His Saviour {wmbw}

-Chapter 29-

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-Two weeks later-

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Chris sat on the bottom staircase inside his mansion as he cautiously looked around the place.

Today was his Father's funeral, a day that he's been dreading ever since it was announced that he was dead. For the past two weeks all that's been playing in his head is the sound of his father's voice saying he loved him mere seconds before he died. He's dreamed to hear those words ever since he was a little kid, but it wasn't how he had expected it to go. He wanted to face him, to look into his eyes and told him that despite everything, despite all the trauma he had inflected on him, despite their complicated relationship, despite him choosing to hate him for his own benefit of the doubt, that he loved him too. But he would never get the chance to.

He glanced over at the wall at where a large picture of Phillip was hung up, before slowly shifting his eyes away and continuing to look around the place. Despite growing up in this mansion, he never felt more like a stranger being inside it as he did right and then. The feeling he felt as he sat on those stairs was almost unexplainable, but in his heart, he had never felt so empty.

Minutes later, he heard footsteps walking down the stairs and he slowly turned his head around to see Cecelia heading down the stairs. 

As she made her way to him, he slowly stood up and turned to face her. She flashed a warm smile at him, before going to help him to tie his tie, but despite her genuine smile, he could still easily spot the pain and grief in her eyes. As much as she tried to be strong for him, the feeling of loss and dismay was so powerful that he could feel it whenever he was around her, and he knew she would continue to feel that way for the rest of her life.

"How are you feeling?" he spoke up, as he stared down at her.

Cecelia flickered her eyes back up to face him. "I should be asking you that" she smiled once again, as she finished tying his tie.

"He was the love of your life" Chris uttered.

"And he was your father..." Cecelia slowly ran her hands down the fabric of suit, as she let out a quiet sigh. She closed her eyes shut and opened it back up seconds later, before locking her eyes deeply into his.

They stood in silence for a brief while. Chris hung his head low as Cecelia placed both her hands on his shoulder. She felt his body begin to tense up a little, before speaking up.

"Precious told me earlier that you both decided to take a gap year of from College" she uttered briefly.

"Yeah..." Chris muttered, rubbing his eyes together, before lifting his head back up to face her. "We graduate High School in about two and a half weeks and after that, we both just need a break for a while. There's so many things we wanna do first and so many places we wanna go, and I really can't think about College right now... I can't think about anything" he stated in a low and quiet tone.

"Well you know after I graduated High School many years ago, I waited seven years to go to College because of money issues. My mama told me to go to community college and forget Stanford, but it was always my dream to go there so I worked endless jobs and finally saved up enough to put myself there when I turned twenty-five. I'm glad I did otherwise I never would've met your father" she stated, whilst trying not to choke up on her words.

Chris took her hand and slowly lifted it up, and she glanced back up at him as a small smile began to spread across her face once again. 

Moments later, they heard footsteps and chattering and they quickly turned around to see Precious heading down the stairs, along with Valentina who had flew from New York a couple days before for the funeral.