Chapter 63
“Well don’t you think it is mean to give me a white crayon to color on a white piece of paper Jessy?” Smith asked.
“No.” Jessy replied.
I smiled lightly, while stirring the pot of food on the stove and listening to the conversation coming from the living area.
“I’m not coloring with you then.” Smith said.
“No, no. You have to colow Smith.” Jessy said.
“Then give me a better crayon. Give me the green one.”
“No.”
“The purple one then.” Smith insisted.
“I wan the purple one too.”
“Jessy you’re not being fair right now. If you want me to color with you then you have to give me an actual color, you can’t give me a white crayon and ask me to color with you that’s being selfish.” Smith said and I could tell that he was getting annoyed already from the tone of his voice.
I was just about to go and intervene when the two came whirling into the kitchen. Jessy with her crayon box in her hands and Smith with the singular white one and the drawing book in his.C0pyright © 2024 Nôv)(elDrama.Org.
“Mommy, Smith no wan to colow with me.” Jessy said with a pout on her lips and tears brimming in her eyes.
“Freya, she gave me a white crayon. How I’m I supposed to be able to color with that? Give me a better crayon and I’ll color with you.” Smith said turning his attention to Jessy standing by his side.
“No!”
“Baby I think you should give Smith a better crayon so he can color with you.” I urged her and she looked into her crayon box and pulled out an orange color before offering it to me.
“Not me babe, Smith.”
Finally, with a sigh Jessy offered the orange crayon to Smith and they both moved out of the kitchen.
The last three days have been miserable for myself and Jessy. After I had left the mansion with Jessy in my arms wrapped up in a blanket, regret had filled every bone in my body at my decision.
But I couldn’t take it back, I knew that I needed to leave, I couldn’t bare to be in Greyson’s presence for a while. The hurt and anger within me would not allow me. I needed space away from him to be able to think properly about all of it.
I loved Greyson, more than I was happy to admit, but what he did to me wasn’t easily forgivable. I had to bear the consequences of his actions for the last four years. And Goddess knows how difficult the four years have been for myself and Jessy.
I had no direction whatsoever when I left the mansion with Jessy in my arms, all that I knew and wanted was to be out of there as soon as possible.
Maybe my decision had been fueled by anger and hurt but three days down the line and I didn’t exactly regret it.
Fortunately for myself and Jessy, I had met Smith on the way. The Beta had been confused to see me walking down the road with a bundled up Jessy on one arm and a small bag of belongings on another, looking lost and miserable with tears streaming down my face and without even waiting for an explanation he had brought us both to his home.
Clara had come here to attend to Jessy on Smith’s call after she woke up a few hours later and although the older woman had worked silently, I could read all the reservations she had about my decisions from her eyes and her words to me just before she left, had been the main fuel of my misery for the last three days.
‘If you leave, all three of you are never going to survive it. You’re already an essential part of each other’s life. That is not something you can just up and leave. You no longer have only yourself to think about now Freya, you have to think of Jessy too and how this will affect her in the long run.’
After she had left, I had just broken down in more tears and no matter how much Smith had tried to comfort me, it had been pretty useless. I had opened up to him about the entire situation after then, beginning from that night, four years ago, up until when the healer had revealed it all.
And Smith had only held me close in his arms and listened quietly to me. I didn’t remember much after that point, only that I had woken up in bed with Jessy beside me.
And since that night, there had been nothing from Smith. He never mentioned it the next morning, neither did he ask more questions about it. He had only been the perfect host to us both.
Playing with Jessy, feeding us, making sure we were okay. I also refused to mention anything about it for fear that he might tell me words similar to what the healer had said to me. I couldn’t deal with hearing it twice.
“Dinner is ready.” I called to the artists, spread out on the floor in the living area drawing and the way that they had both perked up at my announcement made me laugh a little.
Smith’s home was very different from what I was used to. For one there were no maids in it. Then it was much smaller than Greyson’s, but he made it work.
I opened the fridge to pull out some juice and the drawing that had been taped to it, made me smile.
The same way it did every time I saw it. The drawing was supposedly of myself and Jessy although it bore no semblance whatsoever, but Smith had said Jessy had given it to him a while back and he really loved the drawing and so he had kept it.
“You like it babe?” I asked once I returned and Jessy who had begun eating before I returned to the table nodded her head, keeping her attention on her food.
I noticed how Jessy had also changed towards me. From the moment she woke up the first person she had asked for was ‘Mastah’ and when I had been unable to provide him, Jessy had burst into tears one that had led her to sleep for a while after that.
I felt terrible and I didn’t want to be the bad person but I also didn’t want to be around Greyson where his relationship with Jessy would only continue to grow, which would make it even more difficult to break apart eventually.
I was torn in between at the moment. A little part of my heart still belonged to him. The part that had gotten to know the kind hearted, wonderful man and had even fallen in love with him over the last couple of months.
But there was still this other part, the much larger part that had wept greatly for what this same man had done to me, there was this part that had spent four years hating him. That part couldn’t easily be torn apart like it was nothing.
“How was your day?” Smith asked and I nodded my head in response.
Smith had been out for most of the day and I knew that he would have come across Greyson at one point or another, through the course of it.
