She stared at the mirror for as long as she could remember. She saw a woman who had made mistakes, who had fallen in love deeply and greatly too. A woman who had friends turned family that had stood the test of time with her and were still standing. There were loopholes and errors but she didn't flinch or cringe. She wasn't ashamed of the woman she'd become.
***
Tyler sighed as Maya dropped her letter of resignation and turned to leave.
He didn't even recognize his voice as he called her back. The past few weeks have been terrible for him. He was drowning in an ocean of guilt and it didn't help that Melissa has been calling him regularly and coming around to check up on him... Like he was family. Like she would her brother.
Anger and pain never allowed him to see past Xavier Salvador and notice the immense love he was being showered by his family and now he was on the brink of losing it all, he was beginning to realize that Jared was right when he had called him out on playing with fire because the fire seeks to destroy him whole. And Jared? He avoided any conversation with him that didn't have to do with business. His mother, yes he guess she was his mother. He thought, was still in grief just like him, and yesterday when she had tried to initiate conversations with him asking him how his plans with removing Maya out of Xavier's life has been going, Yes, she had been a key partner all along helping him with scheming where his mental capabilities failed. He had left the house and now, not even after Diane's death did he feel this loneliness, the toe-curling shock that makes you realize you are the only one walking in the shadow of the past, only you outliving the past every day again and again and now, you are all alone.
Maya lowered herself to the seat in front of him anticipating his words.
"I'm sorry,"
She smiled, "It is fine, Tyler." He hadn't done anything to her as far as she was concerned. The only sins he had committed, she had given him the power to. She had trusted his every word and believed him, accepting him as a friend despite knowing he harbored a grudge against Xavier, though to be fair she didn't know to what extent the anger and hate had gotten to.
"You sure there is nothing I can do to make you stay, nothing at all." He mumbled, "Salary increase? a bigger office? A trained assistant?"
She smiled amused at the last part, surprisingly Jessica had missed her in her absence. Jared had given her that piece of information and when she had returned, she had confirmed it when Jessica had thrown herself into her arms.
Though she still frowned and sometimes bang her head thrice on her work desk which Maya had noticed with a smile on her face, she was no longer running to a corner to cry and was surprisingly turning out to be a great assistant. She'll tell her that when she leaves but through Jared. She didn't think she'll be able to face her and tell her she was going not with the flush of excitement on the girl's face ever since she had returned. Okay, maybe she was still a coward to an extent.
"I'm sorry Tyler. I wished I could stay but I can't. This is the end of the road for both of us in this office."
He smiled in understanding.
"I've started going for therapy," she gave him a look and he chuckled, "Not going, going. I'd just recently booked an appointment with the therapist Jared had given me contacts to see some months ago before__"
She nodded in understanding. He didn't need to complete his words. Before her world had come crashing on the ground, being arranged with specks of dirt all around them and colliding once again with someone who was beginning to seem like the bane of her existence. Xavier Salvador.
"That's nice, Tyler." She beamed at him reaching out to hold his hand not even being able to hold a grudge. He wasn't a bad man, she had seen a glimpse of his goodness regardless of the grief that had plagued his mind and had made him do certain things he definitely regrets now.
"Why are you here, Maya?"
She gave him a disbelieving look, "To drop this off."
He held the paper in his hands, "Received. Now, why are you here when you should be with the man you love." She opened her mouth to reply but he interrupted her.
"Look I'm not trying to shift blame from myself or anything because I know what I did and I feel like shit for that but," he chuckled, "I didn't even do much. Not as much as I'd anticipated doing before making two people who clearly love each other fall apart. It was too easy and that had made me thoroughly confused." He was now the one holding her hand.
"All my relationships are in a mess, as we speak. I and Jared's, mine and that with the Salvador's because soon I'll be confessing to Melissa all I did and I hope she can still be able to look at me," Maya wanted to tell him that she already knew but pursed her lips.
"I'll try to also build something with Xavier and though I can't promise you it'll be friendship, that ship sailed a long time ago but we would be able to stand each other without grabbing each other's shirt and flexing muscles. Though I hope you are aware that Xavier was the one doing all the fisting and crinkling of my shirts," she laughed despite the tears that burned against her eyes.
"I'll try to be a mother to my mom and get her past this pain. It'll be hard, it might be hopeless and bleak some days but I'll be fighting hard, bringing in the fight for all those I love."
A tear rolled down her cheeks as he leaned in and kissed her on her forehead, "You should do the same with Xavier. You should start by walking him through the same part of grief he has been avoiding. Go and meet the man you love because although I haven't experienced that manner of love in my life but if it is equivalent to the love I feel for Jared then it is worth fighting for afterall__" She had hardly heard the last part of his sentence because she was already rushing out of his door and she was holding on to the fight.
In the end, the princess saves herself in the story and fights for who she loves.