Psychotic Maniac

Chapter 20

He'd be fucking lying if he pretended to care about Jay's absence or to share a downpour of tears with Estella on how incomplete life had become because, in reality, Edward Churchill Blake wasn't.

He barely knew him, and when he couldn't even bond with his own stepmother, then Jay might be the last person he could care about. Though, he was sure that despite any effort made, he had respect for him. The main reason might be Estella. She had a lot of him in herself. Determined and willing and not easy to bend. He hated that sometimes as it was hard to be himself completely whenever she was around, but deep down he liked the chase. It kept him on edge but he was into her so much to even give a care anymore.

She had his attention, wanted, or not. He wasn't going away. Not ever.

Six weeks.

Six weeks it had been since the official end of happiness of Sergeants and he had been with her, almost every possible time he could. Her home was no more the home he saw but a depression asylum; Lilah still on emotional crack. He missed her coffee and that bright smile whenever she made one for him. Thinking about her made him question how much different Vanessa was from Lilah!

Probably the same.

So why it wasn't easy to like Vanessa, but Lilah?

Mrs. Jones was right. She was always right and he was the ignorant bastard always trying to prove her wrong.

Edward was reluctant with his hate. It was the only constant emotion in his life; strong, unmoving, and fiercely addicting. It gave him the motivation to feed his agendas.

Tanya Singh—her only other friend in her life other than Beck. Estella's high school buddies joined her in her grief but eventually, they had to return to their life, leaving her back on her own- sad, pissed at even the minor things, and in utter torture.

And among all the things, Tanya was becoming the constant person he didn't want her to have. Friendships ran deeper and thicker than blood and sometimes, even a storm could never shake its foundation.

However, Tanya was bearable only because she stayed with Estella as much as time she could give considering her line of work, and when she wasn't around, he was for her. What else could be the best opportunity other than to swoop in her weakest moment and make her realize that he was worth the guy she should dream about.

In those six weeks, things changed. Estella carried her life as if the havoc in her life wasn't the permanent damage to her family. She was trying to stay firm, probably for her mother. Together they would go for long walks to clear out their head, in the cemetery. But at the end of the day, it was taking them nowhere.

Lilah refused to open up and Estella decided to give her time to come in terms with her grief on her own. But if there was anything he knew so much about other than hate, then it was grief and that it could take forever to heal the wounds or fill up the emptiness. It stays with you forever.

Edward shuffled through his closet and dug out a photograph that was kept underneath the bundle of files and binders.

Turning it over, he caught the beautiful pair of blue eyes and thick curtains of brown hair cascading down her shoulder and breast. Her smile could cure the deepest of scars. Glancing down, he spotted the kid, curled on her lap, his expression somewhere between crying and trying to smile. Edward didn't remember when it was clicked, but the background of the ocean at their back told him it was clicked somewhere around the house.

He and his mother, Jiah.

The sudden glimpse of his mother jolted a smile on his lips.

The bare memory that always clicked on his mind whenever he saw her photograph was when he went to kindergarten. His age was too young to retain that memory but it was the only memory he had lived over and over again.