Professor C (camren)

35 - Unfurl

***I'm debating on writing an epilogue or not. But I most likely won't. So, from the bottom of my heart, thank you for coming on this journey with me. It's been wild. I appreciate every single one of you!!!! So now, Graceless fans can celebrate. I only have one ongoing story left. BAHAHAHAHA Also, please use Ecosia.org as a search engine. Let's help save the planet one tree at a time.

Dinah climbed down the stairs after debating on staving off her curiosity or indulging it. Her decision was made when she realized the couple would end up sharing what happened with her, especially Lauren. If she didn't, Dinah would have fun prying it out of her.

At the foot of the stairs, she could see the open front door and next to it was another couple sharing a kiss. She felt a smile settle on her lips marred with sympathy as she thought of the years they had to endure hiding their love – Darnell being introduced as a friend while he watched Luca parade his wife. She couldn't imagine how it must have felt, and the knowledge of it being a ruse wouldn't pacify the sting every time he witnessed them kiss.

Another couple that convinced her she had no business dating in the near future.

From the corner of her eye, she found Elf pulling Milo by the hand, most likely up the stairs to his foster mother. She could already feel an affectionate smile take shape in her lips but then she looked up to see Milo's face, her eyes as wide as sauces, her fair skin ashen, and when she followed her gaze, she imagined she wore the same expression.

"What sorts of distasteful people have you surrounded yourself with, Luca?" Matilda's voice came like a destructive tsunami, tearing the couple apart and shattering all in her way. Even Milo took a step back.

Hurt instantly flashed in Darnell's eyes, feeling the burn of Luca's hands pushing him on the shoulders. They were the same hands that cupped his cheeks with delicate care just seconds ago. Luca hurriedly swiveled to face his mother, his trembling hand covering his swollen mouth and he took a swipe at it as if he was erasing remnants of the man he loved. He avoided his mother's scathing eyes and whatever blend of emotions stirred it. He imagined disappointment and pain, and some sort of trepidation and horror but he had no doubt disgust beamed the brightest if her derisive tone was anything to go by.

"Is this why you filed for divorce? Have you lost your mind? What will they say?"

"Cammie and I, we weren't happy, mother." Luca mumbled, a pitiful jumble of words that reminded him of Elf when he was in trouble. He couldn't hear much of his voice with the rapid beat of his heart ricocheting in his skull.

It wasn't much but it was more than Dinah expected from him. She hadn't expected him to speak up at all.

"You're not happy?! That's it? Your father and I are not always happy but that's no reason to be hasty and file for divorce." Matilda quickly refuted, a mocking lilt spiked up like a sharp dissonance to a melody, citing her own marriage as if they were some model couple but Luca knew better. "Surely, you can reconcile if you have had a little tryst with another woman or—" She cast a menacing glare towards Darnell but refused to acknowledge what she had just seen or its implications. "Yours is not the first marriage to be struck by infidelity. It won't be the last. But we make sacrifices for the people we love."

"You mean he has to make sacrifices for your benefit?" Milo interrupted much to everyone's surprise, the volume of her voice a notch louder with every word as years of suppressed sentiments and emotions fueled her resolve. "For the people who don't feed him and clothe him? For the people who don't care about him? Or is it because your homophobia is quivering at the thought that your son is gay."

Dinah jumped at the power pulsating in the rhetorical question. Unknowingly, she was accepting Elf's hand from Milo, who was leisurely inching her way towards Matilda. She could almost see all the pent up anger rise like lava in a volcano and with all the right conditions, she was about to erupt. Milo was a good friend and that was despite the fact that Luca never stood up for her.