Chapter 7: Bury
680 Words
Larissa (POV)
The door slam shut leaving her inside the back kitchen.
She told herself to breathe.
But something warm and magnetic keep spreading from her chest to her face. This tingling sensation made her nerve tense for some unknown reason.
A thin layer of redness climb across her cheeks to her ears.
Larissa panicked, she knew this feeling well she once fell it before, like a fire that won't stop burning. However the difference only is that Darius was like a quiet spring that nourished everything around it. While that man had been a hurricane, beautiful from afar, but leaving nothing standing once he passed.
The emotions were overwhelming that her eyes began to redden.
She kept her face wrap around her palms.
Just once.
Just enough to calm the strange tightness in her chest.
The kitchen was quiet—too quiet. The familiar scent of flour and warm bread did nothing to steady her hands. Larissa pressed her palms lightly against the counter, lowering her head.
Why did it feel like this?
Is it really the same?
Or was it different?
She felt confused her old wounds clouding the growing emotions within her heart.
She tried to breath.
To be in control.
"How did this happen"
It wasn’t the words.
He hadn’t said anything wrong.
If anything, he was being kind. As always.
That was the problem.
She closed her eyes.
She had watched him with the twins again—so natural, so warm, so patient, like he had always belonged there. Like he wasn’t a guest in their lives but a piece that had been missing and quietly slipped back into place.
They clung to him without hesitation.
Trusted him without fear.
Their happiness came simply but him smiling and cheering them on.
And that scared her.
She swallowed.
Her trembling hands tracing the surface of the kitchen table.
Unknowingly she began pacing back and fort.
She had survived the war by learning not to rely on anyone. Not promises. Not warmth. Not moments that felt too gentle to last.
But with him—
Everything just falls into place.
His presence brought peace.
It wasn't heavy nor suffocating than it could choke her alive.
He smiled without asking for anything in return.
He carried her children like it was the most natural thing in the world.
And worse—
He looked at her without expectation.
Her chest tightened.
The moment he leaned closer—when his presence surrounded her, when she realized he could smell her too—her heart had betrayed her.
the closer he get the more aware she become. From the tiny drops of sweat on his forehead to the scars on his hand and arms.
As he took the basket on her hand, she caught a faint scent of flour blended with wood and smoke, one that remind her of a warm fireplace.
Recalling such moment made her entire body weak.
She hadn’t meant to react like that.
But the sudden awareness of him—his voice, his warmth, the quiet steadiness of someone who could stay—made something fragile inside her tremble.
She wasn’t ready.
Not for attachment.
Not for the hope that things could be different.
Not for the dangerous thought that maybe—just maybe—she didn’t have to do everything alone.
Larissa brushed at her eyes quickly.
She wouldn’t let herself cry.
Not here.
Not now.
The twins needed her steady.
And he—
He didn’t deserve to be burdened by feelings she couldn’t even name.
She straightened slowly, forcing her breathing to even out.
Get yourself together.
When she stepped back out, she would smile again.
She always did.
So this feelings it shouldn't change anything.
The trust and faith.
It should remain the same as before.
Larissa left a heavy sigh.
"Right..."
She whispered the words more to convince herself than anyone else.
"I can do this."
Taking one last deep breath, Larissa reached for the door.
Whatever she was feeling...
It would remain locked inside her heart.
At least...
That was what she hoped.
- Writer
