OFF-LIMITS

24.

Chapter twenty four | Layla
Melissa has been a sobbing mess since the moment we stepped a foot in here, neither me nor Adrian understand a single word she said.

"You need to calm down." He says, his voice carrying an edge it doesn't normally carry, she rubs her hand together as I hand her a mug, "thank you." She whispers and I smile,

After a moment passes, "what's wrong, Melissa?" I ask as softly as I can, I feel it as Adrian's hand caresses mine, it spreads a warm tingling throughout my whole arm, "Damien—he's been different, so so different." She whispers, her hands shaking again.

My brows furrow and Adrian cocks his head, "well, I'm sure you know how he is, you've been with him for about—7 months now?" Adrian states and her gaze turns to the floor, looking down as if she's ashamed that he just called her out.

As much as it pained me to find out that Damien has been cheating on me, I can't deny that there is a good side too, it made me become closer to him, and as much as I'd like to deny it but I've never been happier than right now.

He makes me feel like I'm...more than enough, and the more time I spend with him, the more I hate myself for allowing someone to treat me so shitty before, but it's in the past, and I can't change it, however, no one is going to walk over me in the future, that's a promise I made to myself.

She clears her throat a couple of times, "I'm sorry.." it comes out as a broken whisper, I'm not really mad at her, I should be, but I should be way madder at Damien, I didn't even know her back then, "that's not the case right now." I say not liking how this is taking a turn.

I can feel Adrian stiffening beside me but I continue "just tell us what happened." I say again and she swallows hard before nodding, a tight smile spreading on her face, "but I have to say everything from the beginning so you understand." She says and I crack my knuckles, not sure if I'm ready for that but I nod either way.

"You know it all started when I saw him at a bar back then, and—you weren't with him I swear, it-it just happened and it was a one night stand, I thought I'd never see him again...but he kept showing up, and it became uncomfortable when he once tried to you know kind of—blackmail me into sleeping with him." She says, looking pained as she says the words, my chest tightens and my breaths get heavier.

Adrian gives me a reassuring squeeze and I smile a little, "I'm so sorry." I whisper and her gorgeous eyes meet mine, they're the lightest shade of blue, and they widen for a moment as if she's surprised, my brows furrow right when she speaks "no I'm the one who's sorry, I know I never said it before today but I really am I swear, I didn'- I didn't mean for all this to happen." She sighs heavily and something tells me that this story is about to get much worse.

"When I told him that I didn't want it, he kept digging into my background until—one day he finally caught something that I could never win against." She says, tears forming in her eyes, she brushes them away, as my heart clenches for her, "my mother—she's sick, and he'll ruin everything." She says and my brows furrow.

Confusion crowds my mind when she stays silent for a moment but I don't protest letting her take her time, "she's very very sick and he—he knows every nurse that works at that hospital, for context, she's always there, it's like her home now, and I barely have the money to treat her anyway, he said that if I slept with him he'd give me money, and well he did, he still does." Her sentence ends on a broken whisper as if she's ashamed of her confession.

"The night turned into weeks and weeks turned into months, until—until I finally found out about you, me and my friend were working late that night and he came striding into the bar, I didn't bother talking to him until later that night, but the moment my friend saw him it was like she saw a ghost—and well she told me everything, and about you too, the same thing that's happening to me now happened to her right before me," she says letting out a breath before her expression changes into a sympathetic one.