Chapter 64

Chapter 64
Arlo drove off without a destination in mind. Perhaps somewhere far from meeting rooms, from constant surveillance, far from everything. 

And what awaited his journey was the same mountain in that small town, their villa sat on top, untouched and empty.

For the first time ever since his family’s death, he was now alone. No one to watch him, no one to judge him. No expectations.

Quietly, he walked outside and headed towards the vast field.

The horses they used to ride were gone from the stables, and it reminded him again of his loneliness.

Something in him finally broke. 

Arlo dropped to his knees, his hands tightly clutching against the grass blades.

Grief finally crawled its way to his throat after days of suppressing it. 

He cried and screamed. A sound so raw and unfiltered, then he tilted back, now screaming at the sky.

He let out all his pain and his anger towards the world that took his family, hoping the louder he screamed, the more it would flow out of him. 

But it never did. 

Even after all that screaming, he still felt hollow inside.

His body gave out, and he lay back against the earth, exhausted. His chest rose and fell rapidly while he stared at the wide blue sky.

At that moment, he remembered again his mother’s words. How could he forget when Florence repeats it to him every day like a ritual?

‘Everything is meaningless without love.’

What a cruel lesson to leave behind.

‘Love,’ Arlo thought bitterly, throwing one arm over his eyes to block the sky’s overwhelming brightness. 

Love is nothing but a weakness. Love couldn’t possibly feel this emptiness. Love isn’t the all powerful force that drives this world. Power is. Power will give you everything.

That’s what Arlo believes. 

But despite having power now, an empire that would bend to his will, he’s still empty.

So perhaps Florence was right. Love was not a weakness but a missing organ that he had yet to develop. Perhaps the reason why his mother kept lecturing him was because she knew.

The thought exhausted him even more compared to the screaming he did.

That’s why he didn’t notice the footsteps approaching him.

A shadow fell over his face. At first, he thought it was his mind playing tricks on him. He frowned, annoyed at first. But when he adjusted his arm to let sunlight seep through his eyelashes, he saw something.

A face hovered over him. Too close.

His breath was caught in his throat as he fully moved his arm away from his eyes.

A girl was leaning over him. Hands braced on her knees, her silhouette framed by the sun above, while the golden rays streamed through the waves of her hair, cascading down like a willow tree bending over him. 

She looked golden and luminous.

Arlo was frozen, disoriented. 

His gaze was locked onto hers. Her face was upside down, but he could see that she was calm, observant. The girl tilted her head to the side, studying him.

“I thought someone was getting butchered over here, but turns out it was just you.” She said, her voice dismayed.

Arlo snapped back to reality and sat back up, ruffling his hair.

“Just me? Do you even know who I am?” He shot back, throwing a glare at her.

“No, are you supposed to be the president’s son or something?”

Arlo’s jaw drops open from this girl's words. Never in his life has someone spoken to him like this. 

He expected that the person who would approach him would be a guard, a staff member, someone who would come to escort him back, and not whatever this is. 

A girl, a few years younger than him, was wearing what seemed to be makeshift battle gear. Cargo pants, thick jacket despite being in the middle of summer, and work gloves that seemed bigger than her hands.

Seeing this made Arlo curse at himself for thinking for a second that this girl was pretty when it was just the sun playing tricks on him.

“A little girl shouldn’t be here. This is a private property,” Arlo was too tired to stand, so he remained seated on the grass floor, keeping his sharp glare on the girl. “Tell me your name, I’ll make sure you won’t step another foot here.”

The girl tensed, “Well, all the more reason not to tell you then,”

Something stirred in his chest, something different from the constant grief and pain.

Annoyance. 

“You—“ Arlo lunged to his feet, preparing to capture the girl and throw her out of the property.

But the girl was faster. She bolted before he could grab her arm. 

“HEY!” Arlo chased after her without thinking, running across the grassy field and feeling the breeze dry out his tear-soaked cheeks.

He was taller and faster, so catching her wasn’t even a challenge.

Arlo was quick to grab her by her wrist, but momentum betrayed both of them, sending them crashing on the soft ground.

They tumbled and rolled, spinning green and blue until they fully stopped. 

Arlo realized he was on top of her, his palms pressed over the grass. 

The girl’s hands were trapped beside her head, while her hair fanned out like the roots of a tree. Her eyes showed defiance, sharp and bright with recklessness.

For a moment, both of them didn’t speak or move. They just stared at each other, panting, chests rising and falling in sync.

At this moment, Florence’s voice haunted him again.

‘Everything is meaningless without love,’

Those words echoed strangely in his mind, they reverberated all across his body and settled in his chest as he stared down at the girl who looked like she’d ask the world for a fistfight and laugh while doing it.

But reality was far crueler.

The girl moved. Her fist connected with Arlo’s face, sending him backwards and finally freeing her.

“OW!” Arlo yelped, clutching his cheeks as pain exploded from it. 

He looked up and saw the girl scrambling to her feet, and sprinting away.

“You shouldn’t grab people without permission!” Laughter trailed behind her, but just as she was to disappear from the thick bushes at the edge of the field, she turned and screamed.

“Hey!”

Arlo never tore his gaze away from her, with his hand over his throbbing face, he stared at her, in disbelief.

“Remember this day!” She declared, one hand over her waist while the other was pointing in his direction like Arlo was some kind of villain she intended to defeat. “You got sucker-punched in the face by a little girl!”

She grinned, unapologetic. 

“And the name is Kerri!”

And then she was gone, swallowed by the thick bushes, in the direction that would eventually lead to town.

Arlo remained sprawled on the ground, cheek aching, heart pounding for reasons he couldn’t understand.

For the first time, his thoughts didn’t circle back to grief or the loneliness that haunted him. 

His mind followed the echo of that girl’s proud laughter.