Cheryl POV

"Are you okay?" Worried was thick in his tone.

"Yes." That was all I could think of.

'Yes' was the only word in my head at that moment. Yes! Everything was true.

"You don't look like it. Do you need Peter?" Finn insisted. I could feel his eyes on me.

We were on our way back to his house. And just like we came, there were escorts everywhere.

I shook my head as I responded, I was weak, I was hopeless and disappointed.

"Is it Sharon?" He asked again.

I wanted to tell him I needed space, my head was preoccupied with different things going on, but then again-it was Finn, the victim.

I kept quiet and watched nothing specific through the window. I was lost in my thought that I couldn't care if Finn was talking or not. I think that was how we got back to the house.

Without assist-I headed up the staircase to the room considered mine.

I needed to breathe; I needed space.

I took off the mask and all accessories along with the black heels and sat on the edge of the bed, trying to steady my racing heart and fast breathing.

I tried to process the reason why my parents could do something so inhuman like that and kept it from me. I tried to process I shot-still the wounded person who repaid me with love and protection. I tried to process my reality and everything that comes with it, and it was hard to breathe. I began to suffocate.

Earlier at the charity event, the time pace seemed to travel slow, but right afterward, it felt like all the events that took place that night had occurred in a rapid heartbeat.

I couldn't control how to feel. I felt like the walls were closing with me, whereby I was strangling in reality.

And of course, as usual, I was reminded I didn't have my freedom. There was a shadow approaching, and I stared at him until he sat on the armchair opposite me. I didn't hear when he came in because I was preoccupied with the truth.

Finn looked pretty nervous-somehow afraid. I saw it in his complexion as his eyes bore into mine.

He had no idea.

"Cheryl." He started.

"Can I have some time alone?" With every courage I had-even though my voice was strained, I asked something for the first time ever I was kidnapped.

"Cheryl..."

"Please, Finn." I cut him off. I just needed to be alone, I needed to calm myself, and it was hard doing that around him.

Finn swallowed and dropped his gaze down. "Don't give up on me." His voice was low, yet the pleading in his tone was intense that it went straight into my heart and pierced through me.

Tears escaped from my eyes no matter how much I thought I could control them. "I'm sorry." I had to let those words out in the open, and they came along with tears in my shuddering stage. "I'm so sorry."

How can I change everything? How can I rewind back time? I wished things happened in different ways.

Finn stood up from the armchair and approached me. "I'm sorry," I repeated again to the man my parents took away his life when he had no voice.

He didn't say anything when he stopped in front of me and brought my head to his hard stomach-wrapping his arms around me.

He was stroking my hair and my exposed skin in a very soothing way that felt comforting but also painful at the same time because it was Finn Hayes, the son of Eric Hayes.

"Shush." He mumbled.

"I'm sorry, Finn." I couldn't stop crying in his shirt.

I felt the pain striking my chest that everything hurt.
Sharon was right. I wasn't good for Finn. I was a grenade, and I knew it, yet something in me wanted him closer to me.

"Shush." Was all he kept saying while I begged him.

Finn POV

"I'm sorry." She sniveled while I was rocking her with her head buried against my stomach.

I wished things were different, Cheryl!

I didn't know what she was sorry for, and it scared the hell out of me. Was she refusing me? Pushing me away? Right there, I had an alarming fear. I wanted her, I needed her, I was in love with her.

But instead to asked the sad girl crying in my shirt, I decided to keep swaying her back and forth, and it was gradually calming her down until her cries turned to whimpers and her whimpers turned to sniffs. Her breathing was settling down as I soothed her as my mother used to when I was a little child.

Cheryl's hands that were around my waist began to slacken, and later gave up. Just like that, I lulled her to sleep.

When I picked Cheryl up and tucked her under the covers, her chest heavily rose and fell from the sadness that was visible on her sleeping face,

Immediately I turned to leave; her hand came wrapping up my wrist. "Don't leave me." She muttered with her eyes closed.

I couldn't help the smile plastered on my face. She wanted me, she needed me, and I would be there for her.

