FORTY-TWO

Lucy woke up on Luis' chest.

She felt his warm arms around her and his warm breath running through her hair, as he slept quietly.

She slowly got up and went to take a shower, after she was done, she wanted to serve him breakfast in bed when she saw him standing on the bed, with only trousers on.

She didn't know why she felt so shy looking at him, she had looked at Mark several times without a shirt when they were married... and even before but never Luis, even when they slept with each other.

He was muscular and dreamy, but his muscles, be it his abs, chest or arms, weren't too defined, they were simple, but visible, unlike Mark's which could be heard calling you from the next room.

Lucy looked away as Luis got down from the bed and walked closer to her, saying,"You can touch if you want, I don't mind."

She frowned at him and turned to leave then there was a bang as the doorknob exploded.

She looked back at him as he spun one of his guns, did he take them everywhere?

She then said,"I'm not in the mood, besides don't you have a headache from all that drinking?"

"Intercourse is a natural painkiller..."He said,"...and I'm totally in the mood."

He pinned her to the door with his heterochrome, turquoise eyes, looking into her blue.

She breathed out as he kissed her on the neck as she told him to stop, then he picked her up and took her back to the bed.

She told him to stop, but wanted more.

He removed her towel as she moved her hands around his upper body, feeling everything as it twitched...

***

Ruby showed Rose the envelope and was as oblivious as she was as to what was within it.

She cut it open and saw a photo in black, white and brown.

Rose asked what it was about and Ruby said exactly what their father said.

They turned it over and realized it was taken before they were born and of course it was, the only people they could recognize, their parents, were about their age in the photo.

There was a signature with an initial, an F.

Ruby told Rose to stay with it while she updated Mack on things and Rose looked at it intently, there was something weird about those initials, but what?

Ruby came back and almost screamed when she saw Rose holding a lighter to the picture.

Rose told her to calm down and shone the light on the back of the photo as the invisible message was made known...

***

I panted as I reached my fourth mile on my run, then stopped and dropped to my knees, exhausted, I guess that is how women feel right after giving birth because it is brutal.

I sat on the closest tree stump and reflected over what happened over the past week.

I failed another test and still had trouble paying attention and even the board of Aqua flash began doubting my effectiveness as manager.

I groaned then punched the stump hard with a yell of fury, why couldn't I just move on?!

I was just stuck on that one death like it happened the previous day, and even then, this wasn't the extremity of the effects most people had on their first day of hearing the news.

I just began to get angry, at Mark for dying on me like that, at Oleh and Mr Nelson for literally being born, at my dad for abandoning me, at myself for missing Mark so much, heck, I was angry at the sky for being so happy in my depressed mood.

I looked to my side and saw a florist not far away, and like they were calling to me, the white roses slowly swayed in the wind, facing only my direction like they had a tropism to.

I got off my butt then fumed, and left, I yelled angrily as I couldn't go one meter away from the tree and the florist looked at me, shocked at my actions.

I walked...stormed towards him then asked for all the white roses.

It was a medium sized bunch, not too big and not too small, it was travel sized.

I was taking it back to campus when I saw the cemetery...with dad attending to the grave.

Angry tears just started pouring down my cheeks and I threw down the roses and stomped on them, crushing the beauty and purity out of them, I literally do not know what got into me but I climbed over the fence and snatched a shovel then pushed dad off the grave and started massacring it.

I hit the tombstone with the shovel, chipping the marble template away as he begged me to stop, then dug up all his weeks, if not months of hard work.

I looked at his name, still fuming, why Mark? Why did you leave me? You said you'd always be by my side!

I stomped on the last of the flowers left, the white roses he had actually propagated from the bouquet I brought a few days ago.

I didn't know why I did any of that, why I fell to my knees and cried, yet again, why I cursed Mark, yet begged him to come back, why I wanted my little big brother back so much.

Dad just hugged me and said everything would be alright, he was there for me.

I expected him to hate me after what I did, I wanted him to hate me, at least that could be the embodiment of what Mark would have probably felt seeing him again, probably.

But maybe not because all that he showed me was a fatherly love that I don't think I had ever experienced till that point, not even by my biological parents.

I don't know how long I cried in his arms for, but when I looked at what I had done to Mark's memory, Mark's memory....I had to leave, I had to run away, I didn't deserve Aqua flash, only the triplets did, I didn't deserve Mark's love, but like he knew what i was thinking, dad gently took my hand and used it to cover a white rose with soil, then said,"I never thought about how much he meant to you and I'm sorry."

Fresh tears streamed down my cheeks, I was a mess, I couldn't believe how many times I had cried over the past year or so.

But when he said,"I love you."A new peace was embedded in my heart, one I hadn't felt since before all the drama that happened, when my brother and I were happy together, I didn't deserve someone like him, but he still loved me and that was what was important.

I looked at my dad and hugged him tightly then said,"I love you too."

He then stood up and offered to accompany me back to campus, but I said I wanted to stay a little longer, at least bring back all the good memories and leave the bad behind.

He said he'd leave me to have as much time as I needed and that was just what I needed...