Chapter 43

My phone rang again and I smiled at the message.

"Do you like ice cream, Cinderella? I'll order some when you get back"

I sighed, Ben was being a ray of sunshine in the middle of all this storm.

"Chocolate mint and don't forget the topping," I replied.

"We are what we eat, hot woman"

I laughed alone in the street; it seemed that Ben approved of my taste for mint ice cream.

I looked back towards the park and for a few moments I felt envious, everyone looked so well and away from so many problems. They were just having fun and didn't care about anything else.

"It reminds me of the day you finally gave me a chance." I sighed, I was starting to get used to David showing up when I least expected it.

"When you showed that you were a normal person." He laughed scornfully and sat down next to me on the bench. "But all I see is a stalker, a control freak with boundless possessiveness. Nothing beyond that."

"It's not like that, Sarah."

I turned my face to see him, looking apparently at the same bright spot I was looking at before he arrived. With his glasses on, he looked like just an ordinary guy, at least until his perfume invaded my personal space again.

"And why don't you explain it to me?"

He laughed and returned my gaze.

"Will that make you think about us?" I didn't answer, I couldn't give him any certainty, especially with everything we'd been through together.  "That's what I thought."

"But that doesn't stop you from trying, since you followed me here."

David appraised me for a few minutes, expecting me to simply get up and run away from him like I had done the other times. But I was exhausted, everything around me was a blur, and what I wanted most was to understand what was happening so that I could finally take more drastic action. Then he sighed and stared at the floor in silence.

"It's okay... You don't have to say anything..." I hurried and got up from the bench to leave; if he wasn't willing to tell me anything, I couldn't give him a chance.

"I had an uncle who was amazing, at least that's how my mother introduced him to me and my sister." David didn't move, he kept looking down at his feet and didn't force me to stay. I swallowed my saliva and went back to the bench. "I met him when I was about eight years old and he did everything for us, then my mother finally took him over for us, that took about a year. As I'd never met my father, he was my biggest role model and as time went by, he stopped being good to both of us." I didn't move, David seemed too focused on his memories for me to interrupt him. "I was just a child and I couldn't do anything to protect them and he, who had that obligation, like a fucking man, didn't do it."

There was a long pause, even with the lack of clarity I could see how deeply he was breathing in and out, trying to control his emotions, trying not to feel what he must have felt when all this happened.

"He killed them, his lack of protection killed them. He should have looked after them and protected them like his own life, but he was too drunk for that. I was in my room when I heard their screams, two burglars broke into our house while he was too drunk to open his fucking eyes. And I couldn't protect them, the women who looked after me and loved me weren't surrounded and protected as they should have been."

He took a few breaths before continuing.

"I was tied up and thrown into one of the armchairs we had in the living room when I tried to stop it and I witnessed everything they did to them until they stopped screaming because they didn't have the strength anymore. My mother's boyfriend blamed me for it, for letting it happen to them, a fucking nine-year-old boy against two muggers and firearms." He laughed scornfully before letting the air out slowly.

"David..." I didn't know what to say, I couldn't even imagine what he'd been through, and now, what right did I have to say anything?

"Then I'm sorry for surrounding you, Sarah. For being so infatuated with you that I didn't trust anyone around you, after that day, I promised myself I'd be different from my mother's boyfriend and I guess I am, even if it alienates the people I love."

I gasped, looking at all the pain David was carrying in his eyes, the anguish he felt. It wasn't his fault, being like this wasn't his fault at all.

I bit my cheeks trying to hold back the damned urge to cry, trying to understand his side and make sense of the protection and the exaggerated persecution.

"David..."

"Don't worry, it's been around twenty-eight years. I've tried to get over everything that's happened, but it's hard not to think about it when I'm around you."

"I understand now." I sighed, staring into his cloudy eyes. "I understand now." I smiled gently.

David gasped, took his hands out of his pockets, and slid down the seat to get closer to me.

"So..."

I nodded at him, I had nothing more to say... This I could deal with, this pain he was in... I could do this, be with him, and give him as little comfort as I could. He wasn't crazy, he was just a broken man.

"I'll get the car, I want to show you something."

I nodded before he pulled me in and kissed me more excitedly than I'd ever seen him. Then I simply smiled and waved before watching him run into the parking lot of the park, maybe we just needed to talk and nothing that happened would have been a big deal.

I sighed with relief, feeling my body release the tension it had been feeling for a long time.

"Look who's here, Sarah, Sarah, Mr. Clark's beloved little princess. How lucky for me, what a shame, I just can't say the same for you..."

Jess was thinner than I remembered and her eyes were as deep as if she hadn't slept for days. I looked over slowly as she sat down next to me on the bench to watch the movement.