Tangled Hearts, Bound by Fate

Chapter 17

A knock on the door jolted me out of the quick nap I planned to have. I wasexhausted, since I had been lost in thoughts all through the day.Leaving Daniel and hiding from him was certainly harder than I thought.He was in my thoughts every single minute and it troubled my heart.On the other hand, I was glad that I left since I never wanted to haveanything to do with a murderer.The knock came again and this time, I jerked up to my feet and grumpilywalked over to the door.I clicked the door knob and opened up the door, thinking that it’s the manwho usually came to deliver groceries to me.“Maya…”, I heard that one voice I was capable of pointing out anywhereand at any particular time.At first, I thought that I was only hallucinating since I was doing most ofthat ever since I left Daniel.“Maya…it’s really you!” I heard the voice, clearer his time and causing every bit of sleep in my eyes to disappear.My eyes opened immediately and turned to the voice. Standing before me was Daniel, dressed in a blue casual pants and white shirt, looking handsome and dashing as usual.He was looking at me intently, with shock, surprise, and excitement playingaround his eyes. I could tell that he was trying to be sure that he wasn’t just having a long dream.“Daniel…what…what are you doing here?” I finally asked when I got ahold of my voice. My body felt hot already, as though I was inside an oven.My breath was shaky, and my knees were threatening to give me away.Daniel still had that effect on me, and it was as fierce as ever…“I saw your letter after you left. You need to listen to me”, he started, butsuddenly, my face turned into a big frown.I recalled every single thing that happened and how I discovered that he hadsomething to do with the death of a young girl.“Don’t say a word about that. You need to leave…now!” I declareddefiantly, and he gulped down in shock.He walked closer, but I lifted my right hands, making him stop abruptly.“Don’t come close. When were you going to tell me that you are an amurderer?” I asked with gritted teeth, breathing heavily as though I wouldpounce on him in the next minutes.His face fell at that point, but that didn’t change the fierce stare I had on my face.“Can I come inside?” He asked, almost at the verge of tears. I saw thesincerity in his eyes but wasn’t willing to make it all easy.“No…you can’t! How do I know if you plan to kill me…”, I was saying when he abruptly interrupted.“You know that’s not true! Don’t say that, Maya. Please let me in, we have a lot to talk about”, he said defiantly, breathing heavily.He was hurt by the utterance, and this made me feel awful. I shruggedsilently I tried to think of the best response to give. “Fine! But it has to be fast”, I quickly said as I walked inside while hesauntered towards me.“I didn’t kill my ex-girlfriend. I can never do such a thing. She had died from an overdose of barbiturates and I decided to cover it up for her since she was an advocate against drug use. I didn’t want her to be exposed”, he explained, looking into my eyes pleadingly.He really wanted me to believe what he had just said and in as much as Iwas surprised, I knew that there was a great need to ponder over it.“But you were there at the scene, and you tried to suppress everyinvestigation about her death”, I said quietly, still yet to figure out what hehad just said.He took in a very deep breath and lowered his gaze to the ground. It seemed as though he was trying to figure out the best way to explain it to me, and so I kept mute. After what seemed like ages, he lifted his head and stared into my eyes. “I only did that because I didn’t want any investigation about what led to her death. That would have brought a taint to her name, even if she was dead. She was a strong advocate against drug abuse, and yet, she was abusing drugs. And so, I was only trying to protect her name”, he explained slowly, looking into my eyes and wondering if I believed what he had just said. “You need to believe me”, he whispered quietly. Everything appeared to be a lot to process at the moment. I tried to thinkbut nothing was coming up, and so I walked over to the door and opened it.“You should leave. I can’t process all of these presently”, I dropped, and hefroze in shock.For another time, he looked at me, hoping that I would take back my words,but I didn’t. He dejectedly walked out of the house, and I fell back to the couch in terror. It was quite a lot to take in, but amidst the entire emotions I felt, the mostvivid was guilt. I asked him to leave because I figured out that I was stupidto leave someone I loved without hearing his side of the story. I couldn’t bear the fact that he still came all the way to look for me simplybecause he wanted to clear things up.For a week, I nursed this guilt, after which I decided to pay him a visit. Daniel was the most excited to see me back in the house. I apologized for leaving in anger, and it didn’t take long before we started catching upon what we missed in each other’s life before the separation.“Thank you”, I suddenly blurted out. He looked at me for a while, and his eyes were in shock. “For what?” He asked, taking my left hand and placing a soft kiss on it. “For loving me…”, I replied and pulled him into a tight hug.