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Chapter 20
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Distant Hearts Chapter 21
Noah: Present Julius and I arrive at his family house a little after noon. We have work together and he had things to do at home so he suggested we move our meeting here. I’m not exactly happy with the idea but arguing with Julius is a waste of time. He rings the door bell and his little sister, Jennifer opens up the door with a wide smile on her face. “Hey Jelly”, Julius greets, immediately walking past her and into the house. I nod at her, about to follow him but she shifts a bit and I can’t get past her now. “Noah”, she greets, “it’s been quite a while since I last saw you”Her signature smile is on her face. She’s the last child in the Dale family and also the most spoiled. “Yes. Hello Jennifer…how are you?”, I add for courtesy sake.“I’m good”, she replies, the smile on her face seeming to widen. “Come in then, I’d take you in”I’ve come here countless times but I still indulge her. She doesn’t take me to the living room, instead, she takes me to their lounge room and there
Distant Hearts Chapter 22
Tatum: Four years ago.I'm floating. At least, it feels like I am. I have no idea where I am, and my mind is foggy. But slowly, I start to come to, and I feel my body being moved around. I'm being carried. I reach out my hand to touch him."Nigel?""Shh, go back to sleep, baby. I'll take you to bed."Sure enough, he puts me down on a bed that I recognize as the one in the cottage. Suddenly, my mind clears up completely, and I remember the events that led up to this moment — Kate, getting caught by Bridget, and Nigel's promise to meet me at the cottage. However, he never came as soon as he promised. I fell asleep waiting for him."Where were you?" I ask him. "What time is it?""A little past midnight," he replies, ignoring my first question.I sit up and persist, "Where were you?"He doesn't respond."You promised you were going to meet me here right away.""I know, baby, and I'm sorry. I got caught up," he sighs frustratedly."In Kate?" I ask scornfully. His surprise is evident, even
Distant Hearts Chapter 23
Noah: Present "Shall I drop you off at the restaurant, or would you like to go straight home?" Tatum turns to answer my question."Drop me off at the restaurant. I need to wrap things up with Dotty and go over what I discussed with Sophie.""Did you guys finalize the menu?"She shakes her head. "No, not yet. But that's why we'll meet up again.""Hmm." I pull up at the restaurant about five minutes later, and Tatum steps out with a goodbye. I wait for about a minute, then restart the engine, and as I'm about to pull out, I see Tatum hurriedly stepping out of the double doors. There's a panicked look on her face, and without thinking too much, I step out of the car just in time for her to basically fly into me."Dot-Dotty is...," she rushes out frantically but chokes on the words."Tatum, calm down," I say, and she does. I take her hand to lead her back inside, already knowing that something is wrong, and it probably has to do with Dorothy. Sure enough, Dorothy is slumped over on one o
Distant Hearts Chapter 24
Tatum: Four years agoNigel leads me into his room and closes the door behind us, locking it. He rests his forehead against the door, breathing heavily. When he turns to face me, anger and pain fill his eyes."You should've listened to me, Tate. If you had, I would've taken care of her and none of this would've happened.""Your mother threw a 1kg glass frame at me, barely missing my head by an inch, Nigel! This happened because she's crazy, not because I spoke up.""Mother has anger issues," he defensively states, infuriating me."Anger issues?" I incredulously ask. "Don’t pretend like you didn’t see her try to kill me, you even called her out on it so don’t fucking pretend, Nigel!""For fucks sake, Tate. You know she would never approve of our relationship, and you only made it worse by insulting her."I scoff in disbelief, speechless. How dare he defend her?"Let me check if you're hurt," he says, moving closer, his gaze fixed on my shoulder."Get away from me." I push him aside and
Distant Hearts Chapter 25
Present NoahI take Tatum to my apartment after we leave the supermarket. She doesn’t complain which makes me realize that she always intended to cook here anyways.When I put in my code, I open the door for her and she waltzes in, her confidence captivating. Stepping in and locking the door behind me, I see her reach into one of her jacket pockets and grabbing a chocolate bar.How did she get it? She walks to the kitchen counter and prepares a pot of boiling water. When I get to the kitchen, she barely looks up at me when she instructs me to place the groceries on the counter, chewing on her chocolate bar.“How can I help?”, I ask and she shakes her head.“Just go get changed. You must be tired. I’m good here”I don’t bother arguing even if I actually want to help because if there’s one thing I’ve learned with Tatum so far, it’s that she does things on her own terms and hardly gives space for arguments. So I go into my room, change and pull out my laptop, working for a few minutes
Distant Hearts Chapter 26
Four years agoTate:I wake from my slumber, stretching and slowly opening my eyes only to see dads eyes already on me. He’s leaning against the doorframe with his arms crossed. I sit up, throwing suspicious glances his way.“Being creepy doesn’t suit you, dad”, I say, if not for anything, then to avert his strong gaze from me. He doesn’t.“There’s Tylenol on the nightstand”, he says instead, pointing towards the glass of water and card of drugs beside me. I’m confused at first, but I recall that I cried myself to sleep the night before and judging from the raging headache I’m suffering, dad was really nice to bring me the pills. I stick one pill in my mouth, swallowing it down with the water. Dad uncrosses his arms and makes his way towards me, sitting on the edge of my bed and staring at me.“We need to talk”, he says and I groan.“Too early daddy. I’m exhausted”. I’m honestly not, but I’m not ready for heavy talk. “Sleep later. We talk now”. His tone leaves no room for argument.
Distant Hearts Chapter 27
Four years agoTatumIt’s been two weeks since the day I tried to break up with Nigel. I couldn’t do it that day and still haven’t been able to do it. He’s been busy, more than before. Going on trips to and from San Francisco, trying to speed up the process of opening his own firm. I hardly see him these days, we hardly communicate except for the few calls and messages, keeping me updated on his whereabouts and activities. I appreciate it, all of them. Dad has been busy as well. He hasn’t asked me if I broke up with Nigel, he hasn’t asked anything about my relationship and I don’t know how long he’ll hold off the conversation, how much longer I’d have that freedom. Either way, I’m definitely not prepared to answer the question. I just hope he remains occupied and doesn’t ask. Bridget has been quiet. She hasn’t called me to her office again, I haven’t seen her around either. Carrito started college recently so she’s been at school for the past few weeks and Kate, Nigel and I haven’t t
Distant Hearts Chapter 1
Four years agoTate There’s a picture frame in my hand. It’s my moms smiling face in the picture encased in the frame. Looking at her now, I realize how much the similarities between us are. A beautiful smile that displays neat white rows of teeth and that little chip at the bottom of the second incisor. I have one too. It isn’t hereditary though. My mom had hers from an accident when she was little and i got mine at 10 when I jumped too high on the bed and ended up face first in the headboard. Our chips are similar though. It’s uncanny how the creator decided to make sure we looked almost like twins. Her light, almost transparent brown eyes are another thing we have in common; the most similar thing actually. She was a very beautiful lady that had heads turn at every turn. “Was” because she died. Horrible twist of fate. I thought I’d have her till she meets my kids and that’s the problem. I had way too many happy wishes for us that it made it all harder to accept her death. I have
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