EIGHT

"Not here."

When he started to walk away, past the hotel room and towards the lift my heart started speed up.

"I can't leave Joy." I quickly yelled after him, planting my feet into the ground firmly. Unaware as to how this would intensify my case, as he would not physically drag me with him since he was already at the lift. Although he did turn around to me, shooting a quick glance towards my room door and then back to me.

He spoke slowly, making sure every word had a chance to be digested in my head to ease my worry. "Your daughter is with your friend and Quan is across from them. Added to that, we have a man downstairs and others on call if anything happens."

All of that should have sent reassurance my way but it did nothing to calm me. I was not willingly going with Link to wherever he wanted me to go and leave Joy -

His next words cut my frantic thoughts short. "She is safe. You have my word."

It was the first time I heard him speak like that, as if all worry should be placed on him and he took all responsibility in his hand. He was making me a promise that no harm would come to my daughter and he would make sure he damn right kept his word. I dragged out a breath and started moving towards him.

I halted when I came to the lift and saw his long finger press the button. The ding that came out from the lift was the only sound I heard and I stepped inside when the doors opened. "I don't want to go far."

Link pushed a button that would take us back down and then stood as far away as the constricted lift could allow so. "It's not that far."

Silence fell on both of us as we got into my car. Not so much of a grunt had come out of me as he asked for the keys.

My mind was swirling with endless possibilities as to how Link was going to present his explanation. I knew that whatever he said, it just wasn't going to be okay in my head. Hence, why I knew deep down that I didn't want to know about it anymore. I was more content to close the book and leave it to be forgotten. Opening this whole situation open would most likely open up raw emotions in me and I knew I wouldn't be able to see Link as I do now.

I kept to my own musing but also couldn't help but wonder what filled Link's thoughts. Was he thinking about the day of the accident? His ways of fucking me over those years back? Or those times we allowed ourselves to forget our hatred and differences and fall prey to our desires?

I slammed the last thought shut instantly, knowing that I definitely did not want to think about those times. How my teenage self would find intense desire and lust creep all over my body until I couldn't help but cave in.

Redirecting all my focus on what was going on outside me head, I saw that Link was driving down a familiar road. An extremely familiar road.

My back straightened in my seat and I actually shoved my whole body towards the window and pressing against it when he took the right turn to the exact road. "Fuck you." I spat out harshly, my eyes widening as the car crept closer and closer to the exact spot where it happened. The whole road was surprisingly quiet, with no one walking around the area and just leaving it to Link and myself.

I was bombarded with every panic ridden emotion possible and stumbled over my words as Link parked the car against the pavement. All the words I was trying to get out were curse words directed towards Link and everything else.

"Calm down." His low voice managed to reach over all my curses and that freaking pissed me off.

"Calm down?" I repeated on a harsh gasp. "I haven't been here since-"

His eyebrow raised up at me. "Since you knocked Lauren over?" He finished my sentence for me although I wasn't going to phrase it like that.

He didn't wait for my reply and instead opened the door and angled himself out my car. I wasn't stupid to remain seated so I followed my own door and stepped out the car. All I had to do was look at the spot and images of what happened flooded my vision.

Losing control over the wheels... veering to the wrong direction... hitting something - someone.

"You can't for a second think it's okay to talk here." I said through gritted teeth and lowered my head to the ground. I was trying my best to contain my panic, not sure what I would surrender myself to if I let it take over. Would I scream? Would I find myself reliving the whole night over and over again, trapped in my own nightmare?

I felt a hand on my shoulder and at that stroke, it snapped me out of my would be panic frenzy. "We have to relive it in order for you to understand me." Link spoke softly.

I still had my head lowered to the ground, unwilling to look up and see those images again. "I can't." I croaked out, the voice unrecognisable to my own ears. It sounded far too defeated, scared and filled with relentless fear.

