Chapter 16 Sixteen
ANNIE
Most of my day started in the daytime but this time around, it was dark. I watched Dylan breathing slowly beside me, his bare chest heaving evenly with his breathing. He wasn't asleep and to think of it, I never woke up to see him in bed with me. He either wasn't there or was seated on the bed, I suspected he didn't sleep with me after sex.
Looking at his chest in the dimly lit room made me wonder what kind of boy he was when he was little and those secrets I see masked away by an expression filled with responsibility and sheer cruelty. “Dylan”
“Yes Angel, thought you were asleep”
Liar.
“I wasn't, just thinking”
“About what, milkweed”
I sighed wanting to touch his arms and feel its roughness by age old scars. “Amy”
Dylan turned to face me, his expression unreadable. “What about my daughter”
“Have you ever thought of her future? You know, what she wants to be”
“ I don't want to talk about that now”, he said, rubbing the bridge of his nose. Of course he had thought of it, so I decided to pry further. “I'm just worried about…”
“It's my business, Annie not you”, he said, shutting his eyes . For the first time, I noticed some eye bags and that also worried me.
The old Annie would wish he were dead so she could have her normal and wretched life back, but here I was lying beside him genuinely worried about his health and his daughter.
“You haven't been sleeping”, I said, touching his face. He sighed, brushing my hands off his perfectly lined face.
“I'm just worried about you and Amy and…”
“Don't you understand? Fuck all this . I'll take care of myself,” he grumbled sitting up. Opening a drawer, he took out a cigarette and lit it. I watched him put it at the tip of his lips and suck it in then let it out in frustration.
Was I a nuisance to him?
“I decide what Amy should be, it doesn't matter”. He muttered while still smoking. “What about your wife, what do you think she wanted?” I said and realized my mistake. He threw the cigar on the floor and stepped on it, turning to me. “What did you say?”
“Dylan I'm…”
“What the fuck did you just say!”
“I…I'm sorry”, I said whimpering. He stood, but I couldn't just stay there. I knew how it felt to be lonely and lose someone you loved so dearly. I was just a toy, someone who had no worth in his life… someone he just wanted to spare to show God that he wasn't that heartless and I fucked up.
I stood reaching to touch him but he pushed me away and I hit my head on the hard floor. My head was spinning and the last thing I saw was Dylan walking out on me.
Life was never fair to anyone and sometimes it was just too harsh to people. That feeling of having a family that was not a family. The kind that left you behind and treated you like someone without significance. And yes I was always so insignificant and even when I left home, no one asked about my whereabouts.
So insignificant to the point that it's been almost five years or maybe more… it doesn't matter. Life had a way of dealing with me and I prayed for a little significance and I met Dylan Xavier… the most significant being ever though not in a good way…
“Annie!”
“Annie!”
So this is heaven… but why is it this noisy?
“Annie!” I opened my eyes and sat up quickly. Sophia held me back. “I told you not to scream little one”
“But it's been two days”. I shut my eyes trying to adjust with the light and the conversation. Two days?
“How're you feeling now, love?” Sophia asked. I held my head and smiled a little.
“Just a light headache. Why am I here?” I asked looking at both Amy and Sophia and they stared back at me without saying a thing. Then Amy spoke.
“You were knocked out for two whole days”. Then it dawned on me that it was Dylan's fault.
He had pushed me and I fell. “Heard you were in an argument with young master”, Sophia said and I nodded still holding my head that felt like it would fall off any minute.
“I have a free day today, let's stay together”, Amy said and I smiled. She had the personality of her mom even though I hadn't met her, she was probably the one holding Dylan from not exploding and going insane.
“Let me tell you about when I was in Paris”, she said and I nodded a little. Though she looked like Dylan, she had a soft heart that I felt would harden someday. “I always was on my own in school until I met Winter and have it in your mind that I don't like him… Winter…. Winter…Winter…”
I chuckled, she doesn't like Winter and she keeps talking about him. When I was her age, I was like that. I liked this guy but he didn't notice me and when I expressed my love, I was turned down because I was a loser. It didn't matter anymore, what mattered was staying alive in this devil's nest.
