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CHAPTER 27
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2024-10-29 19:42:56Related chapters
Night And Shining Armour CHAPTER 28
LAYLA OPENED her eyes with a scream.She just had a bad dream—she was being chased by a burly and fully-naked tattooed man in an alleyway—whose whole body including the face and his bald head was covered with tattoos—holding a bloodied knife. She didn’t know if she was injured or wounded in her dream or if that blood belonged to another person, an earlier victim, but fortunately, she woke up at the moment the man had finally caught up with her, brutally grabbing her by the hair.Layla remained lying on the bed, calming herself down. Why would she be dreaming of a man full of tattoos? And why would this man want to kill her? She assumed that he wanted to kill her because he was holding a bloodied knife while chasing her. And the way he grabbed her hair, he didn’t care if her neck would break. Speaking of tattoos, she had a tattoo of two small intertwined tribal hearts at her lower back. But she had been thinking of having it erased as that tattoo was a part of unsavory memories. It jus
Night And Shining Armour CHAPTER 29
LAYLA CAUGHT HER breath and rushed out of her room. She ran down the stairs and went to the living area where she saw Lillian already walking towards the door.“Lillian,” she called her sister, almost in a whisper while hiding in the wooden partition that separated the living room from the dining area. Luckily, Lillian heard her and glanced at her while she continued walking.She signaled for her to stop, and she stopped. Then, she motioned her to come to her.“What?” Lillian asked her as she approached her. One of her sister’s eyebrows was raised, probably perplexed at her agitated appearance. “And why do you look so tense?”She pointed at the door. “Allan,” she said, still in a soft voice.“Allan?”“Allan’s at the door.”Lillian’s eyes widened. “Allan, your ex?” she asked in an alarmed and a bit loud voice. Layla was still was young, around fourteen, at the time of Layla’s relationship with him and she saw very little of Allan then. But in the last few years, he would pop up once in
Night And Shining Armour CHAPTER 30
THE LAST SENTENCE Yssa uttered pricked Layla’s ears like rusty needles. “He threatened to kill you?” she asked her. She felt her all her apprehensions uniting and slowly morphing into anger.“Yes, he did,” Yssa affirmed, her voice still sounding tense.“How?”“He told me that if I knew him, I’d give your number to him,” Yssa elaborated. “That was a threat, wasn’t it? And he said it while looking fiercely at me. And I knew him to be a bully and a violent person and… we know how he hurt you emotionally and physically.”Yes, everyone knows. “He went to the house earlier,” she informed Yssa.“What did he do?” Yssa, sounding alarmed, asked.“In fairness, he didn’t create any trouble,” she stated. “But again, he deceived me. Well, we lied to him first. Lillian told him that I was in a province.”“I would hide from him, too, if I were you,” Yssa declared. “How did he deceive you?”“We thought he had left,” Layla retorted. “But when my Uber arrived and I got out of the house, he was there, ne
Night And Shining Armour CHAPTER 31
WHEN ALLAN SCREAMED Layla’s name and raised his hand, as if wanting to throw the rock at their house, she decided that it was high time she put him in his proper place.She retreated from the broken window.“Call the police!” she told Lillian who was standing beside her mother beside the sofa in the living area, a few feet away from the windows. She ran to the door and got out, ignoring calls from her Lillian and her mother. But when she rushed to the door, she saw Allan already involved in a fisticuff with another man—her brother Cedric.All her blood rushed to her head. “Stop! Stop!” she screamed as she approached the two men fighting, scared that Allan had a knife with him and would use it against her brother, furious that Allan wouldn’t stop harassing her. She grabbed the shirt of Allan at the back and pulled him away from her brother, almost tearing it. He could stab all he wanted but spare her brother or any member of her family. Then, she pushed Allan away from her and towards
Night And Shining Armour CHAPTER 32
UNLIKE ANIKA’S OFFER of a bodyguard, Layla didn’t voice out any immediate objections to the prospect of Ambert helping her again. “What would he do?” she asked Anika instead.And Anika seemed delighted that she didn’t immediately reject it. “Just like what he did with Nancy, he’d talk to him.”“Allan’s probably beyond persuasion.”“You also thought of that about Nancy, didn’t you?”She didn’t reply, but yes, she thought of it, that Nancy would never be persuaded to stop trying to harm her, especially when she had agreed to it.“And where’s Nancy now? You aren’t good friends but at least she’s stopped trying to kill you. And Nancy has a legitimate axe to grind on you. You wronged her. Allan has nothing, he’s just pure evil whose sense of entitlement is bigger than Mount Fuji. If this world is fair and just, it’s you who should be bothering him. It’s him who should be running away from you. It’s you who should be doing the humiliating. Someone should make him realize that. And I assure
