CHAPTER 54: FORGIVENESS
ALEXA’S POV
” You are already up,” My eyes looked away from the window and looked at the door when I heard James’ voice.
” You are here,” I sadly replied and stood up.
” Well, this is my house,” He jokingly said while walking towards me and carrying a tray. I smiled somehow.
After my conversation with Cassie and telling her the whole truth, I decided to leave the house because of the pain I was feeling during that time. She did not even bother to stop me because it seemed like she was shocked by what I had revealed. After I left that day, I tried to call Rhea, but her phone was busy, so I decided to drop by James’ house. When I arrived, he was still there, so he let me in and stayed there for a couple of days now.
” What is wrong?” I came back to my senses when I heard James speak with a worried tone. I only realized that he was in front of me and had already put down the tray he was holding earlier.
” Everything,” I replied and faked a laugh.
James let out a heavy sigh and pulled a chair to sit beside me, ” You know, your situation was not entirely wrong. Let’s just say that you are all victims of fate,”
” What if he knew from the start? What if Cassie’s right when she said that maybe Ken simply liked me because I exactly looked the same with Cassie,” I asked questions one after another.
” I do not know how to answer that since I am not Ken. But what I know, I love you and even if you sat beside Cassie, I know that you are the woman I love,” He sincerely stated.
” Thank you, James.” I smiled.
He shook his head and said, ” Do not thank me. If I said the truth to you before that she was still alive, maybe this did not happen and you are not in pain right now,”
” James, you have no fault on that. Maybe, that was the only way you know to protect me,” I said and gently held his hand to assure him it was fine. He already told me the truth.
” But Lex, your parents were already worried about you. Do you still not want to go home?” He suddenly asked and looked into my eyes.
” I do not know, James. Everything happened was too painful for me. My own twin sabotaged me. The man I love betrayed me. I do not know if I can face them,” I admitted.
” Lex, one person at a time. Who do you want to talk first? The person you want to make things clear,” James asked, but I remained silent.
” I am not forcing you to reconcile with them. I just wanted you to hear their side rather than you are overthinking it,” James thoughtfully stated. I do understand his point, but I do not know where to start to fix my life.
” Okay! If you do not want to reconcile, I will not force you but please send a message to your parents. They are so worried about you,” He advised and stood up.
” You should eat your breakfast. I will just do something downsatir,” James stated.
” Thank you,” I softly said. He simply smiled and went out of the room.
I let out a sigh. I know it was bad to sow negative emotions. Still, the wound created by those negative emotions was too big to be quickly healed. Rather than thinking negatively, I decided to eat what James had prepared for me. Afterward, I went to the comfort room to take a shower. I have some clothes that were sent by Sebastian here in James’ house. He did it maybe because he knew I would not come home when I still had resentful feelings. When Sebastian visited me yesterday, he mentioned that there were multiple times Ken went over the house. Still, for the benefit of everyone, Sebastian did not say where I was.
When I exited the comfort room, I heard some loud discussion outside my room, so I decided to look at it. It seemed like the noise was coming from the first floor, so I went down to look.
” I know she is here. Let me talk to my sibling,” I saw Cassie begging while James was trying his best not to let Cassie pass through him.
” Cassie, can you listen to me first. She is not yet ready to talk to you. If you forced her to talk to you, it can be so disastrous to the both of you,” James stated while not letting Cassie go from his arms.
” James, will you let go of me, or will I shout?” Cassie threatened, but James did not move at all.Property of Nô)(velDr(a)ma.Org.
” Let me handle this from here, James. Thank you,” I could not do anything but show up to Cassie because I knew she would do what she said. I do not want to add more stress to James because of my problem.
” Are you sure?” James worriedly asked and looked into my eyes.
I slightly nodded and said, ” It was you who told me that I should face my problem to figure out the solution,”
” All right, I will leave you both here to talk. I will prepare some snacks for Cassie,” he replied, letting go of Cassie. Cassie stands up properly.
I did not say a word and started walking toward the living room. I felt Cassie silently follow me. When we arrived there, we both sat down parallel to each other.
” Alexa,” Cassie called me to get my attention. I looked at her even if I wanted to say many things to her. But it seemed like my tongue had stepped back.
” You are not required to speak because I know you are a crybaby. I simply wanted you to listen to me first, then you could tell me what you want to say afterward,” She said, but I remained quiet.
Cassie let out a heavy sigh before speaking again, ” After you left the house, Sebastian came and talked to me. He said everything I should know. I am sorry for hating you without knowing the side of your story. I am sorry if I planned to sabotage you rather than hearing your explanation. I am sorry if I let my anger ruled over my life,”
I saw how Cassie tried to hold her tears, so she gasped for air to gather her thoughts before she spoke, ” I know I am not deserving of your forgiveness because of the extent of pain I did to you. But I want you to know that I regret everything I did to y-you,”
I looked into her eyes when I heard her voice crack down. I breathed deeply to arrange my thoughts before talking, ” I did not know what happened to you that day, but inside those two years that I thought you died, I always blamed myself because I did not help you. I could not save you without knowing that you were alive. I was so happy when I saw you at my birthday party. I was so happy that you are alive, but I could not accept the fact that you did bad things because of your anger,”
” I am sorry,” Cassie said. I shook my head and stood up.
I sat beside her and gently held her hand, ” But you know, even if you did that to me, I could not hate you or think about taking revenge on you because I love you so much. You are more important than any anger I felt, anything or anyone in my life,”
The last words I stated made Cassie cry even more, so I hugged her tightly and let her cry in my arms. Even my tears started flowing from my eyes. We remained in that position for a few minutes until Cassie calmed down.
” I am sorry, Alexa. I know that I was wrong and if I could only reset the time, I will make things right. I wasted two years for nothing,” She said, but I smiled at her and shook my head.
“We could no longer look back on those things we did from the past. Whether our decision was right or wrong, it will remain in the past. The important thing there was we learned. And we are ready to face the future with a stronger and better version of ourselves,” I sincerely comforted her with my words.
Cassie smiled at me and said, ” I only gone for two years, but you seemed more mature right now. I am happy that even if I was not on your side, you became stronger.”
” I did not do it alone. Our parents are there. Even Sebastian, Rhea, Caleb, and —” I stopped talking when I remembered what happened in the parking lot a few days ago.
” And Ken?” Cassie continued what I was saying in a not confident manner. I nodded slightly.
” He was too different, right? He showed love and care to those he loved in exceptional ways,” Cassie commented and smiled. Seeing her smile right now reminded me of how she smiled every time she talked about his boyfriend from the States.
” Lex,” I did not know the reason precisely. Still, I felt the nervousness in my body when I saw Cassie’s facial expression shift to a serious one.
” Y-yes?” I stammered.
” I have a favor to ask,”
TO BE CONTINUED!