Chapter 9: A Storm Between Us
1177 Words
🌩️ Some storms don't come from the sky. They come from the people you once loved too deeply to forget. 🌩️
Crescent Ridge Publishing – Belle's Editorial Office
Monday – 5:42 p.m.
The rain hit the glass in erratic bursts—soft at first, then furious. Thunder loomed somewhere far off, like a warning that the air was about to crack open.
Belle pressed her palm flat against her office window, watching the downpour blur the skyline. She hadn't moved in minutes. Her notes for the children's anthology sat untouched on her desk. The cheerful illustrations now felt like distant echoes from another life.
She could still feel the letter in her hands—burned, buried, but not forgotten.
He found it.
Somehow, he'd found the vault.
Somehow, he was remembering.
Her breath caught as a shadow fell across her office door.
Knuckles rapped—twice.
Slow. Intentional.
Her heartbeat surged.
And when she turned—
Xander stood there.
Soaked from the rain, suit clinging to him like armor cracked open at the seams. His eyes were wilder than she remembered, but clear. Unmistakably clear.
She reached for the door handle—then froze.
Do not open it.
Don't let him back in.
Don't let yourself hope.
But her hand betrayed her.
The door clicked open.
"Can we talk?" he asked. No pretense. No title. No layers.
Belle stepped aside without a word.
He walked in, dripping water on the old hardwood floors.
He didn't care.
She didn't either.
"Close the door," he said quietly.
She did.
The silence crackled like static between them.
"You're my wife."
It wasn't a question.
Belle flinched.
His voice wasn't angry—not yet. But it carried a sharp, unbearable ache.
"Xander..." she began softly.
"You didn't deny it," he said.
She folded her arms. "You shouldn't be here."
"Too late." His eyes never left her. "You lied to me. You let me believe you were just someone from... before. Just a face I couldn't place."
"You couldn't place me because they erased me," she snapped. "Don't you dare make this my fault."
"Then why?" he demanded, stepping closer. "Why not tell me the truth?"
"Because truth didn't save us the first time!" she cried. "Because the truth ruined us!"
The words echoed in the room like a slap.
Xander froze.
Belle's chest rose and fell, rapid and uneven.
"I came to you," he said, softer now. "I held your child. I held our daughter. And I didn't even know why I felt like I couldn't breathe when I looked at her."
Belle's lips trembled.
"You should've told me."
"She almost died," Belle whispered. "I almost died. You weren't there."
"Because I didn't remember!" he shouted.
"And what would you have done if you had?" she asked, stepping closer, fire in her voice now. "Would you have protected us? Would you have fought Victor? Would you have stayed when it meant losing everything?"
"Yes."
"Don't lie to me!" Her voice cracked open. "You promised me once you'd never let me walk alone. You broke that promise. I had to walk through hell with our daughter in my arms, begging strangers for help, while you built towers in San Francisco."
FLASHBACK — Years Ago
Night. Rain. A quiet, narrow street lit only by a flickering lamppost.
Belle clutched a tote full of groceries, her back aching. She was six months pregnant. Exhausted.
Her heel snapped. She stumbled.
Then—
Strong arms caught her.
"Hey—hey, I got you."
Xander. Breathless. Drenched. Like he'd run from miles away.
"You weren't answering your phone," he said, holding her steady.
She looked at him with eyes filled with frustration and love.
"I didn't want you to worry."
He pulled her close.
"I always worry," he whispered. "You never walk alone. Not while I'm breathing."
Present – Belle's Office
Her shoulders collapsed under the weight of the memory.
"I couldn't trust anyone," Belle murmured, voice breaking. "Not your family. Not your doctors. Not the lawyers who handed me money to disappear. So I left before they could take her."
Xander's fists clenched. "They said you abandoned me."
She met his eyes. "And you believed them."
He took a step back like the truth physically shoved him.
"I buried you," he whispered. "I mourned someone I didn't even remember losing. I looked at you like a stranger, and all I wanted was to know why it felt like I'd known you forever."
Belle's eyes welled with tears.
She took a breath.
And when she spoke again, it was barely more than a whisper:
"Because I was your forever."
Silence.
The kind that hurts more than shouting.
He took another step toward her, something breaking in his eyes. "I remember your voice now. The way it shakes when you try not to cry. I remember it when we danced in the dark. When you read bedtime stories to Hope. I don't know how, but I do."
Belle closed her eyes.
Tears slid down her cheeks.
"You're remembering too late," she whispered.
"No," he said, fierce. "I'm remembering right now. And I don't care how many lies they built between us—I know I loved you. I still do."
Belle turned away, choking back a sob.
"You don't get to say that," she said. "Not now."
"Why not?"
"Because if I look at you one more second, I'll start believing it again."
Outside the Office – Down the Hall
Clarisse Delgado stood in the shadows, lips parted in disbelief.
She hadn't planned to eavesdrop.
But once she saw him walk in and close the door behind him—her instincts kicked in. She crept closer.
Now her heart thundered.
Wife.
Daughter.
Truth.
Victor.
She pulled out her phone.
Clarisse: "It's me. They're together. He knows."
Victor (on the line): "Handle it. If he remembers too much too fast, we lose everything."
Clarisse: "He's remembering her. And Hope."
Victor: "Then make him forget again."
The call ended.
Back in Belle's Office
Xander's voice was raw now, scraped clean of pride.
"Tell me what they did to me. Tell me who I was."
Belle looked at him, broken.
"You were mine," she said. "That's all that ever mattered."
He reached out—fingertips brushing her wrist. Her breath hitched.
But she pulled away.
"I can't," she said. "Not yet."
"Why?"
"Because if you remember everything—they'll come for you. And this time, they'll finish what they started."
He stared at her.
She stared back.
And in that moment, he knew.
She wasn't protecting herself.
She was still protecting him.
Even after all the pain. All the silence.
Belle was still his shield.
And that hurt more than any lie ever could.
Without another word, Xander turned and stormed out.
The door slammed shut behind him.
Belle collapsed into her chair, tears falling freely now.
She clutched her chest, as if trying to keep her heart from shattering.
Outside, the storm raged.
But inside her—
It had already hit.
END OF CHAPTER NINE
- Writer
