Chapter 30 The Apology That Means Nothing
The Press conference is scheduled for 2 PM.
Zephyra did not plan to wait. Can’t bear being inside the same room as Felix once again.
Instead, she watches from her home. Curled on the couch. Kairo beside her. His arm around her shoulders.
The television flickers to life. A podium. Microphones. Cameras flashing like lightning.
Felix enters. He looks terrible. Thinner. Older. Like guilt has been ingesting him from the inside out.
Great.
His lawyer stands beside him. Stone-confronted. Professional.
"Mr. Gray has a statement to read." The attorney's voice is clipped. "There could be no questions afterward."
Felix pulls out a paper. His hands shake slightly as he unfolds it.
"I, Felix Grey, publicly apologize to Zephyra Lione-Draven for my behavior." His voice is monotone. analyzing from a script. "I used designs that were not mine. I misrepresented their origin. I exploited a personal relationship for professional gain."
The words are hollow. Empty, lawyer-written, and sanitized.
"I take full obligation for my actions and accept the courtroom's ruling. I can follow all procedures of the judgment."
He pauses. Takes a breath.
"I make an apology for any pain I brought about, Ms. Draven. She merits popularity for her skills and creativity."
He folds the paper. Starts to leave.
"Mr. Gray!" A reporter shouts. "Did you ever sincerely love her?"
Felix freezes. His back to the cameras.
The question hangs in the air like smoke.
"Mr. Gray, did you love Zephyra Lione-Draven while you were together?"
Slowly, Felix turns. His face is a mask. Cautiously controlled.
"No remark." His voice is flat.
"But the recordings—"
"No remark." He repeats. Walks off stage .
His lawyer follows. The press conference ends.
Zephyra stares at the blank screen.
"No remark" is enough answer.
He didn't love her. By no means did.
She should experience devastation. Broken. Destroyed through the final confirmation that it was all lies.
However, she doesn't.
She feels... nothing.
Then, slowly, something else. Something lighter.
Relief.
"He couldn't even fake it." Kairo says quietly. "could not even fake for the cameras that he cared."
"No." Zephyra's voice is steady. "He couldn't."
"How are you feeling?"
She thinks about it. In reality examines her emotions.
"Empty," she admits. "But not unhappy empty. More like... cleansed empty. Like something poisonous has, finally, drained out."
Kairo pulls her nearer. "You've been mourning him for five years. Grieving something that in no way existed. Perhaps now you can stop."
"Perhaps." She leans into his warm arms. "I already mourned this love years in the past. When he left. I cried each tear I had. This simply confirms what I already knew deep down—that I was loving a ghost."
"And now?"
"Now I am free of him." The words feel genuine. Final. "He can not hurt me anymore. Can't take anything else from me. He's just... not anything."
They sit in silence. The TV is still blank. The apartment is quiet.
"I want to tell you of something," Zephyra says.
"Ok."
She turns to face him. Takes his arms in hers.
"These past months. The whole thing with Felix. The lawsuit. The betrayal. All of it." She pauses. Amassing bravery. "It confirmed something I ought to have acknowledged all along."
"What's that?"
"The difference between loving someone and being in love with them." Her voice is steady now. Certainly. "Felix was my old love. But it was young love. Desperate love, the sort that burns shiny and rapid and leaves nothing but ash."
Kairo listens. Did not interrupt.
"What I felt for Felix was built on dreams and capacity. On who I thought he was. On who I wanted him to be." She squeezes his fingers. "But what I feel for you..."
Her voice catches. But not from disappointment. From fact, ultimately breaking free.
"What I feel for you is built on fact. On who you clearly are. On the way you show up every single day. On trust, respect and partnership."
"Zephyra—"
"Permit me to finish." She smiles through sudden tears. "I have been so scared to mention it. Scared that loving a person fully meant losing myself. That is what Dalia helped me see—I was scared of becoming someone who needed you more than I needed myself."
"And now?" His voice is rough. Emotional.
"Now I know that's no longer how love works. Not real love." She touches his face. "Loving you doesn't make me smaller. It makes me braver. More stronger. More myself than I have ever been."
Kairo's eyes are wet. He blinks with difficulty.
"I love you, Kairo." The phrases pop out clear. Positive. "Now not like I loved him—determined and clinging and afraid. I like you in a manner that is stronger. Realer, for all time."
He does not speak. Just pulls her into his hands. Holds her like she's everything.
"I really love you." She says against his chest. "I ought to have said it weeks ago. Months in the past. But I was so scared."
"I know." His voice is muffled in her hair. "I know. And that I waited because I'mI knew you'd say it when you have been prepared."
"I'm geared up now." She pulls again to have a look at him. "I'm so ready. I love you. I pick you. Not because you're secure or because Felix hurt me. But due to the fact that you are you. And you are everything."
He kisses her. Deep. Consuming. Complete of relief ,pleasure and love finally spoken.
After they broke apart, they are both crying.
"I love you too." He whispers. "In case that wasn't clear. I love you a lot; it terrifies me once in a while."
"True." She laughs through tears. "We are be terrified together."
They hold each other. The afternoon light slanting via windows. The world outside continuing. However, inside this moment, everything is perfect.
Felix's apology meant nothing.
However, Zephyra's declaration is everything.
Her cellphone buzzes. She ignores it.
Buzzes again. And once more.
"You must take a look at that," Kairo says.
Reluctantly, she picks it up. Three texts from Caleb.
The first: "Felix violated the non-touch order. Sent you flowers."
The second one: "Additionally, sent a letter in your apartment. Building supervisor has it."
The third: "He desires to meet. Says he has data you need about the person that actually orchestrated the whole lot."
Zephyra's blood runs cold.
The individual that actually orchestrated everything.
Laurent's magazine referred to another person. Someone Felix reported to.
Someone still out there. Still pulling strings.
What if F
elix wasn't the mastermind? What if he was just another pawn in a bigger game?