Love At Last

GUILT

Overridden with guilt and anguish, I picked up my broken pieces and headed back to my shop – my new shop. The new shop sure was more spacious than the last, and that meant extra hands needed on the table; of course I employed those ‘extra hands’ with Jarod as my number one employee. I made him the head when I wasn’t there.

Returning to my duties, I found it really hard to concentrate on anything owing to what the PI had said to me. I was really absent minded to the point that I’d mix up orders some times and even try to serve one’s order to another but my right hand man – Jarod – was always there in the nick of time to save the day.

“Lily are you okay?” he asked while I was washing my hands in the kitchen sink to take a break. “You’ve been out of it ever since you came back earlier. What’s the problem?” he asked with so much care and warmth. “Is it because of the news on Cayden two weeks ago?” He called my attention immediately.

“You watched the news?”

“Who didn’t? Grey’s empire is a big company, you know? Everyone in even this small city – Nedford – knows about the ‘Cayden’s baby mama’ fiasco already. There’s nothing to hide when you’re in the spotlight.”

“Right?” I replied dispiritedly and heaved a sigh of exhaustion.

“What’s the problem?” placing his hand on my shoulder, he asked.

“Jarod,” I called.

“Yeah? Tell me what’s up.”

“I employed a PI.”

“By PI, you mean…,” he stressed the ‘mean’ while looking at me to confirm his thoughts though his eyes.

“Yes, Private Investigator,” I validated. “I just came back from meeting him and that’s why I’m demoralized right now.”

“What exactly did you tell him to investigate?”

“The ‘Cayden baby mama’ fiasco.”

“What?!”

“Yes, I did. I just couldn’t bring myself to do nothing,” I whined while gesturing.

“So what did you and your PI find out?”

“Well, it turned out that Brielle Elsher was indeed the wolf in sheep’s clothing.”

“What do you mean?” he leaned against the sink to look at me properly.

“She’s the one who framed Cayden up for everything. She impersonated someone else and made it seem like Cayden for a fact wanted to get married to his baby mama for publicity’s sake,” I spelled out to Jarod who just stared at me in awe, making dramatic facial expressions. “What?” I asked on noticing what he was doing.

“You actually hired a PI to dig up dirt on her for you?!”

“That’s not the issue right now, Jarod.”

“What the is the issue?”

“Cayden! Poor him took the fall for everything and even me who was supposed to be there for him through thick and thin, abandoned him.”

“Don’t bite your yourself so much Lily.”

“Trust me Jarod. I wanted to see reasons with him but the proofs and everything they cooked up nicely was really appetizing that I just dug in without even thinking twice.” Feelings of guilt over took me this time, spurring me to tears.

“Cayden was…. He was…,” I cleaned my eyes and looked upwards to keep the tears from flowing. “He was innocent, Jarod,” I finally spoke, letting out a mild sob. “He was and I didn’t even care to listen to his side of the story.” I wailed and almost lost it when Jarod held me in his arms while gesturing to the other workers who wondered what was going on, to carry on with their work and ignore us.

“Common, let’s sit,” with me in his arm, he went to the other side of the kitchen where there were seats and made us sit.

“I didn’t care to listen Jarod,” I sniveled. “I didn’t care to listen to his side of the story. I just jumped into conclusion on seeing the different…,” another round of tears was already warming up to escape my eye lids as I closed them tightly and covered my face. “I’m a bad person, Jarod. A very bad one,” still buried in my palms, I lamented, cursing myself out. “I didn’t deserve a man like that in the first place. I should have listened to him when he begged me to,” I wailed further still covering my face, while Jarod listened patiently for me to pour out my heart completely. “I hate myself for doing that.”

“Lily,” he called out softly as he took both my hands and held on to them, exposing my teary face. He then bent over in my direction and clean my face with the back of his hand. “Stop cursing yourself out, Lily. Cayden is not entirely off the hook, remember?” I sobbed continuously.

“He also played a part in ruining your life , Lily. He’s the ‘a’-hole here for advising your dad to kick you out at such a young age,” he consoled compassionately. “Listen,” he squatted before me to get a better view of my face as I had my face buried the whole time. Looking deep into my eyes he assured, “you really do not have to pick on yourself, okay?” he said while shaking his head as a form of gesture. “Raise your head up and face the world because you’ve done nothing wrong.” I just stared at him, letting the tears flow from my eyes freely.

“You think so?” I asked meekly, while sniffling.

“I sure do, Lily. Don’t prick yourself for this, okay?” he used the back of his index finger this time to wipe the tears off my face.

“What exactly should I do, Jarod? I’m confused. I don’t know exactly how to go about it.”

“We can figure that out, Lily. That’s not a problem so promise me you won’t cry again.” I smiled. “I promise I’ll try.”

“Don’t just try. You have to promise you won’t at all,” he teased.

“Fine! I won’t.” I cleaned my face properly with a scarf I had in my pocket. “So tell me. Any ideas on what I should do? I need to make up for this somehow.”