Married Into The Mafia *Undergoing Re-editing*

Bait

UNDER EDITING! DNI!

--Eloise--

"Carly," I breathed out in staggered disbelief. "Carly...how? I...I don't understand. How are you alive?" My hand gravitated over my mouth to mask my shock as I cast my gaze over her for the fifth time already. There was right in front of me. The friend that I haven't seen in three years. What the hell is this? Why was I seeing all of them all of a sudden like this? And, Carly...she was taken by Cooper. By the Devons. They promised to kill her. Like Aaron. And, yet, she was alive. She was alive and standing before me. 

Her eyes flickered over my shoulder to the rowdy crowd up ahead before nodding her head in the opposite direction. "We should go somewhere else for now," she advised before calmly making a start away from me. I couldn't believe the juxtaposition between our reactions. How the hell did she manage to keep her composure like this? We hadn't seen each other in three years after all that we had gone through! 

Nevertheless, I hurried behind her until our paces matched. "Carly. What the hell is going on? How are you here? What happened to you? I thought for sure that-"

"They'd kill me?" She bluntly answered whilst we sauntered down a hall before reaching a set of doors off to the side. Carly tried them and they clicked open. The thick humidity of the outside leaked in as she pushed the doors to a quiet balcony that overlooked the street below. "For the longest time I thought that they would too. A very long time." I listened to her drawl as she walked outside until she was at the railing. I pensively followed, still in recovery of my bafflement. "But, somehow, I'm here. I survived and...for the first time in three years, I feel as if I'll continue to survive," she unfurled out in a diffusing sigh. The soft breeze from this height danced through her blonde locks. They were now short - just above her shoulders - but curled for extravagance. My eyebrows furrowed as I took in her appearance once more before an ache of uncertainty began to settle within my chest. It was almost as if...she looked...like one of them. "Are you wondering how I did it?" 

My eyes raced back up to hers. They were almost devoid of any innocence or naivety. Carly had always been reserved and mature at the end of our friendship, but, now it was replaced with a general fatigue and desensitization. What happened? What happened to her after I escaped? "Carly...I'm sorry," I whispered out as regret pinched the nerves of my heart. That day, I had left without any regard for her or Wendy. I was only thinking about myself. And...admittedly so, I had not thought about them enough these past three years, either. Every time the thought popped into my head, I would suppress it. I didn't want to know what happened to them. I didn't want to be burdened by what might have happened to them whilst I had been given another chance. "I left you and Wendy to fend for yourself even though I was the reason you two became involved in the first place," I mourned with a crack to my voice. My hands covered my face in shame and I turned away. "I'm so sorry. I wish there was something I could have done but I was so sure that...you two had...had...a-and, it hurt me so much to know that I had caused it." 

My snivelling filled the silence between us for a good minute or so as tears ran down my cheeks. I was sure that she would curse me in response to my acknowledgement of what I had done. But, somehow, her wordless stare felt even worse. 

"Wendy's dead," Carly eventually announced, drably, amidst my cries. I snapped my attention back to her but her gaze had drifted on elsewhere. A clench to her jaw flexed the muscles underneath her face before she swallowed away a lump in her throat. "There was nothing that could have prevented it. But, just like you, I blamed myself for it for so long." I watched as she closed her eyes and gripped the rails for support. "Somethings will always be out of our hands, Eloise. There is nothing we can do about it. So, I don't blame you for leaving," she reassured in a peaceful resolution. There was a tranquillity about her that wasn't there before. It was as though she had simply just come to an acceptance many could never reach. "I have...found a life for myself, after all. And, I am okay with it."