I was itching to ask about him, know how he was doing. I had left him in a pretty bad state and I just wanted to know how he was faring. Even through my hurt, I still cared about him. Maybe that little part wasn’t so little after all.
“How is Greyson? Did you see him today at all?” I asked, doing my best to keep my tone as neutral as possible.
Smith sighed heavily once, before he dropped his cutlery onto his plate. The action scared me but I remained quiet, avoiding all sort of eye contact with the Beta.
“You have to go back Freya.” He began.
“Smith you don’t understand. I-” I started saying.
“Yes Freya, I don’t understand. I’m not going to argue about that. You were the one who went through it after all. There’s no way in hell that I would be able to explain or relate to the pain or the suffering. Freya I get that.” Smith paused, rubbing his thumb and index finger on his forehead.
“But Greyson is miserable without you or Jessy. A miserable King cannot rule anybody Freya, we’re all headed for doom right now and maybe that’s selfish of me to say but you will understand better if you saw him right now.”
“What do you mean?” I asked. And the Beta sighed once more, cutting his attention to Jessy who was still concentrating on her food before turning back to me.
“A lot is happening right now Freya. I don’t even feel comfortable leaving you two back here while I go about my day. The only thing that brings me comfort is knowing that no one knows you’re here, but even that I’m not sure of.”
“Smith you’re scaring me, what are you talking about?”
“The night Jessy was poisoned while you both were sleeping, Greyson and I were torturing and questioning Emilia. It’s still not clear what her motive in all of this is, but we know that there’s somebody else involved with this but that’s not the point.
When you screamed, we left the dungeon in a hurry, Emilia wasn’t bound and we forgot to lock the door. It wasn’t too long after then before we remembered about her and by then it was too late. She was gone and although Greyson has been pulling all his strings to find her, it seems like she has just disappeared into thin air, which confirms the fact that she has help.
Emilia was badly injured and she escaped at night, so there’s no way she would have been able to get very far without assistance but that’s not the case right now.” Smith finished.
While he was speaking, it felt as if there was a rock that had been dropped into my stomach and that rock only continued to get bigger and bigger while he spoke.
“You’re much safer at the mansion Freya. Where Greyson can watch over you both. Asides from that, Jessy misses him, she hasn’t stopped asking for him in the last two days and deny it however you want but I know that you miss him too. I can see it in your eyes.
Greyson is going absolutely crazy with worry and misery not knowing where you both are or what could have happened to you both and having to keep you here in secret and just watch him lose it is not fair at all, if he finds out eventually, he’ll hate me forever and that’s not what I want.”
“I can’t go back Smith. I don’t think I could ever face him again. What I’m I going to do in his presence? This is a man that I’ve hated forever and now I love him but all these emotions inside my chest is too much for me to handle. I don’t think I’ll be able to bear it Smith.” I said with tears streaming down my eyes.
“A lot has happened as a result of what he did. What if Matthew had successfully purchased us? Do you have any idea what could have happened to Jessy? Or myself? What if we didn’t end up in his home? I had to leave my previous pack because of what they had been doing to Jessy and how they were treating us.
I mean I’ve never been treated like a princess but it worsened when I got pregnant with Jessy. I love Jessy with my life, I’ll die for my child and I don’t regret bringing her into this world not one bit, but I hate how it happened. That memory will forever be a scar on me. I can’t just go back to his house and pretend that all is well or just open my arms for him to fall into.” I said.
“Mommy why you sad?” Jessy finally asked.
I had not noticed that she had stopped eating her food until she spoke and I saw a similar sadness in my child’s eyes. One that made my chest hurt even more.
“I’m not sad baby, finish your food.” I said, offering her a smile. Jessy didn’t return it but she did as I asked, she went back to her food.
We finished the rest of our dinner in silence and I was thankful for that, I didn’t want to put Jessy in a worse mood and that was sure to happen if she continued to see me sad.
It was almost an hour later while I was clearing up the kitchen that Smith walked into the space and just stood by the door.
“Thank you for dinner.” He said.
“You provided the food, I only cooked it.” I responded with a shrug. It was quiet after then until Smith spoke again.
“Don’t you see it?” He asked.
“See what?”
“Fate. It really has a way of fucking us all up but still aligning us. It hurts us as much as it heals us. Who would have thought that you both would cross path after years and then fall in love? Think about Jessy too, you know how much Greyson loves her, even without the knowledge that he was her real father, he still loved her like his own child. It’s all coming together for you both Freya, don’t ruin it. Please go back, I beg you.” Smith said.
“A part of me still sees him as a monster.”
“Then give him a chance to completely get rid of that part.”
I sighed heavily, wiping my wet hands against the towel, before finally turning around to face him.
“Please give me some time to think about it Smith. I’m still trying to process everything, it feels like my mind and heart and body is still reeling from the last couple of days and going back would just compound everything. I need to just take a breather please.” I pleaded and Smith nodded his head in understanding.
“That’s fine. Thank you Freya. I’ll put Jessy to bed.” Smith said and without another word he turned around to exit the small kitchen.
That was exactly what I needed. A breather. Just some time to think through everything and sort through my emotions.
The problem was, I couldn’t tell how long would be enough for me.