Chapter 94

Chapter 94
Ava’s POV

My heart drummed as I watched his footsteps slow down as he neared his door. His eyes looked everywhere but at me, and that hurt a lot. Well, it didn’t hurt as much as the pain I had seen in his eyes when he first looked my way when he came up here. The pain and anguish in his eyes had been raw and powerful. I hated it, and I hated that I was part of the reason he felt that way.

“Hey,” I breathed out shakily.

I could not bear to look at him either—not after the way things had played out. The fact that I was meant to take over from him sent the wrong message, and honestly, I had not set out to hurt him.

He didn’t respond to my greeting. Instead, he inserted his key into the door, trying to make his way in, acting as though I wasn’t beside him.

“Dale, please, can we talk? I am sorry about how things played out today,” I said, hoping to catch his attention, but as usual, he pretended as though he didn’t know me.

He finally unlocked his door and made to move in, but I quickly held his hand, preventing him from going further.

“Kindly let go of my hand,” he breathed down at me, his body vibrating with a lot of pent-up emotion.

The look in his eyes frightened me, and I let go of his hand as though it were a hot piece of metal. The person standing before me was nothing like the Dale I had come to love, and I hated that I had to be the reason he had become something like this.

“I know that you’re mad at me, Dale, but you need to listen to me. I swear that—”

The sentence never got completed because he shut the door in my face, keeping the rest of my words hanging in my throat.

I stood in front of his door for a minute, hoping that he would open it and at least let me tell him just how sorry I was. But alas, he never did. Tears trickled down my face, staining my cheeks. I didn’t care about the tears. I didn’t care that they stung like hell. My entire heart was messed up, and if I thought I had experienced pain when my mother died, this was far worse. Right now, I felt like a part of me was dead and gone.

After several minutes of crying, I finally wiped the tears off my face and walked back to my room.



I allowed Celia’s hands to weave through my hair, massaging my scalp and smoothing it out with gentle care. No words had been said since she came, and it was only now that I had stopped crying.

She had called me early this morning to check up on me, but when she heard my voice, she knew I wasn’t okay and had immediately come over. I had fallen into her arms and cried my eyes out while she simply comforted me.

“How are you feeling now?” she asked, bringing her face close to mine so she could see me clearly.

“I’m not okay, but I’ll be fine.” The second part of my sentence was a lie, one that I didn’t even believe myself. There was no healing from this.

“Yeah, you’ll feel better. If you could get over your mom’s death, I’m sure you can get over this, whatever it is.” She encouraged me, and then I realized that she was yet to hear the full story.

She must have probably seen the news of the fight on the internet, but even that would not have all the real details of what had truly happened.

After a few seconds, she sighed and finally asked, “Okay, can you tell me what caused the fight between Dale and that young man? There are a lot of speculations on the internet ranging from you being involved in a sexual relationship with the guy Dale beat up, to Dale hating him because his dad is involved with his mom.”

“Nobody knows the real story, and neither the company nor any of the parties involved have come out to give a press statement. So, I’m hoping you’ll please fill me in on what really happened.”

A smile lined my lips at her words. This was the first time I was smiling since the incident yesterday, and I was happy she was here with me.

“I thought you were never going to ask,” I said and flashed her a sad smile.

Letting out a deep sigh, I told her all that had happened.

“Wait! You mean to say that Dale lost his mind just because he doesn’t want to see you with Justin? Does he think that every man is a dog who would want to sleep with their sister, half or adopted?” she hissed after I got to the part where Dale had beaten Justin up.

I didn’t like the way she referred to Dale as a dog, but this wasn’t the time to defend him. He had it coming for himself.

“Well, that’s not the only thing that makes me sad,” I said and told her the news of me being ordered to take over his job.

“Oh my! That’s great news. I’m certain that you’ll do well in that position,” she sang excitedly.

I glared at my friend, unable to comprehend where her excitement came from.

“There’s nothing to be excited about, Celia. It’s bad news, and I’m not taking the offer,” I told her matter-of-factly.

She stared at me with her mouth open, shocked that I would say such a thing. “You’ve got to be kidding me, right?”

“No, I’m not. Taking the position is going to make me look like an opportunist and a betrayer. I don’t want to rise from the downfall of others,” I stated firmly.

She stared at me for a few seconds and finally nodded. “I trust you to always do the right thing.”