The Two Kings (Afterlife Saga) (128 page)

“Draven
,
” I said again hearing my own voice in a dream was a bit like catching a glimpse of yourself reflecting from a window in a passing car. One second you were there like someone else and the next you were gone like a distant memory. It was getting hard to follow which me I was playi
ng out but I knew one thing, no
matter which one of us it was, for the first time tonight I felt comfort in the arms that had held me.

The daylight blaring through my window was what woke me from my slumber. I threw an arm ove
r my eyes and rolled over to lie
on my back until my sleepiness subsided. I started to replay my night like a flicker book of events. It was hard to imagine waking up from a day like that and still finding the truth it had actually happened. It was when I got to the end of my
private book that
a memory made me bolt upright. It was last night, when I was dreaming while awake. I remember falling asleep on the chair by the window. I remember seeing Ava, calling out his name, feeling as though floating but there was something else. I had actually woken a few time
s
in the night to see a figure standing over me, watching...guarding me.

Had it been Draven? Had he really come to me? I couldn’t be sure but who else? So many questions with no way to get to the answers. I wanted it to be him and if that was the case then what did it mean, had I forgiven the night so easily? I shook my he
ad as if that would help sort
out all the jumbled thoughts inside my mind, it didn’t but that’s when I felt something. Soft and velvety. I looked down to discover my caller had left me a gift. A beautiful gift.

A blood red rose.

One
,
tied halfway down the
thorn
less
ste
m with a deep purple ribbon. I picked it up and place
d it under my nose to inhale it
s sweet scent deeply. It was from Draven. My first flower from my first love. I turned it around in my fingers and took in ever
y
curve of its beauty. It was perfect in every way, every petal tucked in
at just the right point, where
as other
s
spread out around the bud
as if
loving the show. To a
nyone else it would just
have been a flower but to me it was a symbol and that symbol was forgiveness. At that point I wanted to get up and race to his side like an invisible cord was tugging on my ribs. Of course
,
when my cousin knocked on my door
, that put an
end to that little romantic fantasy.

“Can I come in?” Hilary asked me
,
which in itself was astonishing. She had only opened the door a fraction of an inch and when I didn’t answer she opened it further to gauge my reaction. I nodded instead of throwing a shoe at her like I wanted to do. I wasn’t in the mood to go through all this again but when I could actually see her face I was shocked. She didn’t look angry, aggravated or aggressive, quite the opposite...she looked sad. I must have been frowning because the first thing out of her mouth was her reason for being here.

“Look
,
I know that
the
last thing you want right now is to see me
,
but I couldn’t wait anymore, I mean I thought you would never wake up
.
” Although this sounded like she was having a dig at me it wasn’t the case.

“Why, what time is it?” I as
ked trying to take my eyes off
her black eye, cut nose and split lip. Man
,
I had really done a number on her last night. I bet she was wondering why there wasn’t a mark on me, well if she was, then she was hiding the fact.

“It’s getting on for half four
.
” She said after taking out her mobile phone to check. It was then that I notice
d
what she was wearing. It was the most casual I had seen her, in only a pair of loose fitted jeans and a baggy, grey jogging sweater. She had her hair pulled back in a high pony tail and no makeup. If you asked me it was the most attractive she had looked since she had been here. I mean my cousin wasn’t ugly, just an over baked cake as my gran would have put it. Sometimes less was more and even though she had the clear signs of a beating she still looked good.

“Jack called, of course he wouldn’t talk to me but he did leave a message for you. He will be round here about sixish
.
” She didn’t sound even bitter when she said this and I was starting to think I had woken up in the twilight zone.

“I have to ask, why are you here talking to me like last night had never happened...actually scrap that, more like the las
t sixteen years never happened?
”

“Oh don’t get me wrong, last night I hated you more than I think I ever have but someone came round here this morning and gave me something
.
” Her eyes burned into mine at the point of remembering last night but where I thought they would retain the heat, they fizzled out. Now she just looked full of regret and forgiveness.

“What? A personality transplant, new soul or let me guess, a defrosted heart
?
” I said sarcastically which I regretted after seeing her wince.

“I guess I deserve that
.” Damn
straight
,
but that didn’t make me feel any better for it.

“Yes you do, but that doesn’t make it right, please go on
.
”

“Dominic came round to see me this morning” I don’t think I could have looked more shocked.

“WHAT!” I shouted feeling the jealous rage bubbling up inside me like a bouncing kettle on the stove. No wonder she was being nice, this was all a ploy, it had to be.

“Keira please, calm down and let me finish...please
.
” She held her hand out for me to sit back down as I had jumped out of bed and was storming around the room.

“ He wasn’t nice to me Keira, actually he was a bit scary and if you ask me he has anger issues but what he said worked. Hell I would have been terrified not to do what he asked. He said that I needed to look at some facts and realise some home truths before harbouring onto a hate that was very misplaced. He really
does sound kind of old fashioned
sometimes doesn’t he?” Wow she had no idea! My mind reeled, Draven had come here and didn’t come up to see me?