I felt his hand move from my shoulder and then his finger came to the side of my jaw. A finger trailed to the side of my face until it was under my chin, and with that Link used it to lift my face up. He was standing right in front of me, close enough for me to grab onto his jacket. I did just that, clinging onto the thick fabric and hoping that it could keep me together. Link's other hand fished out and clasped itself around my waist, holding me into this weird embrace. "I can't either," Link spoke, his own voice carrying a different kind of fear. "I can only do this if you do it with me."

I shook my head at him. "It's my own nightmare."

"One that includes me." Link reminded me.

My eyes glazed over his face, finding it hard to focus on his features. I closed my eyes and became determined to regain some control and by that, I decided to focus on the touches. I leaned into him, feeling his hard body all under the clothing material. He was real. This was real. What had happened was something in the past and what had haunted me was just the half truth.

Link's chest hitched at my closeness although we both knew that this was nothing close to what had passed between us the other night outside the hotel room door. This was something else entirely.

He must have took my stillness as a sign as Link started to speak before I was completely prepared for it. "Lauren was - is - sick."

I couldn't do this whilst holding on to him. My fingers loosened on the material of his jacket and I quickly stepped back from him. He dropped his hands from my body and also took a step back. He looked over me once before his glanced shifted over to the side by the ground... to the ground where his sister once lay.

"Lauren is sick and she was constantly in and out of a mental hospital. I was sick and tired of seeing her all holed up in her room so I decided to take her out. Stupid decision on my part because I couldn't control her. All she wanted to do was go see some guy she liked and.. That night she was suffering from one of her usual episodes but I didn't pay any mind to it until she started getting worse right before my eyes." Link didn't look away from the spot of the ground as he told me something about his sister that I never knew.

To everyone who knew Lauren, she was a pretty girl that seemed like she had everything in order. Not this.

Link carried on speaking. "She suffers from some type of memory loss, so she's not quite with us anymore. It's like watching an old person suffering from dementia but in a young woman's body."

"That night, she was screaming and shouting, saying all sorts of things. She didn't know who I was, where she was and what was going on. And she was reckless, walking into people's garden's and knocking on their doors. I held back until she started walking on the road. I stepped in to get her back on the pavement but it was too late-"

I held in my breath. "And that's when I came."

Link nodded. "That's when a car came out of nowhere and hit her before I could get her out the way. I saw you coming. I knew if I moved fast enough I could have pushed her aside and got hit instead."

At that revelation, I felt my knees buckle. I could have hit Link.

"I held my sister in my arms. She was limp, lifeless for moments too long. I was crying, shouting for you to call for help but imagine my distraught when I saw that you had done a runner." A small scoff escaped from him, reminding me of what resentment he harboured for me in that moment. "With that, and what had happened the whole night with Lauren I couldn't help but see you as the cause of it. What decent human being with morals could do a hit and run on a poor young woman who was suffering already? I fucking hated you. In my eyes, you made everything worse for Lauren that day and you didn't even know about it. In my eyes, you killed whatever I had left of my sister."

I had to put my hand against the side of my car in hopes of keeping myself up. My legs were giving up me, refusing to hold onto much longer and instead succumbing to the dark pull. I could hear my erratic heart beating in my chest as bile rose up my throat. I had killed his sister. No matter what, in his eyes I had killed his sister.

"I got her to the hospital and told her what happened. How she was all night... how she had stared into my eyes and didn't know who I was. About the accident that had made her unconscious until she woke up and remembered my name. So after all of that, imagine my surprise when the doctors said it was her mental condition that was worsening and there was no sign of head trauma from the accident."

Just a moment ago Link told me it was my fault his sister's illness had worsened. And now he was telling me it wasn't?

"I didn't believe him because a part of me thought the doctor was telling me what I wanted to hear. I had told them I didn't know who the person was behind the wheel but they somehow guessed I was going after you and they didn't want that. So I thought they were telling me about her illness taking it's natural course to be a lie."

