Chapter 264: *Ch 279: Simply Not Meant to Be
"I can tell by that look that you aren't happy with me." Orlando frowned as he came toward me, stepping off the last step.
"What reason do I have to be happy with you?" I snipped at him.
"Walk with me, please." Orlando implored as he reached for my hand, but I was sure to keep my distance from allowing him to hold it.
"What do you need?" I bitterly asked him once we started to wander randomly anywhere.
Orlando frowned. "Now, why are you mad?"
Once we neared the large oak tree, I confronted him head-on, exceedingly upset. "You guys gave your testimony to Detective Clark and Heart."
Orlando gave a long sigh as his shoulders lowered for a brief moment. "I couldn't lie," he claimed. "None of us could."
"You're making things more difficult for me." I truthfully shared, yet he didn't understand the real meaning behind it. I am trying to protect them from Kai's deadly wrath. There's a limit when it comes to handling Kai. Orlando and my friends are nearing the maximum of that limit, where I can keep him at bay.
"We're trying to get you away from him!" Orlando snapped. "He's abusive, and you deny it."
"He's not hurting me!" I gnashed, keeping my stance strong. "You need to stay away."
"I love you," Orlando confessed with his heart as he cupped my cheekbones into his hands. "I can't live without you, and I won't because you were always mine."
I shake my face free from his grasp. "You know after Kai left to return home. I went to check on you in your room. Not that it's any of my business, but I heard Ashley and you moaning behind the door." I told him to prove he can move on from me.
Until now, I pushed that memory away from my mind all this time. Sharlene and Mia were aware of it, because they found me silently crying at his door in the Imperial Palace when it happened.
In my new philosophy of thinking, I'm trying to move forward with my life because one day, I'll be a vampiress. Orlando will grow old and die, whereas I'll be immortal. Bottom line, he deserves happiness with someone else, even if that someone is Ashley.
Every day this love I hold for him peels more petals away from the blossom that isn't ready to bloom. Willfully I have to bear the burden of this heartache to let him go. Fate has split us apart, and that's the way it has to be because we are simply not meant to be.
"Why on earth would you assume that was me?" Orlando questioned me in bafflement. His ocean eyes deeper exacerbated in his thoughts. He seriously couldn't believe my words, yet I wasn't buying his act.
"Who else would it be?" I say the obvious. "It's your room, and I know she was staying with you."
Shock and despair made his eyes descend into hollowness. A combination of feelings stunned him to hear me. Then a madding smirk curved his mouth. It was by far creepy to see such hurt pouring from his heart. "You seriously accuse me of doing such a thing!" Orlando gnashed his teeth angrily.
In all our time together, I'd never seen him this incensed at me, so I sighed and accumulated my words carefully.
"Look, it's not my business who you're with." I tried to empathize when he parted his mouth to speak.
"Ashley was with another guy. I let her use my room," he briefly clarified.
I frowned, unsure of what to think. Kai would claim he was lying, and I knew that. But it doesn't matter anymore, Orlando and I simply can't be together.
"I want you to move on and be happy with someone else," I stiffened my lip to say every word while he seemed to process it in his head.
Since he was seemingly dumbfounded, I veered to the side, only for him to seize my elbow before he spun me around and pinned my body between him and the tree.
"Multiple times I told you Ashley was a mistake. That woman you saw me with at the club was also a bad decision. My jealousy got the best of me, which led me to resort my pain to those ladies, but it doesn't mean I don't love you..."
"Orlando, Please—"
"Just hear me out!" I tried talking over him, but he cut me short and continued. "I'm not a womanizer like Kai claims. But I'll admit, I didn't fully understand the pain I put you through when you found me in bed with Ashley. It wasn't until the Imperial Palace that I had to helplessly stand aside and hear the love of my life, making love to the man that kidnapped her for hours on end. Yet you shamefully believe after hearing you with him that I'd ever touch another woman! I love you, and I want you back!"
I wrestled from his lock, shocked that he even dared to say such words to me. Fury and pain pressed on my heart to hear this confession. This is how long it took him to understand the pain he put me through from his adulterous act with Ashley. It tore me deeply, but yet, I dare not waste any more tears.
"We can't be together. Don't let me hold you back from having a future with someone else." I affirmed, breaking his heart along with mine, yet neither of us cried. It seemed that our anguish had now boiled into resentment this time.
"You dare say that to me, yet you're fine being with the very man that abducted you while he cheats behind your back," Orlando snapped so avoidantly that I was frozen in one spot.
"Stop making this harder than it needs to be!" I clamored, yet he ignored my warning and refused to quit.
"Tell me, when you don't see Kai, where do you think he is?" Orlando questioned me, taking his phone from his pocket. "Look at these photos."
I briefly looked to see Kai hanging out with many gorgeous women while he shifted through the pictures with his thumb. Orlando searched my face for any sign of grievance. Yet it felt like he was searching for something else I couldn't decipher.
"As if I care, Orlando!"
I shoved the phone away. After my bold action and reply, I moved onward without peering back at him. I'm well aware of what Kai does behind my back with other women. But what Orlando doesn't realize is Kai isn't cheating. He's tricking those ladies to fulfill his thirst for blood. Once I got home, I learned Kai wasn't home. So I spent my evening alone reading more books about vampires.
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