Love & Loss

Chapter 61

Nico's POV:

She stilled within my grasp.

My chest was already aching from the conversation prior and the fact that I was finally forcing myself to tell her what was going on made it worse by the seconds.

"After me?" She questioned.

I just nodded, taking a second to gather my thoughts.

"I don't know what he wants from you, or why he's targeting you, to begin with, but according to the slave he's been working with, he wants you in his grasp. All of his past attempts of reaching you have failed, but now he knows that I know that he's after you I-" My voice choked back the last words.

Khloe looked back, uncertainty and caution now written on her face.

"P-Past attempts?"

I cleared my throat.

"The night the slave drugged you was the first attempt. Apparently he was trying to retrieve information about us from you but screwed up the dosage. The second was... was the night that I was supposed to be gone. My father gave the slave a Master key and he was intending on taking you that night. I ended up catching him and retrieving this information."

I decided to leave Marcus out of this, for both of their sakes.

If he wanted to tell her that he was a part of this, then that was his decision.

He deserved at least that much.

"I thought at that point that I might have this under control, but my father was one step ahead of me and retrieved the slave. I'm not sure if he knows about what's going on between us or not, but the whole situation just makes me sick."

With each passing second, her realizations hit her harder and harder, that fear I was trying so hard to avoid showing itself.

Just seeing it crushed me, knowing that absolutely nothing that I was going to mention during this conversation was going to fix it.

"I'm terrified, Khloe," I finally admitted, "Never in my life have I felt so powerless against something, and knowing that my father could easily overpower me if it came down to it..." Just the thought of it broke something inside of me.

I took in a deep breath, trying desperately to control my sudden rush of emotions.

"I can't protect you from this. And even if I could, even if there was a small chance that I thought that all would be well, I don't think I want to risk it. I don't want to risk your safety on a small chance."

This conversation couldn't have come at a worse time. Just a few minutes ago I convinced her that this could work. That we could work and I'd make sure of it.

Yet it felt like everything I was saying now was completely contradicting everything I said before.

"I don't want to lose you and the constant feeling that I might just... eats at me constantly."

The lump in my throat became more prominent as silence consumed me.

Her eyes pointed down in thought, her brows pressed together through her fear.

I placed my hand over where hers grasped onto my shirt before she asked the one question that I knew was coming.

"Why didn't you tell me?" She asked.

Her voice held more desperation than anger.

"I didn't want you to worry," I began, "You've lived in fear enough in your life and I thought that I might be able to handle it before anything got this extreme. I finally accepted the fact that this was something out of my control. I didnt want to dump all of this on you without having some kind of plan in mind. I thought that keeping this from you would be better for you, but I realize that that wasn't my decision to make, and I'm sorry for keeping you in the dark for this long."