So I joined Cheryl in the bed and held her firmly as she did with me. I had my head on top of hers. I could hear her breathing while she pulled me closer to her as though I would disappear.

Gradually I find myself falling asleep to the matching rhythm of our breathing.

***

The vibration of my phone woke me up, it was around one in the morning, and my eyes voluntarily hooded as I read my phone screen.

It was a message from my men, and I had to leave pronto for Rollins law was in Chicago. Rollins law was the man who wanted my dad's suitcases on April 20th. He was the man my dad begged on the phone in the small kitchen on my birthday.

I knew leaving a body with my sign in Chicago was a big risk for Teddy had suggested I kept Illinois clean and out of crime, but I couldn't let Rollins go; I was desperate. It was like a hungry wolf sighting meat from a distance. I couldn't resist.

So I slowly slipped out of Cheryl's grip. She groaned twice that I waited until she was back asleep again when I left the room and headed to my studio to change my outfits. I put on my hand gloves and a hat, and my regular revenging shoes before I grabbed my knife and headed out to where my SUV awaited me.

"After him, we only have five on the list." Justin reminded me. I couldn't reply because I knew by five it meant Cheryl's family. It meant Cheryl.

"I would be waiting by the farm," Samuel informed and jumped into the AMG Vision GT I would be swapping with when I returned.

With a soft sigh, I climb into my ride and head to the Rollins law.

Cheryl POV

The room was luminous from the light managing to reflect through the closed curtains.

I smiled at the scent of Finn that I've never paid enough concentration to its details; it was so calming and comforting. I consumed it with each breath I took because I knew it was healthy. My hand was holding on to his ribs, and my head was lying on his chest while I listened to the rhythm of his heartbeat as he slept calmly.

That's when I recalled I've shot him, and I had my head to his wounded pec. Alarmed-I instantly shifted and lifted carefully not to hurt him, but instead-I found my dad's face looking back at me. His throat was slit open and pooling out unstoppable blood. His eyes were dilated yet irresponsive.

The fear was extreme as I watched my dad's lifeless body in horror. I was in dangerous proximity that I couldn't respire, and my lungs had closed.

Eventually, when I was able to function, I jumped back and screamed.
Just then, my eyes swept open, but my breathing was excessively labored.

"Hey!" It was Finn's voice I heard at that moment, then followed by a warm hand on my back and around my arm.

I tilt to find him worriedly staring at me.

Yes! It was Finn. The bed was dried and had no stain, although the room was the same as it was in my dream, for the curtains were still down, but the assuring part was I didn't find my dad lying dead on the bed next to me. "My dad," I muttered yet with terrified eyes and fast breathing.

"It was just a dream."

I briefly scanned his frowning face before I believed his words. Of course, it was a dream. I'm going insane.
My face fell into my palms before I ran my fingers into my hair.

What was wrong with me, I asked myself mentally.

"Cheryl." His hands suddenly became absent on my skin, and I didn't know how to think about it, knowing it felt better seconds ago. "I'm sorry about Sharon. She's just-"

"No! Don't be. She was right. Everything she said was right. If my parents did ruin your life, I'm no better." I muttered with my head down.

I could picture him shaking his head, for I felt his intense stare pouring on my skin. "If you leave me, I won't be able to recover. I don't know how to start again." There were too many emotions in his tone, and it ached me deeper.

"What if..." I swallowed the lump in my throat. "I don't want to be the reason."

"I'm not going to kill your parents, Cheryl, I promise. I thought about it; I can't do it. please don't give up on me." He pleaded.

I couldn't help the sob that came out from my throat, and my head involuntary shook. "But my dad wants you dead, what if..." The tears were freely falling, and I couldn't even finish my inquiry.

Finn was wordless as he climbed off the bed and stood in front of me with his hand held out. My eyes scanned the palm waiting for mine to take it.

With narrowed eyes, I sniffed and looked up at him.

"Come with me."

"Where?"

"I'm going to keep trying until you want me." He said, and that alone sunk my heart.

