Black Castle 🖤 E. Mikaelson

Chapter Forty•Six. Over & Over Again

Chapter Forty•Six. Over & Over Again
ELIJAH
{To Love Someone Else by Avery Lynch}

🖤
You know you make me feel good
And that's something i don't take for granted lately, no
Those eyes, that smile, yeah it glows
But I can't help feeling like something's missing though
🖤

It was a little after twelve when someone opened the door to Arabella's dress shop while she was working on her current client's dress. She was hemming pieces together, completely disregarding whoever could have been coming through that door.

"I'll be with you in a moment!" She shouted without looking up. She continued to hem what she needed until she came to a point where she could stop and come back to it. That took a couple of minutes, but it wasn't too long to make whoever came to see her, walk right back out. As soon as she stood up from her seat, she made her way to the front, expecting a waiting bride-to-be, but instead, Arielle and Elise were waiting with excited smiles.

"W-what are you two doing here?" She was curious, and she wanted to be upset as to why they were out of school, but then Marcel walked through the door. He looked happy and content for once and for the life of him he looked undoubtedly handsome in a suit. She wondered what the occasion was because the girls were in regular clothes while he looked like he was ready for a wedding. "Did you pick them up?"

"I did not," He chuckled while looking around the building. He hadn't stepped into California for a good fifty years and there was a great reason for it. "Elijah picked them up. I'm here to make sure you get to where we need to go. Since these two can't drive."

"Soon, Uncle Marcel, soon." Arielle gave an evil smirk and it made Arabella laugh. Once her laughing stopped she questioned why they were there again, and why Elijah was calling shots to send for Arabella. It didn't matter though because she couldn't leave. The dress she was working on was due in five days and she had so much left to do.

"What are any of you doing here?" She was still confused on that part. And even though Marcel didn't have anything to do with Elijah, he was still going to show up for Arabella. Arabella and Marcel had become so close, it almost was like they were family, and Arabella knew how quickly that would change the moment he found out what she had done, though he wasn't bothered with thinking about it because something more important was happening.

Before anyone could answer her, the door opened again, and in walked Elijah, in a tuxedo instead of his regular suit and his shirt was a light flowery color rather than his original white, blue, or black button-down. Arabella's eyebrows lowered as her breath caught in her throat because it wasn't his presence that caught her off guard. It was the idea of Elijah not being able to get any more handsome than he already was. It was the idea that he would probably look the same no matter what he wore but he looked so different to her. In California, he looked like a completely different man and Arabella couldn't help but silently swoon as he looked at their daughters first and then looked up at Arabella and smiled.
She remained confused when he walked around Marcel and the twins, he and Marcel were dressed for a specific occasion, but the girls were not because they were still dressed in their uniforms. She stared down at them, then she glanced up at Elijah as he stopped in front of her and gave her the very smirk she loved most about him. She didn't want to smile though, she didn't want him standing in front of her. There he was though, and he was giving her a serious case of butterflies. Arabella didn't realize Elijah took her left hand in his and brought it up so they were both looking at her naked finger. In the meantime, Elijah knew exactly what he was doing, Arabella on the other hand had no coffee when she woke up, or the several hours she was spending in the dress shop so she couldn't piece together what the hell he was doing. It didn't come to her until Elijah pulled out the very ring that sat in her jewelry box no one knew she had because he kept it in a certain place no one would be able to find it.
"I would ask how, but I already know the answer to that." She kindly took her hand back from him and looked at the girls awkwardly before looking up at Elijah again. "Now my next question is this; what are you doing with it?"
"I'm keeping my promises." His direct eye contact made her feel like she was being held underneath a microscope and that made her swallow hard.
She didn't want to fall for it, she didn't. But the way he looked at her, and the way their daughters looked at them together with so much love in their eyes. Arabella couldn't help but falter underneath his stare. She licked her lips and looked away when she thought about falling for his lies all over again. She wanted to deny his advances, so she couldn't fully trust herself knowing that she wasn't saying anything to make him stop. She couldn't try to deny him and yet she was falling for everything she was fighting so hard to ignore.
"What makes today any different, 'Lijah?" She looked down at her hands holding one another, as she tried to keep her tears inside. She wanted no more tears and she couldn't tell if they were from sadness or happiness.
"Today is different," He took a sharp breath in, and slowly let it out as he regained his confidence because he knew that he would have to go through a million rejections with her before he ever received an acceptance. He was relieved to hear that she wasn't pushing him away at that time, but she just asked a simple question. "because there is nothing more I would rather do today or any other day. Than to make you my wife. I have made many mistakes that jeopardized the relationship I had with you. And I'm going to continue to make mistakes. But this is not one of them. I will be making everything up to you for the rest of my life, but I want to do it by your side. Standing next to you, showing our girls that I will be doing everything inhumanly possible to show them that this, us apart, is not us."