Chapter 64: 64 | One More Thing to Bury
"Emma... I missed you so much." His voice was soft and full of longing. The kind of tone she had never heard from him before.
Natasha’s eyes widened in the dark.
’He’s... dreaming about Emma?’ The realization hit her chest like a fist.
"Where did you go?" He murmured against her neck, his arms pulling her closer like he was afraid the person in his dream would disappear. "Why did you leave me behind?"
She just lay there like a doll without any movement. The same arms that had been clinging to her for comfort were now holding onto someone else entirely.
She was lying in his arms but she wasn’t the one he was holding.
She was just the body.
Emma was the person.
’Of course.’ Natasha stared at the wall, her eyes slowly losing their light. ’Of course it’s Emma.’
’How could I forget?’ She had been mentally dodging this for a while now, but Dante’s words dragged everything she had been avoiding right back to the surface.
From the slums to the present, Dante only ever had his eyes on Emma.
’How could I possibly forget this? I was just being delusional.’ She thought as the scenes from when he carried her to bed replayed in her mind.
"You know how long I’ve been waiting for you?" Dante’s voice cracked slightly. "Every day felt so long without you."
’Stop.’ Natasha thought, her chest tightening. ’Stop talking.’
[Natasha’s favorability has decreased by 1]
[Total Favorability: 58 (Crush)]
But he didn’t.
Right now, he was just a robot executing its orders, ignoring the thoughts that were screaming inside his own head.
"I should have told you earlier." He whispered. "I should have told you how I felt before you left."
A dull ache spread through her chest as she heard every word.
’Right. This is how he feels about Emma.’ She stared at the wall, her eyes unblinking. ’This is how he’s always felt.’
All those moments from that day at Starline Plaza replayed in her head over and over before darkening and breaking into pieces.
’I was just butting in between them.’ She had read too much into everything he did. Her mind had twisted it all into what she wanted to see.
’So, he wasn’t looking at me like that because he has feelings for me.’ A sad smile formed on her lips. ’He was just being kind to his master.’
[Natasha’s favorability has decreased by 1]
[Total Favorability: 57 (Crush)]
"When you come back, let’s stop wasting time." Dante said, his fingers pressing lightly against her stomach. "I don’t want to wait anymore."
"Stop listening. It’s not for you." Natasha told herself and closed her eyes.
She stopped listening to his words because they weren’t meant for her. The arms around her, the heartbeat she could feel through her spine, none of it was for her.
She was just a body filling the space of someone he actually wanted.
[Natasha’s favorability has decreased by 1]
[Total Favorability: 56 (Crush)]
Dante stopped speaking after hearing her words.
He couldn’t speak any longer. The words were stuck in his throat, refusing to come out. He desperately wanted to hug her and tell her none of it was true. It took every ounce of willpower he had to stop himself.
’I can’t. It’s already a gamble. All of this will be for nothing if I break the act now.’ He really deserved a punch to the face for what he was doing, and he decided he would give himself one after this was over.
’What have I been doing all this time?’ She thought as something burned behind her eyes. ’I’m his master. I knew about him and Emma from the beginning. Everyone knew.’
She was over a hundred years old. She had lived through things that would have broken most people ten times over. She survived the brutal training at Eden’s Gate, survived a marriage to protect her organization from that bastard, and endured the slow destruction of her own body over twenty years.
But somehow, lying here and listening to the man she had feelings for dream about her own student hurt more than all of it combined.
’Funny, isn’t it?’ A bitter smile formed on her lips. ’Over a hundred years of living and this is what gets me.’
A tear slipped out before she could stop it. It rolled down her cheek silently and disappeared into the pillow.
She didn’t try to wipe it or make a sound, afraid he would wake up. She just lay there with her eyes open, staring at nothing.
’’I’ve done this before.’ She thought, her breathing steadying as something inside her went dead. ’I’ve sacrificed my childhood, my freedom, even the majority of my life.’
She had given up so many things that giving up one more should have been easy.
’So why does this one hurt the most?’
[Natasha’s favorability has decreased by 6]
[Total Favorability: 50 (Crush)]
She didn’t hear anything else after that. He had stopped talking, but the words he spoke kept echoing in her ears. She lay in his arms for the rest of the night without moving, without sleeping.
At some point, his grip on her finally loosened. His arms went slack and his breathing became deep and even. He had shifted in his sleep, rolling onto his back.
She was free.
Natasha didn’t move right away. She lay there for another minute, staring at the same wall she had been staring at for hours.
Then she slowly sat up.
The bed creaked slightly and she paused, glancing back at him.
A regretful look appeared in her eyes as she looked at his sleeping face one last time.
’A good-looking face is a good-looking face, after all.’
***
At the same time, a black car pulled into the mansion driveway. A window rolled down, revealing a beautiful woman with ice blue hair and sunglasses resting on her nose.
’I’m finally back!’ She glanced at the mansion, excitement lighting up her eyes.
