Chapter 25

Valen’s POV

I couldn’t sleep well the previous night. I just kept going through my phone- all the pictures I had taken with Veyra, our texts, the voice recordings of her singing or just acting goofy, the videos of us together. They all broke my heart

I even came across pictures of her with that man in bed, naked! I was so angry! I immediately deleted all of them. I didn’t want to ever come across those pictures in my life

I decided to check the internet-social media- and see if the small crowd had actually listened to Gina. I first of all checked the hashtag that Gina had told them to create and I saw that people had actually created them.

Under the hashtags were pictures of Veyra in her vulnerable moments and comments highlighting people’s opinion about the whole thing

I decided to read the comments

“Poor girl," someone had written . "Who knew she was an addict”

"It's a shame that they have broken up. They used to be the power couple. True love indeed, lol”

I felt my chest tighten. Now they were laughing at me too? I knew I should drop the phone and stopped reading the bullshit online, but I was too toxic to myself to do the right thing

"At least she has Gina. That girl is a saint for sticking by her,” I continued reading

Everyone seemed to think Gina was some kind of hero for supporting Veyra.

“Gina is so loyal. Even when her friend is clearly having a mental breakdown, she's still trying to protect her reputation."

“I am so sorry for Valen, he has been dating a whore”

I whinced again. I felt offended that someone called Veyra a whore. I read the person’s username, Jade_wolfman.” I made a mental note to find him and deal with him later

"What if she put drugs in the cake we buy from the pantry!? I remember feeling a little light headed the other day after eating her cake,”

"Gina is an amazing friend! I wouldn’t make friends or held a drug addict"

"Gina's been amazing”

I decided that I had enough of what everyone was saying. I decided to head over to Gina’s page

The first thing I noticed on the page was thag she now had quite a large number of following. I decided to scroll down a little and see what was happening

I got ro her timeline and I started reading what she had posted the previous day

"Well,” Gina wrote. “Thank you all for your support. I will now use this space to explain everything going on. Veyra has been having these episodes for a while now. She has been hallucinating and making up stories. Valen, her ex- boyfriend have been dealing with this for months."

I frowned, seeing where this was going. But I continued to read

" Veyra's been getting worse since the coma. She cannot really tell the difference between reality and fantasy. It is so hard on us right now- imagine how I have to deal with somebody who is so paranoid, fragile and always hallucinating. I expect the public to understand that Veyra is mentally unstable right now, but she will come around someday. Thank you all very much for the engagement, likes, money and support. Let us all keep sharing and supporting Veyra till she gets well. #rillveytagetswell”

I felt irritated at her right up, but I thought to myself- maybe she was just trying to help.

I dropped my phone on the bed. I decided that I would no longer read the messages or check Gina’s page again. I was going to sleep and forget all my problems.

Just as I was about dozing off, that was when the frantic knock came in

I thought it was a servant and I was so angry because I have not gotten a good night’s rest. I opened the door only to find Gina at my door as early as 5 am. She was panting, shaking as if she had just been attacked by a wild animal

“What is it!?” I said with wide eyes. I was alarmed. It was too early for her to be here

“It’s Veyra!” Gina kept panting

“What happened to Veyra?” I asked with alarm in my eyes

"She tried to attack me" Gina said, stepping inside and panting

“What? Why!?”

“I don’t know. I just had to run all the way here. I cannot stay with her anymore. She is too volatile. She cried all night. She didn’t even eat.”

I felt so bad, but I didn’t want to show it "Maybe you should take her to see the pack doctor."

"I tried. She refuses. She says everyone is against her, that no one will believe her story." Gina looked so exhausted. "She even held a knife against me, see” she lifted up her gown and pointed at an angry red mark. “I ran into the door while running away from her”

I swallowed at the sight of her laps. They were so fresh and succulent

"She keeps saying someone set her up. That someone drugged her. She just keeps repeating the same story, yet no proof." Gina dropped her gown. "She needs help! I think she is feeling so guilty and now she is trying to say that it is made up"

"What do you mean?"

"She actually did invite that man to sleep with her, but her mind can't handle the guilt, so it's creating this assault story?"

"Well I don’t know about her, but I know what I saw,” I said.

"And she kept denying it!" Gina said.

"Is she dangerous?" I asked.

"To herself? Or me?”

“Both,” I said

“To me, yes,” she sighed. “To herself, Maybe. She's been talking about how she'd rather die than live without you."

"She swore an oath when she saved my life”

"I think she needs professional help, Valen. Real help,” Gina shakes her head. “She is too stubborn, she would not go.”

“Well, I think it is time to let her. We have tried our best. Let us leave her alone to do what she wants to do,” I said with forced dismissive tone

“I can’t leave her! She can die!” Gina retorted

“So what do you want from me!?” I growl irritation

“Come and see her. Maybe if it came from you..." Gina looked at me hopefully. "She still loves you. She might listen to you.

"I am not sure…” I was saying when she cut me short

"I am not saying you should date her again, I know that is not possible," Gina said quickly. "You don’t even need to forgive her, just come and help her."

"I am not sure she will only listen to me and I am not sure that I want to do that,” I completed my earlier statement

“Okay then, just tell me when you change your mind,” Gina nodded and stood up. "I should get back to her. I don’t like that she is alone right now."

Just as she stood up, she staggered a bit. When her hand reached out to grab something so that she would not fall, they didn’t grab anything. She stood forward and she was going to fall.

Without even thinking, I reached out to catch her so that she would not fool

I held her waist easily and she collapsed into me. Her skin was on mine now. She was so close to me

Her breathing was irregular and I could feel how warm her body was. It was weird, but I did not take my hands off her.

I knew what smelled like now because her perfume rushed into my nose. I found myself looking at her face- noticing things that I did not notice before. I found out that she was really pretty. I had never actually paid attention to her. She had smooth skin- she barely even had one acne. Her eyes were radiant. Her lips we are full and inviting

I shook my head earlier on when she had lifted her gown earlier to show me the mark on her leg, but now I could not shake my head again. I could not ignore how beautiful she was. My eyes trailed to her breast, she had left them open enough for me to look at them properly. They were surely more succulent than her laps. I imagined what it would be like if I buried my head in them. At that point, I really wanted her to explore with her and Dada was not even making things easy for me. He was asking me to go ahead. I felt ashamed for thinking about Gina the way I had only just broken up with Veyra

But Gina was beautiful. Very beautiful. Why did I see this soon? Maybe she would have been the one I would have dated instead of Veyra

Time was ticking as we stood. Was she also in the same temptation as me? Does she want to explore with me the way I want to explore with her? We just stared at each other .

There was something happening in the air between us- some currents sparking. I had never felt that way for somebody except Veyra.

Before I knew it, Gina leaned forward and kissed me