Night And Shining Armour CHAPTER 33
AMBERT’S PHONE RANG while he was in car on his way to meet Allan, who according to Anika was a very obnoxious—and quite dangerous—man. He had been harassing not only Layla but also her family, and hearing about it made his blood boil. He looked at his phone and saw an unknown but vaguely familiar number—Layla’s.“Hello,” he answered it.“Hello,” Layla greeted back, and he couldn’t deny that hearing her voice again delighted him. “Sir Ambert?”“Yes, this is Ambert.”“Sir, t-this is Layla,” she replied, stammering a bit.And he already had a guess on why she was calling him. Anika called her an hour ago to tell him that Layla called her in the wee hours of the night to talk about her dream where he was stabbed and apparently killed by Allan. Layla was scared that it would happen in real life—some of her past dreams served as a premonition of bad things to happen— so she wanted him to avoid talking face to face with Allan. A phone call would probably suffice to make a deal with Allan, or
Night And Shining Armour CHAPTER 34
IT WAS A scene every man would be furious to watch.A scene where the woman Ambert loved was having passionate sex with another man.He wanted to shake his head—did he just say the woman he loved? It should be used to love. He banished that thought from his head and continued watching the video, making sure no one else could see or notice it while he was doing so.The muted fifteen-minute video disgusted him but he couldn’t take his eyes off it. He focused on Layla’s face, trying to see if she was enjoying the act. But why wouldn’t she? She was in love with Allan, the man she was in bed with, the man currently seated in front of him, watching him watch the video. Ambert grimaced when he saw Layla biting her lip and closing her eyes while Allan sucked her nipple. They were both completely naked, and when he saw Allan kissing her downwards to her belly, he shut his eyes hard.Enough! he screamed inwardly.Gritting his teeth, he handed back the cell phone to Allan. It was a good thing Al
Night And Shining Armour CHAPTER 35
AMBERT GLANCED AT the side view mirror as they were leaving the parking lot of the restaurant and saw Sadie, still standing beside her car, looking stupefied, but still beautiful with the wind playing gently with her hair. Of course, she should look stumped as was expecting that he’d fall to his knees and obey her and call Allan to get back the check like she had ordered him—and she was surprised that it didn’t happen. They had lots of arguments in the past—some serious, many petty—and the only way these conversations would end was he should acquiesce to her. She only allowed arguments to end if she had won it. CEOs, COOs, VIPs, wealthy, influential people, some of them even crafted government policies that affected millions of people, listened to Ambert, took his advice— but not his girlfriend. He leaned back to his seat and sighed. Looking back, he she seemed to treat her as a subordinate when it came to their relationship.Back at the parking lot, if he was a wily and conniving man
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Night And Shining Armour CHAPTER 50
LAYLA NEEDED TO blink twice to see if she wasn’t just imagining things, Celine’s visit made her a bit disoriented, but yes, Ambert stood outside their door, in front of her, holding a bouquet of white roses and was wearing a black suit like he was attending a funeral—their relationship had collapsed and died, didn’t it?—or a wedding. Celine talked about an engagement ring with matching photos, so the topic of a future wedding shouldn’t be far.But she thought Ambert would be sleeping drunk until tomorrow morning so he was the last person she was expecting to see standing outside their door. The first person, of course, would be Celine. Ambert seemed alone; no one was inside his car, which was parked just outside their small, front yard.“The gate was open,” he said, his face apologetic, “so I thought I’d go straight to the door and knocked.”He was wearing a suit which unfortunately had wrinkles and creases like it was worn haphazardly, like he stumbled and fell to the floor numerous
Night And Shining Armour CHAPTER 49
“WE TALKED JUST hours ago and he never mentioned anything,” Layla said.“He was waiting for the rings, I guess,” Celine said and smiled. “You can’t propose without a ring.”Makes sense, Layla thought. “Did he specifically mention my name? I mean, did he tell you that the ring was for me?” “Well,” Celine hesitated, like she was trying to remember something. “I can’t recall if he mentioned your name while we’re talking about the ring. You know Ambert, he could sometimes really be a man of few words. But I assumed that that it was for you since you’re his girlfriend.” Well, that’s because you don’t know the whole story, she wanted to tell Celine but stopped herself. The whole story being that Ambert didn’t really love her, that he was just trying to repent and now, with the information about the ring coming out today, that he could be in another secret relationship, and the woman in this secret relationship was the one he really wanted to marry.“If it’s for another girl,” Celine conti
