Chapter 317: Buying Time

"Seems like you had a good life…" Hayden commented dryly.

"It wasn’t bad. Then I met Harvey, and everything changed. He changed me or maybe he made me want to change. Now that we’re getting married soon, I just keep thinking of our future together and the more I think the more that I worry. I know it doesn’t make much sense because I was arranged to marry another gangster boss before. Maybe it’s because I love Harvey so much that I’m worried about everything.

Marrying him. Living with the Torex gang. Having children. Making sure that our children will be safe..." Amelia continued explaining.

"Well, I can’t pretend to understand what you’re thinking but I guess it’s not wrong for you to feel worried," Hayden replied.

"Thank you…" Amelia said as she looked straight at Hayden.

"For what?" he asked.

"For…listening…" she replied with a small smile.

"Sure…" Hayden murmured.

…

Hayden had a faraway look in his eyes when he was done with his story. Although he didn’t tell me directly why he told me that story, I believed that I could sort of understand. The things that Amelia was so worried about were exactly the things that plagued my mind with endless worry. The future seemed uncertain, and it scared me.

"It feels nice…" he murmured softly.

"Huh?" I made a questioning sound.n/o/vel/b//in dot c//om

"Your fingers in my hair…" Hayden replied casually.

My entire body froze and so did the hand that I had been absentmindedly running through Hayden’s soft blond hair. While Hayden was telling his story, I had somehow started playing with his hair. It seemed like the most natural thing to do to pass the time. With his head laying in my lap, I just somehow started doing it without thinking.

"Why did you stop?" Hayden asked as his eyes glanced up at my face questioningly.

"Do you like it?" I asked after snapping out of my shock.

It felt a little strange now that I was conscious of what I was doing. His hair felt so soft against my fingers and soon I had resumed stroking his hair again. Hayden closed his eyes and sighed while I smiled a little to myself. I felt oddly happy that I could help him relax.

"After that Amelia ended up doing stupid things and she ended up like that…" Hayden mumbled so softly that I almost didn’t catch what he was saying at first.

The heavy regret in his voice told me that he didn’t want to go into the details. Hayden probably felt responsible, at least partly, for what happened to Amelia. I didn’t want to push him to recall any painful memories but if he was telling me about Amelia then she probably had something to do with the deal that he made with Harvey.

"Is Amelia related to the deal that you made with Harvey?" I asked.

"Yup. When Amelia didn’t wake up, Harvey felt extremely responsible and so did I. I should have never encouraged her to pursue an unrealistic dream like bringing about peace. I should have stopped her…but I didn’t. Harvey wasn’t really himself back then and maybe he isn’t like his old self even now.

Knowing how our father is, he would have demanded Harvey to marry someone else and make babies right away when he saw Amelia in a pretty much vegetative state," Hayden explained matter-of-factly.

"That’s horrible!" I cried out in shock.

"That’s the way things are. Harvey couldn’t give up on her and I knew that it was useless to convince him otherwise. He wanted to believe that she would wake up despite what the doctors had to say about it. So…Harvey had to die, and I helped him achieve exactly that. Long story short, I’m just covering his ass until he either gets over the fact that Amelia won’t come back, or she wakes up.

We’re just trying to buy some time…" Hayden explained like it was no big deal at all.

’Hayden and I…we’re just buying time,’

Harvey did say something along those lines, didn’t he? He’s just been waiting for his love to wake up. But what if, she never wakes up?

"What if…she never regains consciousness?" I asked softly.

Hayden did mention that it would be nothing short of a miracle if she did. The boss seemed to think that there is no hope for her at all. He told me bluntly that she wasn’t going to make it back when I asked him about the relationship between Hayden and Amelia.

"We’re not fools. We know that we can’t keep on fooling the world forever and so there’s a time limit to our deal," Hayden explained further.

"A time limit?" I asked, surprised.

"Correct and unfortunately for Harvey, the limit is in around a month…" Hayden said and for a moment I thought that he sounded quite sad.

"Just a month?!" I exclaimed in shock.

Amelia is supposed to wake up in just a month? What if she doesn’t wake up by then?

"You might not believe it, but it was Harvey who set the limit when we made our agreement. He probably realizes that I can’t keep on filling his shoes forever…" Hayden said before letting out yet another depressing sigh.

"Then…in less than a month, Harvey will come back?" I asked.

"Yup. We’re about to witness a dead man come back to life so to speak…" Hayden joked but he didn’t sound amused.

"So, the one who will take over Torex will be Harvey, right?" I asked as I tried to piece everything together.

"Well, we haven’t decided that yet…" Hayden replied.

"But if people find out that Harvey is still alive, especially the boss, won’t they just want to make Harvey the next heir like before?" I asked.

"Probably but the gang is split in their views on that too. I don’t care much about the other people. For us brothers, we just have to figure out which solution is the best for us," Hayden replied with determination.

What would be best for them instead of what the other people wanted. What will Harvey and Hayden choose?

--To be continued…