Divergent souls || 2

Twenty

CHAPTER TWENTY ⇆ ROWAN
"What? No." I grit out, as I stare at my father who seems perfectly fine on the hospital bed, Angelina came all the way back to New York with me for that asshole.

"There's no No, man up, I'm fucking dying and I'll need you to take over, you know what that means right? No more being reckless or just driven by your fucking impulses." He states with a gruff tone then coughs harshly.

I grit my teeth with anger, "You're fucking dying cause you did this to yourself. It's not my fault, I'm not taking over your goddamn companies." I state under my breath.

Annoyed by his demand, my father has always been an alcoholic, so him getting liver cancer years ago wasn't such a surprise, I should feel bad, and maybe I slightly do, but his attitude is rubbing any of that.

"I'm waiting outside, you need rest." I put an end to it cause this will just continue escalating in the worst direction ever, I step out of the room with slow steps before I find Angelina sitting outside.

Beside my mother who looks like she's in deep talk with her, face warm with a smile. Like the sweet mother she is. They both notice my approach and their attention snaps to me.

"How's he?" Angelina asks first, voice thick with emotion, after our fight, she still insisted on coming with me, it made me feel emotional in the most difficult way, as if I want to cry and just continue smiling from happiness, confusing as fuck.

"Alive." Sarcasm is clear in my voice, I don't know what's wrong with me but maybe that's my fucking way of coping at the moment, my mother's face twists in disappointment but when is it filled with anything else?

"He needs you inside." I lie, wanting to make her leave, make her out of my sight, whenever I see her it feels as if my whole body is tense, fire is burning through my veins at every single moment I recall with the woman.

She smiles softly and excuses herself then leaves, I sit beside Angelina, silence echoes through the air louder than any words, truth is, my head is a mess, I don't know what to fucking say.

I understand her more than anything, but I want her to understand my point of view too even if it's hard, but currently, the circumstances aren't helping in the slightest.

Her phone's sudden notification cuts the silence and I feel her tensing beside me, just when I'm about to check what's wrong she flips the phone upside down, and her expression fills with something I've never saw before, possible horror.

"Is something wrong?" I ask sternly, unsure if she'll allow me to even ask this, she stays silent for a beat and my worry spikes further, "No, everything is fine." The lie is clear but so is the fact that she won't tell me.

So I nod quietly, letting her know that I don't believe her words, she sighs in relief, and that's how we spend the long tortuous time at the hospital.

⋆.ೃ࿔*:･

"I'm staying with Vera." She insists again, i glare, annoyed by her persistence, it's not as if I'll fucking kidnap her, "It's two in the morning, Vera is asleep." I state what's usually common sense.

But currently, Angelina is doing everything in her power to push away her usual logic and just kick me the fuck away, eventually we'll need to discuss the uncompleted conversation.

"Angelina, don't fucking argue with me right now, what exactly are you trying to say? She won't wake up at the moment, so just come with me, you can sleep in a separate room of course, I won't even come near you, but you'll be safe." I grit out, anger lacing my voice.

My chest tightens as I look at her, her jaw ticks in anger but she doesn't protest further as she rakes a hand through her long brown hair that ends in waves down her back, adding to her feminine aura.

Even when black circles surrounded her eyes, and she looked like she was on the verge of dying,  she still looked fucking stunning, absolutely breathtaking even.

"Fine." She mostly agrees out of understanding to this fucking situation, to the goddam circumstances themselves, I didn't entirely expect her to come with me, so this itself is progress.

"Okay, get in." I gesture at my father's car that's sprawled in front of the hospital's door, she nods, "I'm sorry about this." I mutter after a beat, she looks ahead of her not at me, swallows hard, "It's not your fault." She mutters sternly, the words sound rough coming out of her mouth, as if she doesn't want to try and comfort me but it's out of her control I can't really understand.

"Will he be okay?" She adds, before getting inside the passenger's seat and clicking it back close, I get inside too, shoot off the engine, "He'll crawl back out of this like always." I protest lightly.

My father never once appeared weak, and I knew that he wasn't going to start right now, he's had liver cancer for years now, he has his ups and downs and if he continues going like this, his end will probably come soon.

Whenever I let my mind wander there for a second, a weird feeling itches through my bones, almost like longing I can't fucking understand it nor the root for it in the first place.

Moments pass in utter silence and I don't make an effort to cut it, too caught up by my thoughts and recalling our earlier conversation all over again in my head to the point where I feel a headache forming at the back it.

"We're here." I let out, no reply comes and I turn to look at Angelina, finding her eyes closed and her breath steady, my heart melts in my chest as I unbuckle my seat and get out before slowly opening her door.

I reach out for her, gently tugging her hair out of her face, she sighs, hums in her sleep as I carry her in my arms, shoving her head in my chest, her hand tightens around my shirt, and the gesture tugs at my fucking heart.

Jesus Christ, i slowly step inside the house, it's dark and quiet, since my mother isn't here, we have all of this for ourselves, I turn on a dim light and place her gently on the couch, careful not to wake her.

Before disappearing down the hallway to bring her a blanket, moments later I approach her but I find her sitting upright, i still place a blanket around her shoulders, to which she tugs hardly toward her.

"Thanks." She says rashly, her voice barely audible, I don't bother with replying as I sit opposite from her, not knowing exactly where this is going, which isn't something new with her.

But then I find her speaking, "Let's forget whatever this is, Rowan." She says under her breath, my bones freeze over as I stare at her, absorbing what she just offered, gulping, "What does that mean?" I let out.

Not bothering to hide the thick emotion in my voice, "It means that this needs to be over, there won't be an end to it, it's just...flipping both of our lives over." She's pushing me away, again, I lost count of how many times she did this.

"Angelina—" I start but she shuts me off with a wave, "Don't, please, this is already fucking hard. But what's harder is for me to keep pushing you away when all you do is just push back." She breaks, literally, her eyes well tears and her voice cracks, so does my heart in my chest as I stand up and sit beside her.

"I'm not leaving." I say sincerely, telling her what I already intended since the beginning of all of this, her tears fall harder, "Why? My life was fine when you were out of it, Rowan, it was more than fine." Even though her words are clearly a lie, they still shoot daggers in my chest.

I grit my teeth, trying to suppress the emotions bubbling up inside my body, "Was it?" I just add, because we both know the answer, we were both just floating without fucking closure, with a life full of self distraction.

It wasn't fine I remember, her tears dry and slowly, I find her leaning in my arms, I welcome her instantly, opening my arms wider as I brush her hair, she sniffs.

"Just for tonight, this doesn't mean anything." She says softly, her words breaking.
"It's okay." I just comfort, knowing that this means something, it means a lot.

A vote is really appreciated 🩷.