Bed Sheets

18. Your Own Family

She was a red head, with hair that fell all the way to the back of her knee cap, and aspect she considered part of her identity. She had not cut her hair for years, last time she remembered getting a cut was in her early teens. Adelina Malcom was quite slim, but had a few patches of chub that she made unnoticeable by the clothes she wore.

Their relationship had been perfect at first, but they decided to separate when Draven focused more on his work than their marriage. He would stay long hours at his office, and become very angry when he was near his deadline. Soon, she realized that she no longer felt love for him, and neither did he for her, hence why the break was in hopes that their love would reconcile.

Her love for him had returned.

Hence why she hurried when she heard the news, but had not expected to find him drowning in such sorrow. After the embrace, he returned to his bedroom, and snuggled against his pillow as if it was his life force.

She shook her head when she saw him laying there, "You can't stay here like this, you need to do something about it."

He shuffled in his bed, "Can you leave now please?"

"Draven," she cooed, pulling the blanket off from him and cuddling beside him, as he did not resist her frail arms wrapping themselves around his waist, tightly squeezing him for comfort. "You've been through this before—"

"Why did you come?" he whispered in a shaky breath, "To remember me of that time period?"

"You had lost your father around the point, remember?" she breathed quietly, holding him tightly as he dug his face deeper into his pillow. She sighed, "You laid in our bed for weeks, and I had to force feed you; you became so skinny that I brought you to the ER a few times."

She was not surprised when she heard him begin to cry.

She continued, "It was during that time that you wrote your best story, the one that set you on the map. A Fool's Journey, and it became a hit. It was around that time that you asked me to marry you; was it six years ago?"

Draven cleared his throat, feeling his body fall into an ease as she continued, "Five and a half."

"Right," she smiled, "you were always better than with dates." She squeezed him tighter, "Look, I loved you, and there's a reason why I loved you — you never gave up. I know it seems like your life is over, but if I love you even now, after all this time we were apart, then it must be because I see the strong man you've always been."

He inhaled sharply, and after a few minutes, sat up from his bed and began rummaging through his clothes. He found a pair of his sweats, and a clean sweater that had been hung, and retrieved it.

Adelina's words always worked on him, hence why he hurriedly grabbed his keys, planted a peck on her forehead as he breathed, "Thank you," and bolted out of the door.

He needed to face whom had ruined his life, had caused raucous in his world. Even though he had prepared this for days, he knew his anger would combust the moment his eyes met theirs. Speeding down the road, he continued along the way until he finally reached the home he had been waiting for.

It had been a few months since he last visited.

When the door opened after a few knocks, arms were wrapped around him tightly.

"Draven, long time no see," Aiden said, clamping his arms around him.

Draven smiled, "Brother, sorry I haven't been able to visit."

"No issue," he said. When he pulled away, he immediately made way for him to enter.

Aiden was his step-sister's half-brother.

He made some tea, and placed the mug on the table, "I felt sorry for you, after what I heard on the news."

Draven shook his head, although it was evident he had been dwelling with a lot of stress lately, "I've been alright."

"I was told that you had been suspended."

"By whom?"

They heard footsteps descend the steps, and when she entered the kitchen, her eyes widened in horror when she noticed who was present.

"Speaking of the devil," Aiden smiled brightly at his daughter, "I forgot to call you down, Draven came to visit us."

There she was, his step-sister's niece, Miranda.

She seemed troubled by his presence, as she extended a trembling hand in Draven's direction, "I haven't seen you at work in a while."

"I'm surprised you even show up at work," Draven said in a cold tone, which Aiden failed to catch on. He then turned to Aiden, "Is it alright if I speak to Miranda in her room? I have to discuss information on a new project; it's confidential."

Aiden found no problem with that, evidently clueless.

When the door shut behind them, Miranda was scared to turn to face Draven. When she did, it was worse than she had imagined. He was fuming, flames blaring into his eyes that they appeared red, and it seemed as if smoke was rushing from his nose with every exhale.

Draven shook his head, taking a few seconds to calm down a bit before saying, "I can't believe you would do that to me."

"They deserved to know—"

"When you went into my office to drop those papers, it was then that you left the bug, wasn't it?"

She slowly nodded her head.

He cursed under his breath, and she was surprised when she saw tears swell his eyes as he hissed, "You ruined my life."

She hadn't felt guilty those past weeks, but now she did.

"I was suspended, so many pre-orders are gone, I went from two million to seven hundred thousand. People are sending me death threats, half my staff quit, authors are leaving the agency because of the negative eyeballs right now. Do you realize how much you've done?"

Biting her lip, she herself had tears in her eyes as she breathed, "I never thought it would go this far—"

"Eric isn't even talking to me anymore, and I have no idea where he is. Either way, I'm going to have to fire a great author, because you could not stop your want to bring me down, your own family."

"You never treated me like your own family!" she exclaimed in pain, "You always gave me the hardest work, made me stay late, were always so rude to me when I asked something—"

"I gave you the hardest work since you're the smartest person that can figure it out. When I have writer's block, I give the chapter without an ending to you, since although it's hard to figure out what is wrong, you are able to," he shouted, causing her lips to shut. "You're an amazing editor, and I paid you more than those other staff members you know why? Because you're family. Maybe I didn't treat you as I should have all the time and I'm sorry, but I valued you."

She had never noticed that. He did give her the hardest work, but it was not copying a hundred pages online as he had done to Eric, it was finding a different route in a plot hole, or finding different series of words to make a sentence better.

It was hard work that she was good enough to do.

She reached for him, but he moved away from her, "Please, don't fire me. I'll tell them it was edited—"

"It's too late now," Draven hissed, shaking his head as he forced himself not to let a single tear leak from his eye, "Not only are you fired, but I hope to never see your face again. I'll make sure the news stations know who was the anonymous leak, and we'll see if you ever get hired in a professional agency like this again."