Finn POV

I led her through the long hallways and up the staircase to the third floor and into my studio. Cheryl was cautious. She was fearful, I knew-I felt it.

I supported her, and I held her small soft hand in my big one.
When we stepped into the room, she had always found uncomfortable. I was sure it had something to do with the first time she was there. It was the memory I wished I could erase in my head and hers. I regretted it every day.

"What are we doing here?" She asked.

"I will play you some of the memories I had when I was little and some I had as I grew up since I can't take you out and give you a proper tour of my life," I told her as I walked to the television and began attaching a flash drive.

I heard her giggle under her breath. "What?" I asked when I tilted and glanced over to the girl I wanted to love me back.

"Nothing." She lied, so I fully turned to face the girl blushing in the middle of my room.

When she realized I wasn't letting go of the subject, she began embarrassingly. "I was wondering what you looked like when you were little."

That made me chuckle. "Actually, I think I was more polite when I was little, but I wasn't smart, and I was dependent then."

She giggled again. "Every little kid is dependent."

"Mmmm."

When everything was set, I took the remote with me and sat on the floor against the toe of the bed while she sat on my bed with her legs folded in a meditative pose and her hands cupping her checks.

"Here we go." I wiggle my brows when I glance up at her smiling face.

It started with a clip of mom on the hospital bed; she was wearing a patient gown with me held in her arms, my small head was resting on her chest, I was tiny and had no hair, just like every other baby. My dad was recording, but he later kept the camcorder on something and sat on the bed beside mom and me.

"This is Finn. The little man just said hi to the world thirty minutes ago." Dad announced to the camera, and my mom giggled while they both watched me with nothing but love, affection, and adoration on their faces.

The next video was mom watching me attempting to sit by myself, but I kept failing. Relentlessly falling against the cushion on the couch and I eventually gave up and began chewing on my foot. Cheryl laughed at that; I always laughed at that.

The next was my crawling stage and then a video of dad and me on a floating duck in our pool. There was a video of me on a high chair messing with my food, and my mouth was painted with sauce as I repeatedly hit the rubber plate. The next video was dad and I learning how to walk gradually.

The videos kept playing accordingly in stages. My first day at school, National holidays, family events, and lots. My parents had managed to capture videos of me through the eight years we had together. The flash drive was my eighteenth year's birthday gift from Denny. It was the best gift I've ever had since after I lost my parents, so It was always in my pocket-with me all the time.

Cheryl was quiet the whole time the video was playing on the screen. Although I've heard her sniff, laugh, giggle, and swallow but I didn't want to start up a conversation. I had already found it hard to vocalize words and put sound to how I felt deep down inside me, so that flash drive was the only way I connected with people, with myself. I occasionally updated new clips since Denny gave the flash drive to me, but I stopped recently. I was more focused on the Masons that I paused my other life in the meantime.

It was almost evening, I didn't remember eating anything since we woke up, and we weren't done with the videos.

"You traveled a lot." She said.

"I used to, but now I have to stay here."

"To keep eyes on me?"

"Exactly." I exhaled a laugh, and I looked up to find her smiling.

"How do you manage both lives?" She questioned after a while of comforting silence.

I sighed. "It's not that hard, but I wish I had one." I honestly answered and darted my eyes on the LED screen showing my universe.

I felt her eyes from behind me. Cheryl was staring at me, and it warmed my heart. "What life would you choose if you only had to keep one." She asked silently, her voice was barely audible, but I heard because she wanted me to.

"If you asked me that before my parents and I left for Eureka Springs on my eighth birthday, I would say the life with no secrets, with no blood, a life I care-less about revenge but right now, I think there's nothing I want more than avenging my parents."

Cheryl didn't reply, so I turned over to her.

"You're going to kill my parents, aren't you?" She murmured.

I shook my head slowly and looked away from her curiously spring-like eyes. I stared blankly at the frame behind her when I said. "I will let them face the torture that would come for them, either on earth or when they're dead."

