Bab 75: 2.44
No, it hadn't been over. Alex exhausted me for hours before finally leaving to shower. I clutched the bedsheets, curled up in the foetal position, my chest aching with each heaving breath.
Were all men like this when they'd gone so long without it?
"Hannah?" Holly called out from the doorway, making me pull the blanket to cover everywhere except my head. "Are you okay?"
"I'm tired," I muttered, my throat horse. There was no way Holly didn't know what had been going on in this room. She was sixteen, not six. Still, I felt too vulnerable and exposed under her innocent, deep blue eyes.
"What's wrong?" I groggily sat up, still holding the blanket up to my neck, conscious of the marks left behind.
"Leo says his dad is coming," she took a few shaky steps forward, stumbling to fall just as she reached the bed. All my own drama and insecurities disappeared as I let the blanket fall to hold her steady beside me.
She let out a gasp and blushed, steadying herself to sit on the bed beside me.
I wasn't sure which of our faces was redder as I leaned over the edge of the bed to grab my t-shirt and put it back on.
Once semi-dressed I felt more confident to continue the conversation.
"Mr. Clark's coming?" I twisted my face with obvious displeasure. The man was a great politician, but a shitty husband and father. What Ivy saw in the man to be such a daddy's girl, neither Hannah nor I could understand.
"Y-yeah, what is he like? Leo doesn't really talk…" she began biting at her thumbnail anxiously. I grabbed her hand, pulling it to my lap, not wanting those pretty fingers ruined.
"A dick, so someone as lovely as you shouldn't give a shit what he thinks, Leo certainly doesn't," there was a reason Leo had not once asked me about his parents, only concerned for Ivy. Though I had avoided the conversation with him, before my coma there was a silent understanding that he had to wait for Will to know the answer and it wasn't good.
My only concern was Mr. Clark getting involved in my life. I knew Leo wouldn't be like Ivy, an idiot who trusted him blindly. He'd stay by Holly's side. He wasn't a weak man easily controlled by his family, he wasn't like Noah. Unfortunately, Holly reminded me too much of a goody-two-shoes version of Hannah.
In the other timeline, Mr. Clark had tried to use Hannah politically in his cold war with General Lee. Hannah too blinded by her love for her brother, whose guilt for having failed to protect his daughter, they were both played in his hands like putty.
Ensuring I was washed and had covered every inch of Alex's 'branding' on my skin I ventured into the living room with Holly to find Will and Noah chatting with Leo on the sofa. My knees almost gave out in fright, my heels firmly pressing into the floorboards reluctant to move forward.
Why was Noah here too?
"Han, Holly, nice of you to finally join us," Will smiled slyly, his eyes narrowed on my neck where I feared a mark was peeping over the turtleneck jumper.
Reluctantly, I allowed Holly to drag me to sit awkwardly wedged between her and Noah on the three-seater sofa.
During the conversation, I found myself forced to partake in, I noticed Alex swiftly exit the apartment, not even at least sparing a glance in my direction.
Without even knocking, Mr. Clark entered the apartment shortly after, with two aides carrying bottles of wine and what looked like takeout Chinese food.
"Leo," his voice was loud and dominant, like an actor on a stage, as he greeted his son. Then he turned to pat Will on the shoulder, giving an appreciative nod.
"Noah, fancy seeing you here? It's like you two boys are attached at the hip," he chuckled, then finally turned to us girls. "Hannah, it's pleasant to see you well," his eyes drifted to my stomach, behind the fake smile I saw the disdain, "and you must be Holly, Will briefly mentioned you were a student in Leo's class?"
My fists unintentionally clenched hearing the underlying disdain continue to the sweet young girl beside me. It was one thing for him to look down on me, considering Hannah's background of alcohol, drugs, and skipping class, but Holly was a good girl who never touched drugs and got straight A's. Sure she was from divorced middle-class parents, but these were the very people that put him in the position he so proudly showed off.
"Yes, sir, it's an honour to meet you," she blushed, lowering her gaze.
I unashamedly tucked into the Chinese takeaway food, not caring how they managed to get it inside an army barracks during the apocalypse, and gazed longingly at the wine whilst the men mainly talked about future plans for the base.
When the alcohol had kicked in Leo, Will and Mr. Clark began talking about Ivy, I found myself joining in, relishing in the brief happy memories she had left behind for me to enjoy.
The alcohol had taken its toll on Holly, who had barely touched the stuff before, so I excused us to take her into bed.
"I'm really fine," Holly blushed as I pushed her to the bed, trying to hold in my laughter as she missed her seat, sliding off the edge of the bed onto the floor.
"Come on now, be a good girl," I teased, prodding her nose, then stripped her down to her top and undies and tucked her in. She went to sleep without a fight.
Hearing the men still talking in the living room I took this opportunity to escape to my own bed and finally get the sleep I'd been longing for all day.
Tossing the clothes aside I slid under the covers in just my knickers, enjoying the feel of the soft warm duvet against my cold skin.
Just as I drifted off to sleep someone knocked at the door. Had Holly woken up? Remembering the way Hannah used to wake up when just as drunk, all the vomit. I shuddered, hoping Holly hadn't been sick. Leo could clean that up.
"Come in," I groggily forced my eyes open.
The door opened, flooding the room with light from the hallway, then closed making the room seem darker than before.
"What is it?" I asked, sitting up and fumbling for my t-shirt. A firm grip enclosed my wrist just as it landed on the top.
"Fuck," I flinched, trying to pull my hand back from their grip. My eyes adjusted quickly to the lack of light, thanks to System, to see Noah's enraged face.
"Did he do that?" His eyes looked through the dark directly at my chest. How could he see like me? Unless… It dawned on me how it had been staring me in the face this whole time.
"Noah you have a System," I didn't even ask, I just stated, knowing full well the man in front of me was an immortal like me.
His void-like eyes widened, then narrowed, examining every inch of me unashamedly.
"Who are you?" His voice was harsh and filled with pain. Had he loved Hannah in that other timeline? If so, that was not the kind of love I'd be willing to endure.
"Shouldn't you introduce yourself first," I turned my head away to avoid losing myself in his eyes?
He scoffed, aggressively shoving away my wrist.
"Since when?" He sat at the edge of the bed, arms folded, still on guard.
"Since just after she travelled back in time," I bit my lip, moving right up to the headboard, bringing my knees defensively to my chest.
I felt killing intent fill the room as he pieced it all together in his head.
"So, you are the one who killed Izzy…"
Fuck. Fuck. Fuck. If I shouted Will would he hear me? Would he even protect me?
"N-no," I grabbed a pillow to hide behind, "she killed them both after finding Johnathan and Ivy dead, then dragged me in."
All the emotions Hannah felt at that time when she reached the point of sheer hopelessness, her fear to endure those years of hell just to watch her daughter die all over again.
Then just as she took her last breath she heard the sound of Will reacting to Ivy and the babe outside. Filled with so much regret she died listening helplessly to the sound of her brother crying a wall away.
Unable to cope with Hannah's lingering pain and memories, I found myself crying out loud like a maniac, rocking back and forth.
All the emotions I had been suppressing since I'd entered this body unravelled one by one as I found myself too weary, too tired, to cope with it all.
Hadiah
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