Chapter 428: Deserving of respect.
Zevran.
The air was unusually still. Unusually cold and filled with a kind of strange solemn energy that I found quite unusual as well.
The last time I felt this way was my father’s funeral, and that was strange... especially since this was another funeral as well.
At the front of the hall where a very large portrait of Alpha Jarek Frostclaw stood, the choir hummed a sad note under their breaths, the music was solemn and chilly, causing goosebumps to sprout all over my skin. There was a priest at the front who was in charge of the funeral procession... and then beside me...
...beside me, Leilani stood.
Her arms were crossed over her chest. Her hair was the messiest I have ever seen, styled into a messy bun. She was dressed in a large black faded hoodie and pair of free black pants that covered most of her body, even down to her black boots.
Her eyes were shielded behind large unnecessary sunglasses, but everyone around knew just why she had it on.
And it was because her eyes were puffy from crying so much.
Because you could even see the soreness and puffiness right on her cheeks.
She sniffled loudly when the priest said something about how selfless Jarek had been when he was alive and I knew that that hit home because out of everyone present, she was the one who witnessed his selflessness firsthand.
"Isn’t that Ms Leilani Sinclair? I thought she was dead?" The voice of a woman nearby snapped me out of my reverie.
I turned to look at her, my face a mask of stone as I watched her whisper said words into the ear of the woman standing beside her.
The woman beside her, who was a familiar looking brunette, nodded. Her eyes thinned and she tilted her head to the side as if to take a better look at Leilani. I saw the recognition slowly settle in her features and then she gasped;
"It is indeed her!"
"Isn’t she dead or rumored to be dead?" The other woman hissed back, "I remember I saw something like that in the news."
"Sameee! I did too! What manner of sorcery is this?!"
And just then, as if suddenly compelled, they both turned to look at me and then glanced away quickly as if something in my eyes burned.
"The news of her death was a mistake," one overly dressed woman snickered at them and merely looking at her, she seemed like one of those people whose major specialty was spreading false information. "The body found in her house after the fire wasn’t hers but everyone thought it was..."
"Then where has she been ever since? Has she been hiding?" The brunette hissed, and just as expected, Miss false information shook her head proudly, her shiny eyes latched on Leilani for a second and then she muttered;
"She was in the hospital!"
"Oh."
"Oh!"
I turned away, not wanting to listen to the rest of the conversation as it had already begun to get on my nerves. However, by the time I did this, I noticed that the priest had long finished speaking. In fact, right now, people have begun to walk over to the front of the room one after the other to pay their last respects to the dead.
My eyes subconsciously darted to Leilani who for some reason hasn’t moved an inch yet, but just as I was about to ask her about it, Caelum beat me to it, he muttered; "This is your chance, Baby."
She glanced up and because no one could see her eyes, reading her expression was quite difficult. She shook her head.
"No."
"You do not wish to speak?" That was Kael and he sounded stunned— the exact way I felt. "You do realize that this is Jarek’s funeral right, and..."
"And I don’t think it’s right for me to give these people a show by speaking about things that I only want Jay to hear!" She snapped back, her voice breaking as an uncontrolled sob slipped past her lips.
She lowered her head quickly and once again shook it despite my attempts to try to sway her. "I refuse." She mumbled, "I don’t want to..."
"But Leilani..." Caelum began to say, "...this looks bad. I swear, it does."
"Please Caelum. Please."
We all settled into silence right after that, watching people we— and Jarek— gave zero fucks about go on to talk about just how ’good’ he had been to them before his demise, and just as the last girl, who was a staff from his company, finished her speech, Leilani moved forward.
I froze.
"But I thought..." I began to say but stopped when she fished the microphone out of the girl’s shaky hands (she was stunned to see Leilani), and drawled;
"Jarek never loved the rain like most of you mentioned today. He also never really loved his job and for him, it was more of an obligation than a passion."
Her voice made the chaos in the room stop as everyone turned to look at her. And while most were surprised to see a strange girl on the floor, the rest who were quick to recognize her, were stunned to see that she was alive.
She cleared her throat, looked in my direction and continued; "You all talked about how he had everything under control at all times, but most of you never saw the times he struggled— I did. You all never knew that he was driven by passion, by need... by an overwhelming desire to right the wrongs that were never his fault to begin with."
Silence. The hall was so quiet, even the sound of a pin dropping could be easily heard.
"I heard many of you mention that he died due to natural causes... but he didn’t." She muttered and as soon as she did, the crowd erupted into chaos. But she didn’t care. She seemed... done. Her eyes were dead.
"He was killed by his mate... by the woman who was ’destined’ to be with him by the moon goddess... the same woman who right now is seated at the back of this very hall, crying into a handkerchief, looking distraught or pretending to be."
I didn’t even realize that Keisha was here until Leilani said those words, and at the same time, everyone turned around to take a look at the back of the hall where Keisha stood sobbing into a handkerchief.
She lifted her head slowly as if suddenly realizing that everyone was staring and then she gasped, lowered her head and muttered; "I don’t understand..."
"I bet you would all let her walk out of here freely," Leilani continued and it wasn’t until she said that that Keisha lifted her head to take a look at the person who was speaking.
It took her a moment too long but the realization slowly... finally... dawned on her. Her face turned pale almost instantly as an array of emotions quickly crowded her features. She gulped.
"But I am not saying that any of you should take it upon yourself to punish her. All I am saying is; Jarek, my best friend was killed unjustly. He deserves justice. He deserves to be spoken about with respect... and he deserves to be mourned properly, without any of this facade that most of you are putting on."
For some reason, while she said those words, I didn’t look at her. Instead, my gaze traveled to the back of the hall where I saw Keisha trying to slip out of the hall. However, before she could walk away successfully, large hands clasped around her upper arm, holding her back and my breath hitched when I saw who it was...
"Darius."
