Chapter 57

**Kapittel 57**

**Hours and days** passed by quickly in a blur like a swishing wind that carried the weightless autumn leaves. However, for Allison, everything felt so long and giddy. Four days have passed since that horrendous revelation, yet she felt like four years had already passed.

She knew that she should be happy because she was finally free. She's finally free from Hades' grasp. She's finally free from the engagement. But for an unknown reason, she felt guilty and sad instead. She felt a deep abyss deep in her heart that needed to be filled in. 'Why?' she would frequently ask herself, but she found no answer. Lazily, she turned over, and her lifeless eyes caught a glimpse of the diamond engagement ring that he gave her. It reminded her so much of him.

'Hades,' she mused of him the day after her reconciliation with her friends. Since the day she broke up their engagement, he never stopped bugging her. Even though she didn't want to, she consistently and accidentally remembered him. She remembered him everywhere and anywhere, from the penthouse's kitchen to the streets of New York. Every place she looked at made her remember him, and it was making her insanely guilty. She heaved off a sigh before clutching her chest, hiding her aching heart. She closed her eyes forcefully and bit her lower lip. Every beat her heart made felt painful. Very painful.

She felt the corners of her eyes getting warm. Out of instinct, she bit her lip harder as memories struck her like a bolt of lightning. She remembered very well. Two days ago, Hades tried to confront and reconcile with her.

Allison was busy picking which jacket she was going to pick for today's trip. She's going to visit the Kanes along with Brent and Rebecca, who decided to tell their predicament to Brent's parents first before Rebecca's. It was going to be a long and cold way to go there, and she hoped that they would arrive there without her having frostbite. Winter wasn't her favorite season, but she loved the snowflakes that tended to fall along with the pile of snow she would secretly play on. Her brows kissed in confusion when she heard a faint knock on the door.

"It's open," she said, her eyes focused on the two jackets she's picking to wear.

"Hey, hun?" she heard Brent's voice call. She placed the two jackets painstakingly on her lap before facing him with her face contorted in confusion.

"Yes, Dawson?" she asked.

"Hades is here."

His announcement caused her lip to twitch, but it remained sealed shut, silence reigning over her room. But deep inside her chest, her heart was pounding wildly like a poor felon struggling to escape from the powerful grasp of officers restraining her. Her mind, however, was shouting at her, coaxing her not to go, reminding her what Hades did to her.

"He told me everything," he said after the long silence.

She gripped on the jackets tightly when she felt the corner of her eyes getting warm. No, she shouldn't cry. She should not cry. She bit her lower lip and looked away. "Send him away, Dawson."

"But hun..."

"Please?" she pleaded, cutting Brent's sentence short. She didn't want to Hades. She didn't want to see his face. She didn't want to remember their last encounter. It'd just make her angry and sad at the same time.

She heard him heaved off a sigh. She expected him to walk away and tell Hades to scram, but to her disappointment, he didn't and instead walked towards her direction, kneeled right in front of her, and held her cold, shaking hands. Her tears almost fell when her childhood best friend kneeled right before her, holding her hands.

"Hun, I know that Hades is a dick, but you need to talk to him. You need to clear and patch things up with him. You know, have a closure," he told her and caressed her left hand's ring finger, the finger where her engagement ring was.

'I don't want to!' Allison wanted to shout, but she restrained herself by biting her lower lip harder. She didn't want to see Hades. She was not ready to see him. She didn't want to recall the pain he's caused her. "No, Dawson. I don't want to see him. Not now, please?"

"Ally..."

"Dawson, please..." she pleaded with her voice thick and croaking. She's almost close to crying. She raised her left hand and took the engagement ring off her finger. She flipped Brent's hand over and placed the engagement ring on the latter's palm with her right hand. "And please give this back to him," she said and closed her friend's palm into a knuckle.

"Are you sure you won't talk to him?" the latter asked her worriedly, trying to reassure.

She nodded reluctantly. "Yes."

He heaved off another sigh once again. "Fine," he said before getting on his feet and left with no remarks.

A sigh of relief escaped from her lips as she clutched her aching chest. She calmed herself for a few moments before she stood up, picked up the two jackets, and placed them back in her walk-in closet. She didn't want to come with Rebecca and Brent anymore. She just lost her mood. She just felt lifeless and lonely.

She turned her head when she heard the door creaked open.

"Did he go?" she asked him, and Brent nodded before sauntering towards her. She gasped when she felt him hold her left hand and raise it.

"He said, he loves you, Al."

Love.

Allison, my baby. I love you.

Her heart pounded hard. She remembered those words well, very well. Those words haunted her every day. Those words never stopped bugging her. No matter how many times she tried to tell herself that it was all a lie, she couldn't. Just thinking of the reason why he would still wouldn't let her go despite all that happened after one lie, behind them was only one reason, and it's because he loves her.

She gasped in surprise when he opened his hand, showing the ring that was supposed to be returned to Hades. He proceeded by inserting it on her ring finger, on the right hand this time. "He doesn't want to have it back. He said he wanted you to have it, and if ever you refuse, I'd tell you to just consider this as a gift from him," he told her, answering her question.