Chapter 101 The Broken Truth
\[Lilia\]
“Ah, there she is. What took you so long?”
Sasha groused soon as I was back to the training gym. It seems like I have been gone for quite some time that they huddled on the benches, looking so bored as though I am their only source of amusement.
Hah! One day, when I hone all my moves, I’ll be making them my punching bag. Let’s see who’s going to have the final laugh.
“Just got some…unexpected delays,” I say to Sasha, rolling my eyes as I am still pissed off over what happened just a moment ago, and then I open the cap on my tumbler, drinking my water before I face her again.
This water never felt more refreshing. It tasted so much like success after standing for myself and not breaking down in front of that bastard. I loudly exhale, savoring the feeling that thirst finally got quenched. Then I wiped the water that dribbled at the corner of my lips using my forearms, watching Sasha get off the bench and starts walking towards the boxing ring.
“Shall we continue?” She just gave me a passing glance and scoffed, shaking her head as she took a leap into the platform.
“Thought you’ll never ask,” she responded, bouncing herself on the ring ropes and doing some solo drill-fighting-shit on the air. I don’t know what it's called, but she looks like she has been sparring with some invincible dude.
I watch her dance inside the boxing ring, throwing punches and dodging as though she was in a real fight.
If that day when my father was killed, if only I knew how to fight, I wouldn’t have been here. If only I had learned how to defend myself that day, my father would have lived. If only that day I was good as Sasha, I could have escaped and lived my life somewhere in peace…and I would never have to meet Kael. I wouldn’t be this heartbroken. I wouldn’t be this caged bird clipped off its wings.
I would have been free.
“Are you okay?” I broke out of my daze when Val suddenly came behind me. His large hands fell on my shoulders, startling me a little bit, though he sounded concerned when he asked me that.
“Yep,” I just said, popping the letter ‘p’ in it and taking a deep breath, clearing my thoughts away, and went to the corner of the ring and took my discarded gloves from earlier.
There is no reason for me to wallow in self-pity over the circumstances that were beyond my control or dwell on the way in which my life has turned out in the past few months. I had no control over the events that were going to happen to me in the future, nor could I go back in time and change what had already happened. The only thing I need to do is find out things for myself in the moment that might turn out well and at the very least make it so that I have less room for any mistakes or heartbreaks.
I was about to put on the gloves, but the wraps around my hands were already loose and needed to be tightened.
“Come here, let me.” Val came closer to my side and took my hands, then he began tightening each wrap. I watched his hands nimbly looping the wraps expertly around mine when I felt his heavy gaze fall on my face. I turn my head and meet his stare and notice the look he was giving me just as he tightens the last wrap and slides the gloves into my hand.
“I’m fine, Val,” I said to him, giving him my other hand as he worked with it faster.
“You don’t look fine to me,” he drew out a long sigh as he finished with the wraps, but he didn’t let go of my hand yet. “You talked with Kael?” He added, tightly clutching my hand with his enormous ones. I know he’s caring and thoughtful of everything I did since day one that we met, and for a moment, I thought I had a crush on him. That was until Kael came and messed with my feelings.
I know Val. He’s a gentle giant.
“I’m fine, really,” I smiled at him, tapping his hand before pulling mine, and just right, I was about to turn my back on him. I gave him a playful wink. “Just don’t drink all of my water again.”
He just laughs and lets my hand go. I hoisted myself into the ring, and Sasha came to help me up.
“Ready to be beaten?” She smirks soon as I stand on my feet. I only gave her a cheeky grin and took my stance.
“You bet.”
With that, Sasha and I started to dance, though I mostly got myself to get beat up.
The day faded longer than usual, and my body protested with every move I made. It was already six at night when Val called it a day, and it was time for me to take a rest. I didn’t take Sasha down, that would be a lot of work for me to do since I had only started my training, but I was able to land a punch on her face which pissed her off. However, she didn’t let it slide and punched me pretty strongly in the gut that I felt all my insides would come out of my mouth.
It was tiring, and I almost quit. Nonetheless, I learned a lot of things, mostly defensive stance and offensive moves.
Val told me after I learned my combat skills, I would be learning how to shoot a gun next. To practice my long-range skills and many things. I can’t wait to learn more about it, and I am totally enjoying this.
I was thinking of a hot-dip into my tub and a glass of wine to ease all my aching muscles. I deserve that after this day.
I am drenched with sweat, threading down the hallway peacefully leading to my room, wiping the moist dripping on my face, when a pair of hands suddenly grab my shoulders.
Out of instincts that I honed while training, my reflexes kicked in, and the adrenaline rushed through my body. I wedged my foot and twisted my upper body, grasping the arm that held me and using the last bit of my strength to hurl the person, whoever it was, and was about to slam him into the ground.
However, I am merely called a novice, and clearly, the man holding me is triple bigger than my size and a hell lot heavier than I could carry.
