Stay with Me by Awesomekristii (jenna bush book club .TXT) 📖

Early Update!

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DAMIEN

Daisy

My inside stilled at that name. It couldn’t be like they’re the same person. Maybe Delilah had Daisy as her middle name. Thousands of thoughts ran inside my mind at the sound of that name.

“How do you know her?” She didn’t look up from staring at the image on my phone as she spoke, her eyes were furrowed in deep concentration.

“Actually, we met her a few days back, she was injured, and on asking she told me about this address.” The woman nodded at Steven’s words.

A frown covered her face with his answer. “That’s bizarre.” She mumbled lowly under her breath but I could catch to that.

“ Why would you say that?” she looked up at me as if in a daze, her concentration was solely on that picture. “What?”

“Why is it bizarre of her to tell about this place?”

She didn’t speak for a while and I was sure she didn’t want us to hear that. A sigh left her as she spoke again. “Why anyone would say the name of the place they have escaped from?”

She looked over our shoulders at the front gate where two guards were patrolling. Her eyes moved around the place before she stepped out. “Let's go in there.” She pointed at the huge lawn before stepping down the stairs.

I looked over at Steven confused to follow her or not. “She is the only source now.” I gave a nod and began to follow her.

She walked towards a small table settled in the middle of the lawn, a small umbrella settled in there with chairs rounding the table. It was an outside tea place.

She gestured us to take a seat which we took before she settled herself. Her silver hair glinting under the direct rays of the sun, her pale features hiding under the shadow of the umbrella.

“You would like sugar in tea?” She took two spoons of sugar cubes to each cup and handed them over to us. Hesitantly I took it.

“Would you tell us now?” She didn’t answer back for a while, and it felt like she wasn’t going to or she didn’t hear our words. Reluctance was clearly visible in her features but after coming to At this length, I couldn’t let her shut up just like that.

“Daisy used to live here.” Her voice was soft as she began to speak. “She was Daisy before until we changed her name to Delilah.” My eyebrows almost shot up at the answer.

“We had adopted her when she was just eleven. First, it was supposed to be foster but later on, we accepted her.” She took a sip from her tea, and her hands trembled a little. “It was my son and daughter-in-law, who took her in. She was infertile, but she loved children. When Daisy was taken they decided to live along with us.” She looked at the mansion her grey eyes misty.

“Till she was sixteen it was going good. Stacy even got pregnant in the second year Delilah was here. It was a miracle.” We didn’t interrupt her as she spoke lightly, and slowly. It seemed it pained her to talk further.

“But miracles sometimes bring misfortunes. She couldn’t shower enough love on Delilah at the coming of her own daughter. She began to get distanced. That severely affected Delilah, and she began to feel she lost the only woman she ever called mother and family. Stuart wasn’t a warm man so him staying in the picture or not didn’t bother her much.”

She closed her eyes taking a deep breath in. “Stacy died in a car accident when Delilah was sixteen. She was present with her mother and sister, Adelaide in the car. They were going to Adele's piano concert. It was raining heavily and the driver took some wrong turns. Adelaide died along with her. Fortunately, Delilah was saved except for some broken bones.”

She lowered her head and kept mum for a while. “Stuart didn’t take their deaths well. He sent away Delilah to Amsterdam and we never met her again.” The fogginess in her eyes intensified. “And I don’t even know she is here.”

“That’s all I know about her. What happened there or how she came here I have no idea.” Her chin quivered lightly as she pulled out a tissue and dabbed it around her moistened eyes.

What happened there? That’s the real question now, and it’s only Lilah who could say that.

My heart felt like tightening in knots at the information I received. I knew her past was gonna be messy and dark yet, listening to all these just made it more.

“Thank you for telling me.” She nodded and bend her head low. There was a question swirling inside me from the first time, I heard the name she called her with.

I was quite familiar with it, and it took my every self-control to not ask her where she had adopted her from. I stood up along with Steven who was quiet the entire time. It seemed he was in deep thinking.

I saw the old woman grabbing her glasses dangling down her neck and rubbing them before she placed them over her face. There were little remnants of moisture still in there. “We would be taking our leave,” Steven said on our behalf and I just gave her a nod.

The entire information was too much to handle. I closed my eyes tightly as we began to walk out before opening them.

Daisy

She couldn’t be the same person. Delilah couldn’t be the Daisy I had known. But again all the familiar humming tunes and the familiarity in the unique shade of green in her eyes made me question my thoughts.

“I hope she is fine.” She said walking behind us.

“Yes. Better.” We didn’t speak till we were near the exit. Every fibre of me resisted me to ask her the question which I wasn’t prepared to face, yet I did.