Chapter 249 - The Markets - IV
Adeline licked her lips of the remaining coffee taste as she had taken her first sip. She pursued her lips thinking about what he had done.
"Is there a specific reason for why you did that?" The only reason that Adeline gathered up enough courage to ask him that was because he was readily explaining everything.
"For what?" He repeated, genuinely confused.
She nudged her head to the direction of where his handkerchief was. "The pendant was not dirty for you to wrap it in your handkerchief. So why did you?" Just as she finished speaking Adeline realised what kind of petty thing it seemed. Was she looking to pick up a fight?
"About that," he nodded, getting her point. "I did that so the pendant would not break. The chain was really dainty and I do not want to take a chance of losing it."
Now, she felt bad. Why was she looking for a fight?
She narrowed her eyes and her hand went to her neck on her own. She felt like something was missing.
"You miss the crescent moon pendant?"
Shocked, she looked up. "I do." She admitted and raked around her brain to find the memory of where it was. "I don't remember where I lost it."
"You didn't." He shook his head. It has been months since he had taken the pendant from her and it honestly surprised him that he had noticed that after so long.
Adeline frowned. "Do you happen to know where it is?"
He hesitated slightly. The topic that he was about to charge was no less than a taboo and the current development that they had made might skyrocket to wear it before or even end up being worse.
Adeline's face depicted that she would believe anything he would say which only placed him in a point where he knew he did not want to lie because lying would make her feel worse.
"The pendant was with you in the mermaid realm," he began to reveal, "but when I. . . Made the choice for the future of our child, I placed the pendant on her when she was buried." He stopped shortly as if the entire scene flashed in front of his eyes and then continued, "I just wanted her to have something from the both of us."
She stared at him, silently listening to everything he said before she leaned back into the chair. Her hands palmed her entire face and she buried her face inside them. Her mind went entirely blank and she could not process a single thing except for the words he said. They played over and over in her mind before she grew intolerant to it and stood up only to walk out of the door.
Xavier followed her or not she did not care. She continued working in a random direction.
Her baby.
Her hand went up to her neck again. It was really wide of the present pendant. She remembered how perfect it looked on head neck. Adeline remembered how happy she was to receive a gift from him even though the circumstances made her doubt his actions.
She stood still, in the middle of the streets where on both sides at the end were vendors selling their products along with customers that were buying from them.
She stood still while everyone walked past her.
'I have to understand where he is coming from. Would I not have done the same?' she wondered. It was enough that she had to kill their child and it was more than enough that he had to choose between the both of them. Her hand once again went to her empty and bare neck.
He had been through enough and so had she but this was something that she could not hold against him.
This was something that he had done alone. She was not by his side while he had to bury their only child. An unborn child that was brought out before its time. A child that was never known to either of them.
She stepped back before turning around and running back into the establishment where she saw him with his face in his hands. She stood at the entrance not going in.
He looked up and their eyes met. Adeline slowly came to terms with reality and started walking up the small unlimited stairs as she opened the door to the cafe and once again took the seat in front of Xavier.
"All okay?" He asked without any pressure on her to answer.
She nodded, "yes," she was fine, "Are you?" This topic was just as hard for him as it was for her.
He shrugged. "I am over it." Hardly.
She nodded. She glanced over the coffee, "can we put it in travel cups?"
He raised his hand up and a waiter came to them almost immediately. Xavier conveyed the order and after a minute or two the travel cups were kept in front of them.
This time unlike the previous one where she had run out of the establishments Xavier made sure that she had her jacket on.
"You did not come after me," she said and peeked at the man next to her.
He nodded. "I did not."
"Why?"
"Because your Guards are here."
Adeline stopped walking and Xavier stood, turning to her only two steps away. "What?" She spat. "Where?!"
He sighed and stepped closer. "They are very well blended, my love so you won't find them even if you look very closely."
She blushed and stared at him with wide eyes. He said my love.
Inside her was a young teenage girl who had never dealt with the horrors that she had jumped like a giddly, lovesick, teenager.
Xavier stepped into her space even more and bent down slightly so they were standing nose to nose with merely an inch or two left in between.
"My love," he said again, "has a very good sound to it, does it not?"
She nodded. She would nod to anything. At the moment, Adeline was not paying attention to anything.