In the end, an arm snaked to my waist and hoisted me into the air. The next thing I knew, my back was pressed into the wall, and my legs wrapped spread wide. Kael wedged himself between them and had my hands bound above my head. His face was buried at the crooked of my neck.
“You smell just like how I imagine you would be,” he sniffs, inhaling my horrible scent deeply.
Oh, gosh, he did not! I didn’t even wash it yet.
“What the hell do you think you’re doing?” I immediately sneered, wriggling my body violently, trying to get rid of him, yet he was too strong for me, like a block of solid concrete wall pressing all over my body.
“Just let me hold you like this for a while,” he whispered, completely relaxing his stance into mine as though everything that happened wore him out and all the world’s burden dumped on his shoulders.
I never saw Kael being like this. Acting so weak as if all the strength of his body had depleted him.
But still, that doesn’t give him the right to treat me like some shit. He could have told me that he’s going to marry someone, that everything that comes between us could no longer continue, and that I will only be forever his fucking doll.
And that witch he’s going to marry with, why can’t he choose someone with a good heart?
The anger that was welling right deep inside of me rose again. I yanked my hands out from his grasp and pushed him. However, he still did not budge.
What the fuck!
“Damn it, Kael! Get off me!” I glowered, pounding my fists on his shoulders. Still, he didn’t seem to care about my assaults. Instead, he just lets me without moving.
I kept punching his shoulders and chest. I didn’t even realize that my tears were falling down my cheeks with all the anger that I had been bottling since this morning.
Everything that he said to me the other day, the encounter I had with him, and that wretched witch he calls fiancé. The way she deliberately kissed him right while I was looking and pretending she was all innocent. The way he just went with her antics, disregarding how I would feel watching them kissing as though he didn’t promise me anything when we were back in Italy.
All of it coming down on me in torrents, and I couldn’t help but break out in tears.
He’s an asshole.
“Just stay still,” he softly said, bracing hands on the wall, just to the side of my face, looking at me straightly in the eyes.
Those captivating mossy eyes wanted to meet me back into his arms, yet I refused to give in to my feelings. I worked hard for this, don’t want to be the same old Lilia that one touch is all it takes, then I’ll be crawling back into his bed.
No.
Sasha thought me better than this.
I hardened my expression and lifted my chin in defiance. Wiping all emotions out of my face and met his gaze with much confidence.
“Why are you doing this now? After everything you said,” I coldly stated. I almost didn’t recognize my own voice. It was like someone was talking instead of me, sounding detached and hollow.
Kael stiffened against mine. His eyes widened for a moment as though he could not believe how strangely I sounded, but then he recovered quickly and softened his gaze.
“It was a lie,” he whispered, lowering his head into my chest.
I was heaving, breathing heavily as my heart pounded wildly against my ribcage, yet Kael didn’t seem to care and laid his ears against my chest, listening to the rampage beating of my heart. He looks like a lost child searching for his mother, so helpless, and just by watching him acting this way, a sob threatened to escape from my lips. I clamped down my teeth on the side of my cheeks and lifted my head, staring blankly over the ceiling just as a solitary tear rolled down my face.
“Of course, it was a lie,” I croaked raggedly, blinking my eyes too fast to get rid of the tear. I swallowed the burgeoning lump in my throat and steeled myself. I cannot let him get me with this pitiful act.
I need to be tough. Tougher than I have ever been before. My heart is crushing looking at him like this. A big man in shambles, but I know this façade won’t last long. The next day I will wake up having him yelling at me again, saying things that hurt more than Sasha’s punches in the gut.
“Everything you are is a lying piece of shit! You and your stupid fiancé! Get off me, Kael. This at once, and stay away from me. I don’t want to see your goddamn face!” I screamed, mustering the feeble strength left in me, and pushed him.
This time, he finally let me go. He took a step back and let me slide off him. My legs wobbled for a moment, but I clung to the wall for support and immediately found my footing.
Kael just stood motionless right in front of me, staring at my face as though he was memorizing every bit of detail on my feature before he tentatively took a small step closer. I wanted to back away, but I was already pressed to the wall, and he had me boxed in.
He lifted his hand and reached for my face, wiping the tears off my cheek with his knuckles, and then he leaned down, kissing the top of my head gently.
“Good night, kukla,” and with that, he turned his back on me and left.
I watched him fade away from my sight. Just then everything comes down on me, and the sob that I had been holding finally broke through.
My entire body all of a sudden felt like it was carrying too much weight, and my knees eventually gave out, causing me to fall into the floor while I lamented for my heart.
I heard a staccato of successive footsteps coming right in my direction, but I was too dazed, too numb to even care looking whoever it was.
This pain.
This excruciating pain is just too much for me to bear at this point. It's making me feel like I am dying.
“Lilia, what are you doing on the floor?”