5
1282 Words
The restaurant was buzzing with low music and murmurs of reunion excitement. A table stretched down the private hall, decorated with soft gold lighting and menus folded like origami.
Laughter echoed from farmiliar faces all dressed for the occasion, past classmates turned polished adults and then, the doors opened.
Raven Fox walked in, heads turned immediately… he was looking so cold and expensive in his charcoal-grey suit, but it wasn't just him.
Beside him was a woman who looked sculptured out of a fashion magazine. Her brunette hair fell in slick wave down her back, her eyes sharp and chin held hight with pride, she wore a form-fitting navy silk dress, the kind that hugged her body in all the right places.
Together, they looked like a royal couple
“Ayy, finally,” Aaron stood and pulled Raven into a bro-hug.
“I knew you'd show up. Told ‘em the reunion wasn't complete without the legend himself. Tonight just got interesting.”
More greetings followed, people clapping him on the back, whispering quietly between themselves.
“God, he looks different. ”
“He doesn't even smile anymore. ”
“Still hot as hell though. ”
“Didn't Hazel just come back.”
“ She is not here yet…. ”
Raven sat down at the end of the table, the mystery girl beside him, her perfectly manicured hand, resting lightly on his arm. Waiters came and went, serving glasses of wine and platters of roasted appetizers, but Raven barely noticed.
His fingers grazed the stem of his glass as he nodded absently to the conversations around him, but his eyes. They kept drifting toward the entrance.
She wasn't here, yet.
“she’s probably not coming. ” someone said casually.
“ Wouldn't blame her. She has got nerve if she does.”
“They said she left him for another guy. Must've been loaded.”
Raven lifted his glass to his lips and drank slowly. Aaron watched him carefully, and then,he grabbed Raven's left hand suddenly. “Bro. Are you engaged?”
The table quieted, the woman beside Raven smiled sweetly and lifted her hand, flashing a glittering diamond ring under the warm lights.
Murmurs spread around the table.
“Ohh, wow.”
“she’s stunning.”
“I didn't know…”
Raven just stared blankly at the flickering candle in front of him.
Someone asked, “ So when is the wedding?”
April smiled again, composed and elegant. “We haven’t picked a date yet. We’re still enjoying the engagement.”
Before anyone could respond…The doors opened again. “Whose wedding are you all talking about?” a voice chimed.
Heads turned.
Meryl, Hazel’s former best friend…walked in, dressed in tailored business slacks and a soft green blouse. Her lips curved into a teasing smile as she stepped inside.
Right behind her was Hazel, everything paused. Her light trench coat drapped over her arm.
Her outfits was simple but it wasn't the clothes. It was her presence, she looked beautiful. Men stared, some with open mouths. Women whispered, lips curling but Hazel didn't flinch.
Her eyes scanned the room quickly, until they landed on him. Raven, their eyes locked, she couldn’t read him. His face gave nothing away. He looked at her like she wasn’t real… like he hadn’t expected her to exist outside of memory.
Then he turned away, her lips tightened into a small, controlled smile as she walked further in, offering a soft greeting.
No one responded immediately.
Meryl had already taken a seat, so Aaron cleared his throat and gestured to the empty chair beside him. “You can sit here.”
She did, quietly, right across from Raven.
He didn't look up again and the night, for the first time, really began.
Hazel sat still, her hands resting on her lap, her legs crossed carefully beneath the table as though she were made of porcelain.
She could feel their stares and whispers. They brushed against her skin like cold wind, but nothing stung more than the diamond on ex lover's finger.
Engaged?
The word twisted in her chest like a slow knife, Yet she didn't blink, didn't let her breath hitch. She smiled so beautifully that no one could tell her heart was bleeding beneath it.
She deserved it.
Of course she did…he was allowed to move on.
She kept repeating that in her head like a prayer. But the pain didn't listen. Her heart didn't care about logic. Then the question came.
“So Hazel…are you married now? We heard you got engaged. That's why you left, right?” Her chest tightened and for a second, the glass in her hand trembled.
She looked up, his eyes were on her now, just for a breath. “No,” she said calmly." I was never engaged. That was just a rumor.”
He blinked slowly…then looked away like her words meant nothing, but she saw the way his jaw flexed. The way his hand stilled over his drink.
He doesn't believe her?
She had vanished like a thief in the night, left him with no answers. Just a ghost. She'd died in his world. And now she had the nerve to resurrect and yet, she couldn't stop glancing at him.
She hated herself for that
The woman beside him kept whispering in his ears laughing, her hand snaked around his wrist, over his chest, over his thigh. She wanted everyone to see, she wanted Delilah to see.
Hazel stood from the chair suddenly when she couldn't take it anymore, the thought of him being engaged to another and the fact that he doesn't even know she had Owen…but it wasn’t his fault, she had made him believe she had gotten rid of it, just so she could his child.
“I should get going.” she said, reaching for her coat. “ I have somewhere to be. ” Raven's fingers tightened around his glass.
She was leaving, just like that…like none of it mattered, like hearing he was engaged didn't even scratch the surface.
That infuriated him more than anything else.
If she could walk away from him, twice. Then maybe he hadn't ruined her the way she had ruined him.
And that wasn't fair.
He stood up suddenly and the chair shifted, causing people to whisper, he didn't care about them or the woman he brought… He walked straight toward her.
She hadn’t gone far before his hand caught her wrist, Hazel gasped softly, startled, struggling for a second…until she turned and saw him.
“R… Raven?” she whispered, shocked.
She barely had time to react before he pulled her with him. “Let me go!” She yelled, trying to free herself, but his grip only tightened.
He dragged her out of the restaurant, ignoring the stares, the murmurs, and the chaos left behind. He opened the passenger door and pushed her inside, shutting it firmly and locking it before she could get
Then he walked around and got into the driver’s seat.
Ignoring her panic.
He drove off.
“Stop the car!” she cried, struggling against the seatbelt, her hands fumbling at the locked door. “Where the hell are you taking me?!”
He smiled cruelly before he glanced at her briefly before returning his eyes to the road. “To the night it all began,” he said.
His voice was dangerously low. “You’ve been gone for so long… you might’ve forgotten where you belong.”
A pause.
“I think it’s time I remind you who you belong to.” Her breath caught. “You’ve lost it,” she whispered, shaken to her core.
But he didn’t answer.
- Writer
