Chapter 14:Ghosts Of Yesterday
464 Words
The café was nearly empty, save for the hum of an old espresso machine and the flicker of a single bulb overhead. Leah sat across from Daniel, her hands wrapped tightly around her cup though the coffee inside had long gone cold.
She had agreed to see him again....needed to see him,but every step here had filled her with guilt, like Arielle’s eyes followed her even beyond the mansion walls.
Daniel leaned forward, elbows on the table, eyes searching hers. “You’re too thin,” he said quietly. “She’s draining the life out of you.”
Leah looked away, lips pressing into a trembling line. She wanted to deny it, to defend Arielle’s love as something real, something fierce. But then Daniel’s next words slid into the silence.
“I should never have left.”
Her chest tightened. “You did,” she whispered, voice sharp with the crack of buried hurt. “You left without a word, Daniel. You vanished.”
The memory clawed at her. The nights she’d lain awake, waiting for a message that never came. The ache of abandonment. The sense of being disposable.
Daniel’s jaw clenched, shame bleeding into his features. “I thought I was doing what was best....for school, for my future. But it was wrong. Leaving you like that was wrong. And I’ve regretted it every day since.”
Leah swallowed hard. She wanted to scream, to push him away, to cling to Arielle and drown herself in her possessive certainty. But Daniel’s sincerity cracked something inside her that had been starving for years: the desire to be chosen without conditions, without chains.
“You don’t understand,” she said, voice breaking. “Arielle… she saved me. She gave me shelter when I had nothing.”
“And now she’s keeping you like nothing,” Daniel shot back gently. His hand reached across the table, brushing hers. “That’s not saving, Leah. That’s caging.”
"I'm safe with her....I was dying in the streets when she found me.She's good for me."
Tears blurred her vision. She hated that he was right. Hated that he was wrong, too. She hated the storm tearing her in half.
When she didn’t pull away, Daniel leaned closer. His lips brushed hers....soft, questioning, nothing like Arielle’s consuming claim.
For a heartbeat, Leah let herself sink into it. The taste of yesterday. The promise of what-ifs.
But before the kiss could deepen, Leah’s chest went tight. A chill crawled down her spine, sharper than guilt.
Because at that very moment, far across town, Arielle had returned early. She stepped into the mansion, heels clicking against the marble, calling softly, “My little bunny?”
Her voice echoed in empty rooms.
And the silence that answered her was louder than any betrayal.
- Writer