"But you knew it was me." I said in a small voice. Why would he hide that from the doctor?

"Yeah I did." He didn't elaborate on it further and I didn't press for it.

Link had paused for a while, his eyes still glued on the spot where he has held his sister. I couldn't imagine all that he felt in that moment. And from what I knew now how much Lauren meant to him, the pain he felt in that that time must have been unbearable. He surprised me when he carried on speaking. "She got put away for two years and I got put into jail for two years."

"For what?" I asked, not sure whether latching on that part was a good idea.

He didn't seem to care as he shrugged. "Wrong place at the wrong time kind of thing." Again, there were no details given and I didn't pry for more.

But I wanted to know what had driven him all those times he was - My thoughts where interjected by his words which were giving me the answered I sought. "I came out, and my sister was no better, she was on drugs and she wasn't herself. The two years I tried to convince myself that it wasn't your fault fell down the drain and all the hate I had for you came back, except it was ten times worse. So I came back and my sole purpose in life became to fuck you over. I did everything from screw with your head to hurting you but I never crossed the line."

Everything he had done to me came crashing back to me, but this time a much deeper reason rooted behind it. I cleared my throat from the sudden lump that had planted itself there. "That time when I saw you talking to those two men, you weren't speaking about me." I stated, remembering that night as clear as my own name.

Link finally snapped from his long held gaze on the floor and started to move back towards me. "No, I wasn't. I was speaking about my sister. She kept getting out the mental institution and ruining my plan."

He kept his sister from exploring the outsides all so I wouldn't catch sight of her? "Link, you are so fucking twisted."

He let out another harsh scoff, stopping his descend on em when he was a mere few feet away from me. "I know. And I started to realise I couldn't be blaming you for something that wasn't your fault so I stopped. But then someone was still screwing you over."

"Brandon."

"Yeah." He spat out that word on a low growl. "I was watching him watch you and I never thought he was actually going to do anything. At first he was pissed at me for exposing his extracurricular activities with your mother and tried to come at me. Dumb shit thought two years in prison didn't teach me anything. I gave him one last warning and never saw him again. I never thought he would come after you and place the blame on you though."

I let out a humourless laugh. "What's with everyone blaming stuff on me?" His eyes darkened momentarily before he shut them down from portraying any other emotion.

"I knew he was getting too far and asked for help to stop him. I didn't want to make any mess and what with how I felt about you, I knew if he saw him I would kill him on the spot. But I was too late and he managed to get you. Sorry, Orianna that's all my fault."

A heated flush warmed my insides and with those simple words I knew he couldn't be the blame for that. Not ever. "No, please. " I shook my head at him. "It's not your fault."

What Brandon had done was out of his own accord. And I would die before I could allow Link to carry that over his shoulder.

"He beat you close to death and shredded you. And he nearly raped you." I saw his hands clench down his sides, the memory alone causing anger to waft through him. Another wave of warmth filled me at seeing his reaction towards the brutal attack on me. It was clear there was something Link had felt for me then.

"I don't need to be reminded of it." I told him carefully, although my voice was soft. I didn't want to argue over it right now... or ever.

Link wasn't agreeing to it but he refrained himself from adding more on the matter. And you could call it fucking perfect timing when an hideous sound emitted from me. I glanced down at my stomach, surprised at it's loud cry for food that I couldn't be embarrassed at Link' surprised "What the fuck?"

A rueful grin spread across my face, as I tried my best to ignore the heat that had risen to my face. I was probably as red as blood right now. "It's been a long day and I haven't had anything good to eat."

Link's smile didn't reach his eyes. We weren't exactly fixed after this. His side of the story had it's own impact on me and I accepted it for what it was. Sometimes it was just what you had to do. "Let's get something to eat."

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> So that's that. Before there are any negative comments related to Link's reason... please don't. It's what it is and it's how Link saw it. And for those who wanted an explanation, I hope this will do :)

>Thank you so much for reading! <3