Nine Ways How

Chapter 24| truth

E L A R A

I'm silent, my hands sweaty holding each other on my lap.

"We will take suitable actions against each one of them," he says, "We will hold a meeting afterward to discuss this issue once we have your confirmation"

They both pause, waiting for me to get comfortable and speak, but they have no idea what thoughts are running inside my mind.

A sigh leaves my mouth, "That's not true, they didn't do anything as such. Whoever told you that, must have been mistaken," I say, and they both look at each other confusedly.

"Ms. Russell, you really don't need to be afraid, we will not let this case spread out which might affect your reputation," she says.

"I have said everything I needed to say" I tell, "They have usual behavior towards me... as every friend's group has"

They think deeply and discuss before speaking to me, "Fine. But if you need to tell anything more, you can come straight to me" Mr. Samuel says.

Walking from these corridors back to my class, I feel my legs shaking. I feel myself getting pushed to the limit.

Sometimes I wish I should have just agreed with Uncle James and returned back there just the first day he asked me to.

But who knew this would happen in the vaguest way.

Axel gets up from his seat when he sees me coming inside, "I hope you understood what I said to you and didn't tell the truth" he says, smirking.

I nod, and his smirk widened. "Well done" they laugh.

I don't want this to happen. I want them gone. I want them to face the consequences of doing that to me, but I couldn't speak any word against them.

Not after knowing their plan to do much worse after my college if I speak any word against them. Somehow, they have my address for the new house I've taken on rent, where I'm supposed to live alone from today onwards.

And all the time this day at my college, I feel a pair of eyes on me who are secretly wondering about me. When I turn around, I realize it's Colton.

🪐

"That's so tragic," Darla says, having a sympathetic tone, once I told her and Ara about everything that happened between me and him.

"I don't know what's his problem, I thought we were--" I pause, realizing neither we were friends, nor lovers. "I thought we were almost something..."

I look at Ara sitting on one of the packed boxes of my stuff I just shifted here in my newly rented house. She doesn't say anything but is consumed by deep thinking.

"Ara," I say, I hate for asking this but this question is getting into my mind constantly, "You didn't know anything of this, did you?"

She looks up at me and doesn't reply anything, which gave me the answer I was looking for. "I thought he lied to you about being outside the city too" I say, my voice hurting.

She stands up and comes closer , only to holds my shoulder, "I'm sorry, he told me not to tell you"

Of course, she will give her first priority to him, not like I was looking for otherwise, but it hurts knowing she hid it from me.

"He had his reasons, Elara" she says and I shake my head in disbelief, "Living a hard past wasn't easy for him, and he still hasn't moved on from it, please understand. He's nothing like he showed you. He even told me to live with you to make sure you're safe. He pushes everybody away but he let you come close to him to some extent"