"My mom was a believer. That's exactly what she would say." I smiled to days she taught me some religious stuff, days I wished I could get back to, days I would give anything to relive even for a blink of an eye.

"Finn, I wish I could rewind time," Cheryl said with her eyes down, boring on her folded legs. "I can't imagine how it felt for you. You were too young for that, and I wish you hadn't gone through all those dark days." She swallowed hard.

"I wished things were different, Cheryl!" I brought life to my only wish. It has been in me for a while now.
It was the only wish I had when I blew my eight years birthday candles. 'I wished things were different' and I didn't know how much I wanted that wish to come true until I set my eyes on Cheryl for the first time.

At that moment, she was speechless, and I didn't add anything-I just kept my eyes on her.

Cheryl POV

"Why didn't Steph come? I'm hungry." I told Finn when the silence began to give me uncomfortable chills.

"The restaurant is busy. Her mother needed her help." I stared at him thoughtfully as each word rolled out of his tongue. Steph said Finn gave her life when she thought her world had ended. He brought light to her mom when everything had fallen apart.

How can Finn Hayes have such a heart? Something my parents lacked.

"What?" He asked again when he noticed I had been staring at him without a word or even a normal blink of an eye.

I shook my head and said. "Nothing." Looking away from the human that surprised me.

Why did he have to lose those wonderful people playing on his tv screen? He used to have a beautiful and loving family, yet they were taken away from him because of money? Because his father was good and had a pure intention and was willing to help others.

How can life be so cruel?

"But we can cook? I can make chicken tetrazzini if you want?" He suggested.

Instantly I was blushing as my head went playing mentally and visually, a delusional vision of Finn in front of the stove attempting to cook and then giving up because he's more of a commanding type than the cooking type.

"Or you have something in mind?" He asked me.

"No, I can barely make a sandwich." I honestly answered.

He chuckled. "Whoa, then prepare to be amazed." He bragged as we headed down the staircases until we were on the first floor.

I should have been used to seeing his men around the house, but still, I wasn't. The fact that they looked bold and I was the only female in the house still frightens me.

I sat around the island in the extra spacious kitchen where I watched Finn do the cooking. To my surprise, he was good at it. He sliced and chopped everything needed like a junior Gordon Ramsay. He was attentive to what he was doing, yet he still had time to ask me some things about my life in Eureka Springs.

I told him about my friends, about Mal, my favorite places and what I wished to study in college, things we do as a family for a holiday, and even how my parents parted after the murders became constant in the small town.

By the time the chicken tetrazzini was ready, it was late. I found out I really underestimated Finn, for the tetrazzini was highly appreciated in my mouth. It was delicious that I finished everything on my plate, and we continued to converse while Finn kept rejecting calls from his phone, for he was completely and utterly focused on me while I told him about my childhood.

***

It was after ten in the night when I kept tossing and turning under the comforter in my nightwear; I couldn't sleep.

I had a weird feeling in me, and I knew I was missing something, something I was getting used to these days.

I hadn't slept by myself for two days, and right there, I knew I wouldn't be able to sleep on my own from that day forward. I was becoming used to his scent, his arms, his skin, and his closeness.

On that bed, I realized I didn't only need Finn when I was sad. I also needed him around me all the time.

So I found my legs taking me up the staircase to the third floor.

The room was quiet and dim from the full moon facing the open doubled glass doors to the balcony "Finn?" I called softly.

There wasn't a reply, so I kept moving further to the bed, ignoring all the illegal stuff around the studio just like I did earlier today when watching those interesting videos that I hadn't finished because there were lots of hours ahead, and we were hungry. Finn had no idea how much it meant to me for letting me see through him even though it wasn't with words. Those videos were enough. They were everything I needed to see to understand who he was and what he was.

And there he was, just like the other day. He was lying on the bed, only at that time, he was lying on his stomach, giving me the perfect view of his defined muscular back.

And so I lifted the comforter and snuggled in on top of him, laying my head on his bare skin while I hugged him tighter to me.

That was how I felt whole. That was when I knew I wanted him. I wanted Finn Hayes, the man with two different worlds.