Chapter Fourteen

Noah heaved a sigh of relief when he arrived at his office and unbuttoned the first two buttons on his shirt.

"How did it go?" his grandfather asked.

Noah chuckled. He should have known that the old man would stick around.

"It went surprisingly well," he replied, "I was able to calm her down. I'm supposed to see her later."

His grandfather nodded. "I told you to attempt first before concluding."

"Grandpa, it's not that easy. I'm just not like others who are open to love, like Natalie or my mom," he replied.

"Well, if I wasn't open to love, then you wouldn't have been created. Because your father wouldn't have been born," he said, and Noah chuckled.

"I have to leave now. As you can see, I'm getting old. I need to get some rest," he said before patting him on the back.

"Let me walk you out."

"No, no, no, it's fine. Do your work here," he said before leaving the office.

A moment later, Pedro rejoined Noah in the office and stared at him as he admired the lavender eyes on his screen.

"Let me guess, it went well." He said, getting Noah's attention.

"Yeah, she's willing to give me a second chance."

"I presume you know what you are getting her into." Pedro indicated as Noah sighed, realizing the pros and cons of them being together.

I'll protect her with my life no matter what it takes, he assures himself.

He checked the time on his watch. It was already noon. He promised Ava he'd come by to see her later.

***

"I don't need a therapist. I promise I'll be fine." Ava protested as Daniel kept on insisting.

"I promise it's for your good," he replied as she rolled her eyes.

She was about to say something, but she got interrupted by the loud doorbell.

Ava had already started to proceed to answer the door, but Daniel stopped her.

"It's fine. I'll answer it." She watched as he opened the door and Noah came into view.

"Ah, Noah, I'm glad you are here. I was arguing with this missy over here. She doesn't want to visit the therapist even just once," he said In-between breaths.

"Well, tell this mister over here that I'm fine can't you see."

"I'll come with you if you don't wanna go alone."

"Noah, I thought you would support me in this." She whined and then pouted.

"Your brother has a point, you know. If you go with me, I'll take you anywhere you want to go."

"But I heard therapists are evil people. They will drug you, or make you worse, or even hypnotize you," she said as she paced around with a worried face.

"I'll bring a gun if that makes you happy. Besides, I'm there to protect you," he assured, and she slouched down on the couch.

"Ugh, fine! I'll get dressed."

She went to her room and rummaged through her bags. Then, she pulled out a cute black dress that she'd got at the airport's store and matched it with a pair of black flats.

She grabbed her phone from the dressing table and exited the room to join Noah and her brother.

"Can we leave now before I change my mind?"

"Yeah, sure. We will talk later." Noah beckoned at Daniel.

"You bought a new car already?" She asked as they hit the road.

"You want me to keep on riding a bicycle forever?" he asked, and she became red in embarrassment.

"You look cute," he added, and she felt her face burn from hair to neck.

He looked outside the window, and she played with the ends of her cloth. She looked at his side mirror, and the questions that got her into this situation popped in her head, but she hesitated.

"Did you really kill those men?" he asked, and her face turned from happy to terror.

Then flashing images of how she'd hit those men popped up in her head. Images of how they'd raped her came back. She held her ears and screamed. It felt as if everything was happening again in front of her.

"No, no, please stay away from me," she pleaded. "Please, I beg you." Noah immediately pulled her into a hug.

She cried silently on his chest as he slowly patted her hair. "I'm sorry," he kept on apologizing as she held onto him.

After a few minutes of being huddled in the same position, they arrived at the hospital that specialized in therapy.

He held her around her waist, and she clutched to his arms as they walked into the building.

The receptionist directed them to the waiting room as Ava just stared with no emotions in her eyes.

I shouldn't have asked her that question, he thought as he slowly caressed her black hair.

No, but you just had to ask 'cause you're an idiot, his mind mocked.

"Miss Ava, it's your turn now," the receptionist announced while she just absently nodded her head.

"Please follow me in," she pleaded, and Noah couldn't say no to those eyes.

"I'm sorry, sir, but you can't enter the room with her," the receptionist said, trying to stop him from going in with her.

"Do you fucking know who I am? I'm Noah Faustino!" he growled when he noticed Ava's nervous look.

"I'm sorry, sir," she said, backing away from the entrance.

"Sorry for keeping you waiting," the shrink apologized the moment Ava walked in, and her eyes spotted Noah at her back.

"Noah! Wow, you still look very much like your father."

"How do you know my name?" Noah asked, already bringing out the gun from his jacket.

"Take it easy there. I'm just an old friend of your dad. We went to the same high school." And Noah retracted his hands from his pocket.

"Miss Ava, please take a seat in front of me," She beckoned at the lost lady that still held on to Noah.

After some seconds of mental contemplation, she gave in and took a seat opposite to the shrink.

"Can you just enlighten me a little on what happened to you that night? Just narrate it like you were telling a story."