“He asked about you, I told him you were still sleeping and he didn’t want to disturb you, so he left after giving me the folder
.
”

“Folder?” I asked her but
I
remembered the answer to it before she replied. Last night I had asked Draven for it back to help Hilary realise
the truth. So that’s what this wa
s all about...great! Nice Hilary will be lasting all of ten minutes then.

“Yeah, the police folder, I don’t know how the hell he got it but he told me to look a
t it. At first I didn’t want to
because I didn’t want to feel anything for you but hate. He made me swear I would and he’s a hard man to say no to. So this morning I took a walk and read it.”

“I don’t need your pity Hilary, so you can save it for someone who gives...”

“I don’t pity you! I...I admire you. I had no idea what had happened, well I mean not the details. Mum had told me only half of it as she thought it would have upset me, she still likes to believe we
’
re friends. But I had no idea what you actually went through, yet here you are still breathing, still fighting
!
” She touched her face and smirked.

“You always did have a wild streak
.
” And then she laughed, m
aking it sound weird without it
s fakeness coating it.

“It actually got me angry to know what he did to you and I cou
ldn’t understand why I would feel
that way. I mean I have hated you for so long it felt wrong to feel anything else. I’m going to be honest, the only reason I came here was to see how broken and miserable you were
.
” Well those were my theories confirmed.

“Of course
,
when I saw how happy you looked and then that ridiculously gorgeous boyfriend of your
s
showed up I couldn’t stand it. I wanted to take it from you, to destroy all that happiness, like you did to mine.” I started to shake my head but she got up and threw her hands up like I was blind.

“I don’t understand, what the hell did I ever do to you?” I asked making her face flush red with a hint of anger she was trying to control.

“Do you know that when we were kids you were my best friend
?
” I had known this, I mean I still had a friendship bracelet in my childhood memor
y box at home. I had even got
it out a few time
s
ready to burn but found myself just stuffing it back in the bottom with frustration.

“And you were mine
,
but all I know is that one day we were attached at the hip and then the next, you hated my guts and made fun of me in front of all our friends. Then you and your mum moved away. Then when you came back a fe
w years later,
you made it your mission t
o make my life miserable and to
this day I have no idea, no single clue as to why!” She actually laughed
,
but it was so lacking in humour that it sent a chill down my spine.

“I didn’t think you did. You were the reason my father left
.
” She said with her arms folded, staring at me like she had a lifetime
’
s worth of blame in those eyes. Those eyes that started to well up with pain and a relentless hatred.

“WHAT!” I shouted not allowing myself to believe a word.

“It’s true, you told your mum that you had seen my dad kissing another woman and because of THAT, my mother kicked him out when he had nowhere else to go! She wouldn’t even let him come to see me. YOU ruined my life, you broke up my family while you still got to kee
p yours! Why was that fair? WHY
?” She was losing it now and I had tears
in my eyes at all the years
lost because of such a misunderstanding.

“Oh my God! Hilary is that
the only reason you have hated me all these years?”

“The only reason?
What would be another reason greater! You ruined my
life Keira, isn’t that enough?”She stormed back over to me
to shout in my face but I got off the other side of the bed so that I wasn’t beneath her. I held up my hands in a
n ‘I come in peace’ kind
of way.

“Hilary, that wasn’t me
!
” At this her eyes spilled over with tears that landed on the carpet.

“Yeah right, of course you would say that!”

“Hilary
,
has your mum not talked to you about this, I mean
,
told you what really happened?” She looked both angry
and confused whic
h made her forehead wrinkle and I c
an imagine it was painful given
her bruised face and cut nose.

“Look Hilary
,
I think you need to talk to your mum,
‘
cause it wasn’t me that told anyone anything. I didn’t even know anything about your dad leaving until
you guys moved away. My mum just
kept telling me he was away on business because she didn’t want to upset me. She knew I was fond of my Uncle
.
” I was trying to reason with her and my voice found a very gentle, low volume.

“NO! You
’
r
e
lying! You must be lying...I ...I can’t be wrong. Are you telling the truth because, so help me God if you’re not Kaz then I wouldn’t be able to hold myself back!” She looked so past furious I was getting ready for an attack which I didn’t have the heart for. Now I knew why it didn’t matter about the past she had put me through, like letting open a window for it all to blow away with the wind. I didn’t want to fight any
more, she wasn’t the only one exhausted.

“Ring you
r
mum Hilary, demand the truth and if she refuses then ring my mum and I will make her tell you what you deserve to know. You have a right!”

“Yes...Yes I will, I will ring her now, I don’t care what time it is.” And with that she left my room in a desperate state.

I got into the shower without really knowing what I was doing. It was like I was operating on autopilot. I just couldn’t believe all these years she had thought that I had been the reason for the greatest loss in her life. She idolised her father, always had but when he left it was like he had taken a bit of her w
ith him. She came back not quite
whole but the part of her had filled with bitterness and rebellion. I know for a fact that her father had been caught having an af
fair, but only years later and
well after the fact. It had never really been explained to me why he had left and I remember feeling very vulnerable, wondering if a lot
of dad
s did this and praying my dad never would. I think I did all the washing up for a whole year just in case.