DYLAN XAVIER
It's been two days since I last saw her and I was getting really annoyed. Not that I didn't know the state she was in, but I don't know what's happening to me, even a day without her felt like years and I would get so annoyed. Fuck!
I hated myself for that. I sat in my office clutching a pen until it snapped.
“That pen was expensive”. Someone said, the voice making my lips curl in disgust.
“Not because you're Xavier means you won't knock before entering”. I hissed and he laughed.
He irritated me so much but I had to calm down, I shouldn't allow him to get on my nerves.
Lucian had this thing with me. I was uncertain if it were jealousy or hatred, but it was something I couldn't understand. When I left the family and I built my empire, he became so close to me that it was suspicious, but who wouldn't be jealous of a nobody who just sprung up as the best with a wife and a child. I bit my lips, it was all in the past now.
“Why are you here?”
“Can't a brother come to see his own?”
“Quit the act, why the fuck are you here?” I asked and he frowned. He wasn't as tall as I am and had the eyes of father… wicked and sinister. He was my cousin but yet shared so many features with my father.
“Heard you went to see your mother”
“Isn't that what you suggested? Or aren't we brothers again”, I said smiling wantonly. I relaxed in my seat crossing my legs for a better view at his fucked up expression.
Lucian sighed. “Mother was frightened, she called her therapist! What did you do to her?”
I shrugged. “I probably held a gun to her head to show her how grown her outcast son was”, I said and his eyes widened.
“You're weak Lucian, I didn't do that though, she probably thought I had her late husband's personality”. I took out a new pen and looked at the file on the desk.
“You said I'm weak”
“Are you not?”
“You don't know me”
I don't care.
I sighed and stood up. “I have somewhere I have to be now, when you're done, you could leave”, I said about leaving when he spoke. “Oh and that your bastard mistress that's warming your bed, hope you'll protect her, she might end up like your wife”
Without thinking and not in sync with time, I punched him in the face, he groaned holding his face, but I wasn't done with him. I kicked his stomach with my knee, he coughed, but I could see the sinister smile he wore. He had caught me where it hurts the most.
I should protect Annie!
I grabbed my gun from my belt and shot the mother fuckers arm. “I would've killed you but like you said, I'm your brother”, I said and left hurriedly not looking back. I needed to save Annie with anything in me.
I drove home myself running into the building and into her room where she sat talking with Amy. I paused.
She was okay.
“Daddy!” Amy screamed and I walked to them and hugged them. This was the only family I had and I couldn't lose someone I loved again.
Love?
Scoff.
I wasn't sure about that though.
ANNIE
Dylan came in quickly pushing the door open with force. I looked at him surprised and so was Amy.
“Daddy!” She screamed and he came and hugged us. I felt his chest beating quickly, he must have been worried about Amy. He couldn't be worried about me… I was a nobody who stumbled upon some bad luck that I learned to love.
“Daddy what's wrong?”
“I want to speak to Annie”, he said and she nodded and ran off giving us privacy.
“She likes you”
“Are you jealous?” I asked and he scoffed. He sat beside me caressing my hand. “You're weak, you were knocked out for two days straight”
“I'm from a separate world, Xavier, we both had a terrible childhood, but adjusted in different ways," I said feeling angry with myself.
“I won't let anyone hurt you”
“What do you mean?”
“Never leave my sight cause I'll kill everyone just to make sure you're okay”. I smiled a little, his eyes were red but he wasn't crying. With quick strides, he stood before me, his hand lifting my chin.
“I've missed my milkweed so much. I'm sure she knows what I want.”
“What do you want,” I asked teasingly.
“I want to fuck my toy till she's a wrecked Barbie doll”, he muttered in my ears.
“But I'm sick …”
“Does it matter… now kiss daddy slowly.”
Would you really kill for me?
The thought ran through my head as I let wreck me.