***

Noah cringed as his phone lit up from a call.

"I'll talk to you later, Pedro. I'm in the middle of a therapy session. I'll speak to you later." He said and hung up the call.

"I'm sorry for the unpleasant distraction. Can you please continue what you were doing?"

"That night, I was kidnapped in a taxi by the driver. When I was awoken, I was carried to a torture chamber—" Her voice cracked as she remembered the horrors that were melted on her.

"The three men I was left with raped me. I pleaded with them to stop, and they wouldn't." Teardrops slowly fell and she pressed her legs together as she remembered yet again how they had abused her.

She sniffed and continued with her cracked voice, "They penetrated every opening I had." He could see the pain and misery she went through in her eyes. He squeezed his hands tight as he thought of how he was going to squeeze the boss behind all this.

All this had happened to her because of him. If he hadn't sent her home, none of this would have happened. If he hadn't insulted her, she wouldn't have left in tears.

"The doctors said they found too much scar tissue in my womb. Now I can't have children," she said before she buried her head in her hands and cried out the tears she had been holding. They flowed freely like a stream.

Her last words broke his heart into many pieces. He felt as if he had truly ruined her life. He had taken away her chances of giving birth. She had officially become barren.

"But on the bright side, at least I didn't carry the child of one of those bastards." She curled up on the sofa and placed her head on her knee.

"How do you feel now that you have spoken about it?" the therapist asked as she jotted down some things on her paper.

"I feel relieved, and I don't feel the pang of pain I felt in my chest," she said slowly, brushing her hands through her black hair.

Noah looked at the shrink as she prescribed some drugs to Ava.

"Faustino junior, I need you to join Miss Ava on this seat. Please."

He moved and sat beside Ava and looked at her briefly and then at the therapist.

"She needs a change of environment. Like a vacation away from here. The memories might go away once she's in a new environment. It would still be intact, but it won't be severe and active as it currently is."

"You can take her out of the United States if possible. Just somewhere she's comfortable with." She added before dismissing them.

"Do make sure to extend my greetings to Senior Faustino. Just tell him Andrea."

The ride back home was filled with silence as she kept on tugging on her sleeves.

"Where do you wanna go, Ava?" He asked as he broke the almost deafening atmosphere that once existed in the car.

"I dunno, anywhere to get things off my head," she answered, trying her best not to glance at him.

"Have you ever heard of the city of love?" He asked her as he waited in anticipation.

"Pariez, la cité d'amour."

Translation: Paris, the city of love.

"Impressive, you're indeed a smart lady," he remarked.

They arrived at the apartment almost five hours after they left. Daniel was seated on the couch binge-watching Gray's anatomy.

"Hey, we're back," she announced as she entered the house.

"How did the meeting go?" He asked with his eyes still fixed on the TV screen.

"It was ok, I guess. She didn't try to hypnotize me, and Noah was by my side all along," she recalled, and she blushed as she realized how cheesy she sounded.

Noah watched as Ava retreated to her room.

"Daniel, can we speak for a minute?"

"Why didn't you tell she had become barren because of me?" Noah complained, and Daniel stayed silent.

"I just ruined her future. I shouldn't have sent her away," he said regrettably.

"Till when are you going to blame yourself?" Daniel asked with his hands placed inside his pocket. "Because if it is about blaming people, I must also be blamed. I let her go home alone, so it's no one's fault at all," he said, patting his shoulders.

"What did the therapist say about Ava?"

"She insisted that she goes on a vacation. It will help her," he replied, leaning on the wall.

"A change of environment will definitely do her some good. I suggest you take her out of the states."

"Me?" Noah asked Daniel.

"Yes, you're the best candidate to go with her."

"Don't you think she's going to refuse to go with me?" he questioned.

"You never know until you try," he said before leaving.

Won't she be uncomfortable around me? he thought as he walked to her room.

"Ava?" he called her name with a knock on the door.

"Yeah, come in." She said from inside.

He opened the door to her room and joined her in sitting in the bed. "What's that you're holding?" He asked her with his eyes fixed on the red box she held.

"It's a weird gift I got from my Mom on my eighteenth birthday." She paused and smiled, "I got so angry with her that day. I left the house angry and stormed out of the house and I came back after three days. I slept in the agency with Annie." She laughed.

"Do you know what was inside this box?" She asked.

"No, I have no idea," he shrugged.

"It was this," she said, revealing a purple dildo that had his face carved on it.

"What the fuck was she thinking?" he grabbed the toy. "Like, is your mom for real right now?"

"Like I don't know what she was thinking of giving me this," she said, laughing her ass out.

"And when I came back after three days, she was like it was to satisfy myself since you weren't there," she added, collapsing on the bed laughing.

He watched her as she smiled to herself on the bed with her hair covering half of her face. Then he popped the question.

"Do you wanna go with me on a vacation?"