SHADOWS OF THE PAST

Chapter 08

send me location, now!

"f**k!" can't I ever get a moment of peace? Why must my life be this messed up? I can't keep hiding things from her like this, eventually she's going to find out and I'm the one who will be at the receiving end of her wrath.

"where are they?"

*stay, I got it Covered-Tylor

She comes in the same time I receive Tys' message, well… Now, I won't feel guilty at least.

"come here" I pull her by her waist and bring her lips to mine, this is the only thing I can think of so she doesn't ask questions. She immediately responds to my kiss and I know, all is forgotten, for now!

I pick her up and place her on the couch, I can never get tired of her, I'm addicted to her and I'm scared for my life because once she finds out the kind of man I am, she won't think twice leaving me.

I caress her tight, f**k! She's not wearing any panties. The fact that she was walking around in just my t-shirt and nothing underneath makes me even hard, the gall to do that.

"Travis" I know what she wants, but this isn't just s*x anymore, it's love making, it always has been, and now, now all I want is to savor her, because I know my end is near.

I plant kisses on her, I know I'm frustrating her with my snail pace, but the moment I put my tongue on her little haven, I sigh in contentment. She fucken taste so good, I keep pleasuring her until she combusts.

I move up and kiss her, she stops.

"what's wrong?" I kiss her again, so quickly I'm being pushed off and she runs to the direction of our bedroom.

"Bella?" I follow her upstairs.

She's throwing up. "baby are you okay" she puts her hand up to stop me from coming in. Mxm. I grab a glass and pour water in it then hand it to her. She takes a sip then throws up again.

"did I do something?"

She shakes her head no. "what is it then?" she doesn't answer, Instead, she continues throwing up. Now I don't know what to do. I hate being in the dark, what could be wrong with her.

Her head is sitting on the toilet seat, she looks exhausted, Skyler comes barking in our room, she turns her head a little and it runs to her. She's weak, she looks drained. I don't even know what to do so I go make her a cup of cinnamon and ginger,

"Here baby, drink this"

She can't even more her arms, so I pick her up and take her to the bed, making her rest her head on the bed post. I help her drink the remedy, at least she's not throwing it up, so I guess it works. How did this day take a total one-eighty?

She must have passed out because when I came back from the kitchen, she was asleep. Sigh. I don’t want to overthink everything so instead; I go for something I know I can at least handle.

"what's happening?"

"don't worry man, I took care of everything? Be with your girl now"

"Taylor don't tell me that. Is she dead?"

He's quite for a few minutes drawing it out. "yes" he says, after moments of silence.

"what happened?"

"the usual, but this time it was a mistake, you know, I always told you must get rid of that girl fast, but little Robison her did it for us quickly, I have news though, and we can't speak about it over the phone"

I know him well enough to know that he's done talking, so I hang up and go get some work done, but I need to be close to my love so I pick up her laptop and go to my emails, but before I can open them, something catches my eye, an email from iamghost@g*******m before i can think further, I already opened it, these are pictures, pictures of Bella, from when she was a kid, till today,. What the f**k!

Who could this be? I take the email and forward it to mine and then delete it. Could someone be stalking her? Well...there’s one way to find out. I log into my emails and forward it. I need to get to the bottom of this.

*****

I stair awake, she's throwing up again, like a dutiful husband, I go make her that concussion again, at least I know it helped. Hear me calling myself her husband, I'm fiancé let me not forget, but what's the difference, we getting married, I'm as good as her husband already.

"Here" I hand her the mug, at least now she's okay, unlike last night when she could barely move her limbs.

"thanks" she downs it in one go. She stands up and walks back to bed, it's morning already, she should be preparing to go to school, but then again, she's not feeling well, so I'll stay with her.

Before I can do anything, my phone rings, it's Grace.

"hey mom" she's more of a mother to me than my own mother.

"hey son, how are you?"

"I'm good mom, how are you"

"I'm fine… I’m fine" then She pause. Something is wrong, I know that.

"mom…?"

She sighs “where’s Bella? "

" she's sleeping; she doesn't feel too good "

" ooh, okay, I'll come check up on her later on"

"no! We'll come there, there's something we need to tell you guys anyway"

"ooh! okay then, dinner?"

"yes"

"take care" then she drops the call. Something Is up, I know that. I wonder what it is because I know she never just calls specially to ask about Bella, if she wants talk with her, she calls her straight on her phone. I don't want any more drama in my life, I've had just about enough, I just need a day of Pease.

Speaking of peace, I switch my phone and laptop off, today is just me and miBella only, I don't want any disturbance, I want a day of peace, and today is that day.

****

She's been sleeping the whole day, I couldn't even bring myself to wake her up, but it's almost three and she still hasn't eaten anything so she need to at least wake up, she hasn't woken up to throw up or anything yet so I guess it's nothing big. I go to make her something to eat. I make soup and plate it for her and go to the room where I find her awake steering at the celling lost in thought.

