The Devil's Honey

TWENTY-ONE

TWENTY-ONE
⛓️Xavier⛓️

"Why have we been sitting in this car for like forever?" Ayla questions me, and I bite my fist, and stare at the plane that has been sitting on the runway with Honey inside. I'm trying to build the courage to walk onto the jet and present her with a random child I picked up off the street. "Mr Xavier?"

"No reason."

"Are we going on that plane? I've never been on one before, but I always used to look up at the sky and wonder what it would be like to be on one." Ayla sighs dreamily, staring at the black jet in awe. "Is it scary? Are you scared, is that why we are sitting here?"

I scoff. "I'm not scared of the jet, little Ayla, I'm scared of my wife." I rub my jaw, and think of all of the possible outcomes. Not only have I got to show Honey a child I've brought home, but also the fact that Luella had made an appearance.

"She's scary?!" Ayla gasps, and I curse myself because I don't want to paint Honey in a bad light.

"No, sweetheart, she's the kindest person you'll ever meet, but sometimes I make decisions that piss her off."

"You swore."

"You didn't hear anything. Now let's go." I climb out of the car and Ayla shuffles out after me grabbing a hold of my hand. Roman walks up first, and when I hear Honey's voice my heart bursts and all of a sudden, I can't wait to see her pretty face.

"Wow!" Ayla gasps when she sees the inside, her eyes as wide as saucers.

And then I make eye contact with Honey who is staring at the two of us with furrowed brows. She slowly approaches us and gives Ayla a wary smile before turning her gaze onto me.

"Who's this?" Honey questions sweetly, but her eyes are screaming more like 'What the fuck is this?!'.

"I'm Ayla." The little girl beams, holding her hand out for Honey to shake, and my wife takes her little hand and shakes it. "Are you Xavier's wife?"

"No, we're not married." She explains.

"Yeah, we are, Ayla, don't listen to her. She is my wife." I lean down to whisper in her ear, and she giggles. "Ayla was homeless, I took her off the streets." Honey gets a good look at the little girl, and I start to get worried when her bottom lip trembles and her eyes water.

And then it hits me why Honey is looking at Ayla the way she is.

She's staring at something that could have been if we hadn't lost our little girl.

"Ayla, go and sit with Roman for a second." She nods her head and skips over to Roman ready to talk his ear off like she was doing in the car on the way to the airfield. "Little star."

"I'm sorry, I don't know why I'm so emotional, it's just the thought of her not having a home, she's so young." Honey whimpers, and I wrap my arm around her and guide us to a leather chair. I take a seat and pull her down onto my lap.

"Are you mad because I brought her home?" I ask her and her eyes widen, and she recoils back.

"What? No! Xavier, she was a six-year-old on the street and I know how you feel about kids going into care, you wouldn't have done it, you didn't. It's just...She reminds me of the little girl we lost, how she could have turned out when she got older." She sniffles, wiping her eyes and I stroke her back gently.

"Ayla." Her head shoots up and I nod my head for her to come back over. She grins, and rushes towards us, standing so close that there is barely any space between us.

"This plane is so cool!" She bounces on the balls of her feet and claps her hands in excitement.

Honey climbs off my lap and takes the spare seat next to me, grabbing a hold of Ayla's hand.