Moving On

Chapter 11

Here is the big chapter!! I want to dedicate this chapter to StarsDreamsHopes because she convinced me to make the decision to keep Darren and Carmen together, thanks for your really long comments they made me laugh :)

And thank you again to the rest of you for your support!

Enjoy!

My head was still reeling over what I had just figured out that I didn’t even notice Darren walk past me until he had left the cafe. My body was frozen with shock and even if I could move I didn’t want to go back home right now, I just couldn’t face seeing him; Darren had lied from me from the beginning and continued to lie when he told me about his mate. I looked up at Clarissa who had tears dripping down her face slowly, I did the only thing I could think of and started walking towards her.

“Excuse me?” her head snapped up from her hot drink to look at me, she hastily wiped her tears probably not wanting me to know she was crying,

“Hi.” Her voice trailed off waiting for me to say my name but I couldn’t say anything. My tongue went numb in my mouth and all I could focus on was how beautiful she was, how could’ve Darren rejected her. A sob broke free from my throat and tears ran down my face,

“I’m sorry, so sorry.” I managed to choke free; Clarissa took a hold of my arm and sat me down

“What have you got to be sorry for?” her blue eyes sparkled with pure worry how could someone worry about someone they didn’t know?

“Darren, he broke your heart and I’m so sorry. I didn’t know, I followed him here because I thought he was cheating but he broke-“Clarissa cut off my ramblings,

“Are you Carmen?” her blue eyes turned watery and all I could do was nod, a few moments passed before anyone spoke,

“I know how you feel. My mate rejected me too.” Clarissa looked up at me,

“I know, Darren told me everything about you.” I couldn’t help feel heartbroken as I thought of how Darren hadn’t told me anything, he probably lied to me about everything.

“I think you should go home, Carmen and talk to him.” As much as I hated the idea of going home and facing Darren I knew I had to.

“I’m sorry.” I apologized once more, Clarissa watched me with those blue eyes of hers and smiled at me.

I opened the front door slowly and stepped into the dark, Darren was sitting on the sofa,

“Where’ve you been?” I looked down and began fiddling with the keys in my hand, I didn’t know how to tell him I knew about him lying about Clarissa. Whilst walking home the only thing I could think of was how he lied,

“You lied to me, Darren.” I peered up at him waiting for him to talk but he never did,

“I trusted you, I told you everything about me.”

“What are you talking about?”

“Don not play dumb with me!” I threw the keys in my hand across the room in frustration, I watched as the keys rattled and settled on the wooden floor.

“Why didn’t you tell me?” I whispered knowing that he could hear me,

“Because I knew you’d react like this.” Anger slowly built up inside of me ,

“Don’t turn this around on me, Darren. You’re the one who lied to me about all of this, why didn’t you just tell me. I loved you, I still love you!” the tears started falling and Darren’s face changed,

“I love you too.” I ignored the painful tug on my heart as he said these words,

“Where you going to tell me or were you waiting till we got married?”

“I don’t know.” He hunched over his seat and buried his head in his hands,

“You don’t know?! What do you mean you don’t know, where you going to tell me at all?” I wiped my tears as they dripped down my face, but he didn’t answer me.

“I talked to Clarissa after you left the café.” his head snapped up in interest,

“Did she tell you what happened, the full story?” he asked quizzically, I shook my head as a no,

“My cousin Owen’s been blackmailing me, he told me if we didn’t give him the money then he’d tell you about Clarissa.” I started pacing the room trying to understand his words because this changed things drastically,

“So you were willing to pay him any money just to keep your dirty secret quiet from your fiancée, correct?” I glared at him willing him silently to talk,

“It wasn’t like that! We just wanted the best for you!”

“We? Whose we?!” I stopped pacing to look at him, I couldn’t believe there was more than one person involved in this. He keeping this secret from me was more than enough but now he was saying he had helped changed things a lot.

“Mike and Alex were helping me pay Owen and I told Isabella as well.” My eyes closed and my knees gave out underneath me, I slowly slid to the floor and began crying again, my breath came out in gasps as I struggled to speak.

“They all knew apart from me? How could you, Darren! If you had sat me down and told me this at the beginning I would’ve been fine about it. But you didn’t.” I leant my head on my arms and cried, I’d opened my heart up to Darren after Jay and now he’d broke it again just like Jay,

“Why did you reject her?” I mumbled into my arm,

“I-I don’t know, I wasn’t ready for a mate, I wanted to live a little. I didn’t want to be tied down.” He said with a shrug. Looking at him incredulously I answered back,

“How could you do that, she was your whole life, your mate.”

“But I found you, didn’t I! If I hadn’t rejected her I would’ve never met you, I did all of this because I loved you and I didn’t want to lose you.” I laughed coldly at him I was expecting the ‘I didn’t want to lose you, I love you’ speech.

“You’re just like Jay, you’re no different. All these years I’ve been with you have probably been a joke to you.” Sobs overtook my body and I slumped my head down on my knees once again. Darren didn’t even try and deny it, that’s all it took to confirm my doubts, he never really loved me. I stood up and rushed into my room and started packing a few clothes into a bag,

“What are you doing?” Darren asked, panic rising in his voice,

“Packing.” Was my short answer, hopefully I could get a flight to New York as soon as possible.

“I need somewhere to stay and think all of this over, my mum won’t mind.” I spoke whilst picking, I tried walking past him but he caught my shoulders,

“Don’t go, please.” I looked up at him and my heart broke at his face, Darren was crying.

“I can’t.”

“Please, don’t go. I love you just sleep on it and then if it’s still what you want I’ll let you go, please.” I looked down knowing if I looked at his broken face I would give over,

“No, let me go.” But he did the opposite, he tightened his grip on my arms not enough to hurt me though,

“Darren, let me go. Let me go now!” I thrashed around trying to get away but he wouldn’t let go. I looked up into the eyes I loved and couldn’t help but break down. Darren moved his arms around me into a tight hug,

“Don’t cry, I’m so sorry.” He whispered into my hair, I could feel his tears trickling down onto my face as he cried with me; he picked me up and carried me to the bed. He wrapped the blankets tightly around us and tightened his grip around me,

“Don’t leave me Carmen, I don’t think I could live without you.” Our faces were inches apart and I could still see the tears coming down on his face, it physically hurt to see him upset. And that’s when It hit me, how could I ever leave Darren, I loved him too much.