his sad ocean blue eyes.

"Why is it that even if she has never been a good mother to me, it still hurts right here in my chest to see her like that?"

I smile as tears begin to roll down my cheeks. Overwhelming and heart melting tears because of the fact that the man that God gave me to love is a man who has the purest heart.

I reach out to him to touch his cheek. "Because no matter how much Giana ruined you, she didn't manage to ruin the beautiful thing inside your heart... and lastly, because you are the man that Amanda raised well."