"You’re here again?" Hayden asked lazily when he walked in through the door.
"What’s up with that reaction? I’m about to marry your brother and this is how you treat me?" Amelia asked with a look of disbelief on her face.
"You’re not married to him yet. Stop turning up to our house so often..." Hayden muttered.
"Don’t talk like you come back here so often..." Amelia snapped lightly at him.
"Good night..." Hayden mumbled as he walked right past her.
"Wait! Hayden..." Amelia quickly called after him.
"What?" Hayden asked without turning around.
"Can we...talk?" she asked in a small voice.
"Alone...with you? No, thank you. I don’t want my brother blowing my head off..." Hayden replied without hesitation.
"What’s up with that reaction? What do you see me as?" Amelia snapped as she came to stand right in front of Hayden.
"Someone who asked me to sleep with her the first time that we met?" he replied with ease.
"Can you forget about that please? Just forget about it!" she wailed although she knew that he was just playing around with her.
For a moment Hayden was torn about what to do. Deep down, he too wished that there would be peace between the two gangs. Honestly, if he could choose, he’d choose for all gangs to simply respect each other’s territories and business so that there would never be any conflict. However, he knew that it wasn’t an easy thing to achieve.
"Amelia, I tried convincing my brother many times before. More times that I can count. Of course, he listened but he never agreed to anything," Hayden said calmly.
"I see..." Amelia said before she flopped down into the sofa opposite from where Hayden was sitting.
Hayden’s eyes watched a deflated Amelia lean back against the back of the sofa like she had lost all her energy and her will to live. He knew that he was just being ridiculously optimistic, but he felt like he wanted to believe that things could turn out differently this time around.
Perhaps it was her positive energy rubbing off on him or perhaps it was his wish to see his brother happily married, he didn’t quite understand. However, in that moment, he dared again to have some hope that maybe peace was something achievable.
"I don’t know but...if it’s you...if you’re the one convincing him, perhaps Harvey will change his mind or be more open to the idea," Hayden said after some thought.
"I’m not so sure if I’ll be successful or not but I really want to try. If I can convince him to think about creating peace, then I’m sure that we’ll be a happier family after we get married," Amelia said as her eyes sparkled brightly.
It was amazing how hope could bring so much color and life into her face, Hayden thought as he watched her.
"I’m sure that things will go well. After I talk to Harvey, I’m going to reach out to talk to Ethan. I’m sure that he’ll listen to me. We were engaged but he never wanted to marry me anyways. I’m sure that he’s relieved that I’ve decided to marry someone else altogether. Who knows, maybe it’s fate that I help unite the two gangs?" Amelia said confidently before she beamed a bright smile over at Hayden.
"Maybe..." Hayden replied without much enthusiasm.
"You know...I never cared this much about the future before. For the longest time, I was told that all I had to do was grow up and marry Ethan. Everything was about doing this and that for the future of my family. Somewhere along the lines, I guess I accepted my fate that my life wasn’t mine. From then on, I didn’t care about anything at all. My future, included.
I partied. I spent loads of money on things that I didn’t need. I slept with men I knew that I would never see again. Nothing mattered because my life wasn’t mine..." Amelia confessed a little sadly.
--To be continued...