The Angel in Hell

P I L L O W . F O R T R E S S

The Scientist by Coldplay<3

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Delilah woke up that morning heavy. The standard morning sickness occured, followed by a rather awkwardly silent breakfast with the family. All the staff were whispering in the halls, whispers of Felix's disappearances and speculations on Oliver's death. They muffled them into silence when in the presence of the family, but they always seemed to forget the paper thin walls of Saltburn. It was ironic really, how Slatburn held so many secrets within its walls, all the while letting them travel like wildfire. Delilah blurred it out. Her thoughts were non-existent. She preferred it that way, the silence of her mind. It was better than thinking what everybody else was. Sipping the last serving of orange justice in her crystal glass, Venetia got up from the table and held her hand out to Delilah, a grey expression on her face.

Delilah took her hand and the two of them sulked out of the breakfast room, still mute. They walked in a comfortable silence up to the library where Farleigh was, lounging on the chaise lounge reading 'Mrs Dalloway' quietly to himself. The pair sat down on the well-loved sofa opposite him and Delilah laid her head into Vs lap with a sigh. Venetia stroked gently at the hair of her best friend, off in a thunderstorm of thoughts within her own mind. Delilah's hand felt instinctively onto her stomach as she stared at Farleigh who was reading undisturbed by their appearance. She'd had enough of secrets, of darkness, of all the lies that Saltburn forced people to keep.

'Farleigh.' She said, and he looked up at her slowly, nodding his head for her to continue. 'I'm pregnant. Felix-' her breath shook. 'He's the father.'

Farelighs eyebrows raised further than he thought they could ever go. Venetia stopped twisting Delilah's hair in between her fingers and placed it firmly but with support on her bestfriends shoulder. There was a moment of silence between the three. Farleigh didn't know what to say, which was strange for someone who always had something to say. He closed his book and propped himself up by his elbows on the cushioned seat. He went to say something but stopped himself, his eyebrows lowering gently as he processed the information.

'Okay-' He began, 'does he know?'

'Yes. I told him the night of Oliver's party. Before-'

'And are you keeping it?'

'Yes.' Delilah said it more firmly than she had expected to.

'You are?' V chimed in.

Delilah felt the first emotion she had felt that day, hearing Venetia's words of surprise. Sadness poisoned her entire body, her stomach cramped at how desperately she wanted Felix to be there, holding her hand as she, they, delivered the news. Instead, she pressed her hand more firmly into the skin and fat on her stomach and blinked the pooling tears in her eyes that had nonconsensually formed.

'It's all i have left of him now.' She replied solemnly to the shocked Farleigh and Venetia.

There was silence once again. Then, Farleigh stood up and knelt down in front of Delilah, their faces close. He placed a hand onto the side of her face, the one that wasn't still in Vs lap. His kind expression was rare, but when it came out it was the world. Farleigh was only genuinely kind and caring to a select few in his life and although him and Delilah hadn;t always been close they had always been family.

'Don't be scared.' He said to her, as if reading the very thoughts she was having in the moment. 'We will help you, won't we V?'

'Always.' She replied.

The three of them stayed just like that for a while. V and Farleigh silently comforting Delilah as hot tears rolled down her expressionless face. An unspoken truth was shared between them, they had to tell Elsbeth and James. While they were all in it together, soon they would need to begin prepping life for a newborn in the Saltburn manor and that was the one thing they couldn't do alone. After a while Duncan emerged as he always does, informing the three that Elsbeth and James requested some family time out by the lake. Of course they had to request it, knowing that if they didn't everyone would hide in the corners of the manor, avoiding the desperately needed conversations.