BITTER SWEET. | J. JK

FIFTY-NINE.

A/N: LAST CHAPTER WAS NOT CONNECTED TO THE STORY OKAY? It was just a one shot i guess... Just letting my loves know ❤❤

**flashback**

"Are you sure you want to do this?" He asked her, gnawing his lower lip, as he watched her nervously packing her bags. There were times and times when he wished he was brave enough to tell her what he, for so long, wanted to. Times when he wished they've met in different circumstances, and maybe, just maybe, he could've been able to love her right.

She ran her fingers through her raven hair, an exasperated look on her face when she turned to him. She also didn't want to leave, much less leaving him behind, but there wasn't any other choice and they both knew it. "Zach, I don't have any other alternative. Do you think I want to leave my whole life behind, leave you behind...?"

In a brief moment of insanity, or perhaps just a prolonged one, he ran to hold her hands in his and kissed her fingertips warmly, just like he used to. "Then don't go. We can figure this out, together. You, me and... the baby. Please..." He brushed away the rebel wisps of hair from her black eyes, that had softened at his words. "I love you...Please, stay."

"No, no..." The woman shook her head, putting effort at not letting herself shed tears. She hated crying in public. She released her hands from him, and kept going, disarming closets and shelves with all her and her child's belongings. "This isn't your fight, Zach, and I won't let him get to you. You know, he'll kill you. I—just can't, please...understand..."

For much that she had been to care for the man before her, she couldn't help to think how unfair, and how frustrating it must be for him to always keep on her side, to always support her, even if that meant that his head would be rolling down the bloody streets by morning. And, for much that she wanted to reciprocate these intense feelings he had for her, there were always something tugging on her heart, telling her that she didn't love him like he did. And, the saddest part was that Zach knew it, and yet, he kept going, like the clench on his heart didn't existed.

He was quiet, he didn't reply. Zach was exhausted, all he ever wished was for the two of them to stay together, but he supposed that that just wasn't bond to happen. He tried and tried, failed attempt after failed attempt, to persuade to take him, to persuade her to stay, to persuade her not to leaving him behind just because she didn't want the other to get him. But the fact that Phantom imagined a plan for her future where he wasn't included hurt more than any other bullet to his heart, more than any other stab to his chest.

"Listen to me, Zach. I'm going to disappear for a while, okay? Don't try to contact me or try to find me. As soon as the coast is clear, I'll message you." Phantom closed her luggage, and she stopped in the middle of her bedroom, right in front where the last rays of the sunset glazes through her skin, that reflected on her the pretty orange stains. Her eyes, however, kept menacing to fall apart in tears, but she was quick to wiped them away with her sleeve. "You have to promise me you won't try to find me, do you understand?"

"Phantom—"

"Please Zach..." She sobbed quietly, and at the break of her voice, he paced towards her, catching her in his arms for the very last time. "I need to get out of this. I-I can't let my daughter grow up in a place like this. I— can't." She turned to him, letting herself melt in his embrace as she stained his shirt with her painful tears.  Zach tried to calmed her down, running his fingers through her hair and hushing her that everything was going to be okay, although there wasn't no certainty of such.

"Phantom—" He held her shoulders making her look up to him, her everlasting pretty features, as he ran his thumbs under her eyes to clean the tears away, nibbling his lower lip to pull himself not to shed in front of her either. "You're a strong woman- fuck- the strongest woman I know. And you are going to get out of here, and you're going to start new. This person right here, this broken monster in front of me dies today and you'll able to be happy again..." he shifted his eyes, an affectionate glint on his lips as he peeked through the window leading to a little girl, outside swinging on the tire swing pinned on the backyard tree. "...And your little girl will also be happy. You'll have the second chance you deserve. So, don't you dare crying. Phantom—don't fucking shed any other tear for leaving, because that is chance not all of us are lucky enough to have."