𝗗𝗲𝗮𝗱𝗹𝘆 𝗡𝗶𝗴𝗵𝘁𝘀𝗵𝗮𝗱𝗲

28- 𝗘𝘀𝗰𝗮𝗽𝗲 𝗙𝗿𝗼𝗺 𝗥𝗲𝗮𝗹𝗶𝘁𝘆

"Can you turn the radio on?" Amara asked, the only moment the silence has been broke on their car journey.

"Yeah" Azaiah replied, turning it on and the music was now drowning out the melancholy silence.

Neither of them dared to speak, all they were meant to be doing was this mission, nothing more. But Amara couldn't handle the dull silence between them.

"How are you doing?" Amara asked, knowing it was a stupid question, but she asked it nevertheless.

"Not sure you should be the one asking me that" Azaiah answered and Amara swallowed the lump in her throat.

"I'm sorry, okay?" Amara told him, fiddling with her hands and Azaiah just shook his head.

"No need to be sorry, you're marrying the man you love, aren't you?" Azaiah spoke, so dryly that it cut through Amara like a knife.

"No, I'm sorry it's not you."

Azaiah felt a broken piece of his heart crack again. Why was she doing this? It was slowly torturing him.

"You didn't have to do it, Elias would've married Antoinette-" Azaiah started but Amara cut him off.

"And both of us know he wouldn't be able to live with himself if he did" Amara spoke and Azaiah knew he was right.

He said that rashly because he couldn't bare the thought of Amara marrying another man. He was deflecting.

"What about you? Are you going to be able to live with yourself?" Azaiah asked her and Amara's breath got lodged in her throat, not daring to speak for a moment.

"You don't get to say that" Amara told him and Azaiah shrugged.

"I don't see why no-" Azaiah started but Amara quickly interjected.

"We're not together, Azaiah. We broke up years ago so I hold no loyalty to you or anyone else. I'm a single woman and I'm marrying a man who loves me, that's enough for me."

Azaiah didn't want to speak, he could barely bring himself too due to Amara's pure emotion showing through her voice- but he had to.

"He loves you, but do you love him?"

Amara didn't know how to respond. She thought about it and she could only think of one man she loved- and that wasn't the one she was marrying.

"That doesn't matter" Amara told him, trying to hold back her tears and Azaiah realised how close she was to the brink of breaking down.

He still cared about her, and he couldn't bare to see her cry when he couldn't do anything about it.

"If you're happy with him, then I'm happy for you- you need to know that" Azaiah told her, a sincerity in his voice as Amara leant her head back on the headrest, taking a deep breath.

It was silent for a while after, the radio softly humming away as they just focused on the long journey they had ahead of them. It was towards the place Leonardo was last spotted, trying to find any clues as to where he could be now.

"Shit" Azaiah muttered as the engine started to make weird noises, black smoke coming from the exhaust.

"What is it?" Amara asked, noticing Azaiah pulling to the side of the road.

"The engine's gone to shit, we have to pull over and wait for someone to come fix it" Azaiah told him and Amara furrowed her brows.

"Fix it? How long is that going to take?" Amara asked and Azaiah finally took the keys out of the ignition.

"A while. It's getting dark, we need to find somewhere to stay" Azaiah told her and Amara looked ahead.

"There's a motel just down the road I think" Amara told him, narrowing her eyes to try and make out to her hotel sign in the darkness.