“I got you some food” she looks at me, sighs and then stand and balance herself with the headboard. “thank you” she says.

I sit on the bed and help her eat, she looks weak, so maybe the soup might help her gain some strength.

I watch her eat until the bowl is half finish. “mom called, invited us to dinner tonight but I will call her back and tell her we won’t make it”

She places the bowl down and turns to look at me “why?” she asks, I wipe the corners of her mouth with my thumb, “you don’t feel too well, you need to get some rest” she nods her head and gets under covers again and immediately close her eyes, within minutes her breath get leborated and I know she’s out.

I check my emails on my phone and I see one from the ghost account, I’m a bit hesitant to open it, but I do either way. I regret doing that immediately, there’s a video of me and Alexa in her apartment, the day I messed up and it looks like it’s catching up to me. I don’t know when or how I paused play but my heart has never beaten this fast in just a second, not because I have a s*x tape, I had plenty of those, it’s the thought that Bella will see this that scares me, I have never been scared to lose a person like I am with that girl.

As I’m watching the video, a text pops up. -glad to have your attention, meet me at summit, tomorrow 12.

I can’t begin to think who would want to do this, and how the hell did they get the video, I roughly stand up making my chair fall in the process, I get my car keys and a sweater and head outside, caring not in the least bit about my appearance.

BELLA

I’m woken up by an amazing aroma, Travis nowhere besides me and Skyler barking, from somewhere in the house, I’m only in Travis’ shirt so I wear his sleepers because they were the closest and walk downstairs rubbing sleep from my eyes, Skyler barks and comes running towards me, I bend down and rub him behind the ear, I stand and walk to the kitchen expecting to see Travis in his pajama bottoms, shirtless and barefoot while cooking but instead I find a short curly head brunet woman busy in my kitchen and the moment she sees me, her smile widens and beckons me to her embrace.

“Oh Chika, I missed you so much” I sigh into her embrace “how have you been doing my child, I spoke to Carlos earlier and he told me you haven’t been feeling well today”

“I’m okay now Grace” she holds me at arm’s length as if to examine me, “I’m happy to hear that”

I offer to help her cook and she declines to instead, I head out to my room and go take a bath, I’m feeling hot so I settle for a dress and flops, I let my hair air dry.

My phone pings with a message before I can reach the door, I go to it, blood boiling and feeling the air leave my lungs, I stare at my phone, minutes must have passed with me staring at my phone before someone knocked and walked in.

“hey girl, heard you weren’t feeling okay” I look up and my favorite red head is at the door, when she sees my smile she walks further in.

“I haven’t seen you in the longest of time” we share a hug, “yeah well, Cavin is back for good so” fans herself. I totally forgot about those two.

“well, I’m glad you not a stranger” she laughs and pats my shoulder.

“well look who’s talking, you and your hubby are too caught up in your love nest to even remember that people exist.”

“no we don’t” we laugh, well… technically speaking, we might but it’s not because of our ‘supposed’ love nest, I’m too caught up in Carlos’ bullshit to even remember that there’s a world outside ours.

We continue laughing until April comes to get us saying that dinner is ready, I thought Travis said he cancelled the whole thing, but then again, it is TRAVIS we talking about here, he never commits to a thing, let alone me.

When I get downstairs, I’m led to a room I didn’t even know exist, it’s basically a dining room, table neatly laid out, everything was perfectly set.

“good, you all are here, comes let’s eat” I look around but I don’t see him anywhere, he does know that his family is here right, I take out my phone and text him, when five minutes pass and he still hasn’t texted back, I try his sell, it rings unanswered, I try for the second time before he directs it to voicemail, when I think of the picture that I was, I feel myself burning with rage, if that’s what he’s rejecting my call for, then he clearly doesn’t know me.

Everyone is here except him, Mr Viktor, James, and even Cavin, basically his whole family is here except him. Thankfully no one asks where he is or dare bring him up. Everything went perfectly fine until I heard my name being called. I turn around and he’s at the door, sweating and panting, he sighs in relief when he sees me, he comes over and try to kiss me but I turn my head and he kiss my cheeks instead, they make space for him and he sits right next to me.

I think he felt that I was mad because he tried holding my hand under the table but I snatched it off, placed his hand in my thigh and I removed it, he shot me a look that I so graciously returned, his father started asking him about business so he indulged him in every way possible, without warning he grabbed my knee and held tightly, I tried pushing it off but the more he held until I gave up.

I started feeling emotional and pathetic and used but for the sake of everyone, I held my emotions in check and gave a fake smile for everyone to see, I hate feeling like this, it’s like going back to my child hood all over again, the fake smile and presence for everyone to see when in actual fact I was dying inside.