Chapter 55 Heated argument

It had been a week now, and it took a while for Joana to summon the courage to take the ingredients and offer the sacrifice unto the council, even though she had all she needed to do it. She didn’t know why, but part of her just wanted to wait a while first. After all, there was no need to rush things and she would soon be home. She decided she would go there tomorrow. She wondered how grandma Jen and Andrew would be doing by now. It had been so long since she’d seen them, a year in fact. And now more than ever, she was curious to see how they were.

A knock on her door startled her and brought her into reality.

“Come in,” she said.

“It was Derick.”

“Hello Joana,” he said.

“Hi Derick, why aren’t you asleep?”

“Because I wanted us to talk in private.”

Here he goes again.

“I know you love me Joana, and I do too, and that’s why I came here to ask, no not ask…in fact, beg you to please reconsider your decision. Marylin Lou might have ended up with John, but that doesn’t mean that you and Andrew are destined to be together in this life. I just think that…...”

“Derick!” She cut him short. “I don’t know why you still keep trying. You of all people are well aware that if the transformation didn’t take place on my wedding day, I would have been a married woman by now.”

“But don’t you think that’s a sign? If something like that happened on your wedding day of all days, haven’t you ever thought that maybe, you and Andrew weren’t destined for each other?”

“I can’t believe you right now Derick, you sound so selfish. I know you only want me to stay so you can keep sleeping with me, but I’m sorry to burst your bubble. I am going to offer the sacrifice to the supreme council tomorrow, and there’s nothing you or anyone else is going to say that will stop me. I am a human being Derick, and I wouldn’t have gone through all that trouble only to remain here with you in this castle.”

Derick stood there, absorbing her hurtful words, for the first time ever, Joana made him cry. She saw the tears fall down his cheeks gradually and she did feel bad. If someone as strong as Derick could shed tears then it meant she really hurt him deep, but she wasn’t going to allow that to move her, Derick needed to know the truth, and if what she said was going to make him stay away from her for good this time, then she would say it a million times.

“Don’t have the wrong idea Derick, what happened between us was just sex and nothing more. I am not Marilyn; I do not have any feelings for you and I never will. I have a fiancé waiting for me, that's the person I love and not you. that's the person Marilyn loved and that is the person she ended up with because she was destined to be with him and not you. you are no one to me Derick, and you will never be, so just leave me alone.”

Those words hurt her more than it hurt him and she knew it wasn’t the truth. She saw him trying to mumble something then in his tears and decided to let him speak.

“I… I love you, Joana.”

Was he deaf? Or didn’t he hear what she had been saying since? Did any of that not touch him? Why was he making things more complicated for her?

“Well, I don’t love you, Derick. And like I said before, you are nothing to me!!!”

“I know you’re lying Joana, and I know you love me just as much as I love you. I just don’t want you to make a decision that you will regret for the rest of your life.”

“The only decision I know I will regret is staying here with you, I am tired of dragging this back and forth with you, I told you from the very first day that I don’t want you to get things confused with me but you chose not to listen, you still let yourself fall for me like the stupid person you are, and that was why Marylin left you to be with a real man.”

She saw him close his eyes as she continued harshening her words, she knew she was going too far, but she would say anything at this point just to make him hate her and leave her alone.

“If that’s how you truly feel Joana, the minute I walk out through that door, I will leave you alone and I will never speak to you again.”

“So, you’ve finally come to your senses, now you really know that all that happened between us was a mistake. I am going to leave this castle anyway and I couldn’t care less if you do not speak to me again.”

Derick wiped the tears on his face and gave Joana an angry look before taking long strides towards the door. As he closed it behind him, she knew that was the last she was ever going to see of him again.

She should be happy, celebrating that Derick was finally out of her life for good and wouldn’t bother her again, but instead, she felt like shit. He didn’t deserve any of what she said to him, he was just being honest with his true feelings while she was here, being nothing but a coward. She didn’t know how else she would have gotten him to let go, Derick was just too stubborn, just too stubborn. And she was in love with that stubborn Derick, but she just couldn’t leave her former life behind, she had a lot of things going well for her then, she just couldn’t throw all of that away.