Night And Shining Armour CHAPTER 48
LAYLA CRIED ALL night and barely slept.When dawn broke, she called up Anika to tell her that she wouldn’t be going to the office that day and would just come the next day. Anika just asked if she was sick and said goodbye when she said she wasn’t. She didn’t know if she would be disappointed or relieved that Anika didn’t inquire about the whole brouhaha that was going on—it was impossible that she hadn’t know about it. She was probably just careful not to add insult to injury. Or maybe she wanted to talk to her face-to-face and would just wait for her to come to the office.At breakfast, she announced to her family that she had broken up with Ambert—and Ambert, because he couldn’t do anything about it, accepted it.“I thought he didn’t easily give up,” a visibly disappointed Lillian remarked.“He’s probably guilty,” Layla said softly but enough for everyone in the table to hear.Her mother and brother didn’t seem ready to join the conversation. And were just eating heartily, which wa
Night And Shining Armour CHAPTER 47
LAYLA HEARD AMBERT calling her as she approached the door of the restaurant but she didn’t stop and continued walking. She didn’t even glance back as she got out of the door. Her steps grew bigger and quicker as she walked to the direction of the road and stopped at the curb to hail a taxicab even though her feet both felt heavy. She didn’t think she had time to call an Uber as her goal at that time was to get away as quickly from Ambert.She waved at the first taxi she saw and it pulled over in front of her. She finally glanced back at the restaurant as she was getting inside the vehicle, and saw Ambert coming out. She went inside the car and closed the door, and told the driver to move. She didn’t dare look at Ambert again. But after just a few hundred meters of journey, she started feeling guilty. Did he deserve what she just did? They were there to talk, and she walked out on him just when their conversation was becoming more interesting. And emotionally hurting. She probably shou
Night And Shining Armour CHAPTER 46
LAYLA DIDNT KNOW how long she just stared at Ambert, not speaking, not making any movement. She didn’t know even know if she was showing any emotion or expression on her face. Her father had always been successful in inflicting pain on their family before, but she never thought that until now, he would still be able to hurt her with the mere mention of his name.“The detective told me, Sadie’s detective,” Ambert continued, there was a visible uneasiness on him, was obviously forcing his words out of his mouth, like his tongue was just shoving them out, like he would rather bite his tongue and make it bleed than speak, “that your father was about to leave Celine but then the unfortunate incident… which I initiated… happened. At that time, your father was still staying in your house and was successfully hiding the affair. He took pity on the boy… Joel, who was Celine’s son with her first husband. And he also took pity on Celine, who was inconsolable. Apparently, the detective said, Celi
Night And Shining Armour CHAPTER 45
AMBERT REGULARLY CALLED Layla at night but it usually at around ten in the evening. It was only twenty past eight, so it was a little early and a bit unusual, so she was sure that he was calling not to have their regular nightly chit-chat—he was calling because he had learned that Sadie visited her tonight and that it wasn’t a friendly visit but something which had the intention to harm and hurt.Layla took a deep breath and picked her cell phone up and answered it. She would be vastly disappointed if Ambert would talk about a different matter. “Am I bothering you?” he asked the moment he heard her voice, and strange, but she could almost see him smiling.It was Sadie who was bothering her, she thought, but he probably already knew that. “No,” she said. “We just finished dinner.” It was what he about to discuss with her, something she was sure would also bother her.She heard him clear his throat. “I received a text message from Sadie,” he said, going straight to the point. “She told
Night And Shining Armour CHAPTER 44
IT WAS AROUND seven PM when Layla got home and when she entered the house, she saw sitting on the living room couch beside Lillian a woman whose photos she had seen a lot of times on the Internet, specifically on Ambert’s Facebook but never in the flesh—Sadie. The woman was listening keenly to Lillian, and her beauty glowed, like somebody had snatched a star from the skies and dumped it on their sofa, even though she was dressed very casually. She wore a green shirt with floral design and denim jeans and no makeup.Ambert had since deleted all of Sadie’s photos on his Facebook account but Sadie, Layla discovered when she visited her Facebook account and Instagram once, still had Ambert’s photos. If she was just too lazy to delete those photos, or she still wanted to have a glimpse of Ambert whenever he logged on to her social media accounts, Layla didn’t know.And to say that she was shocked to see Sadie inside their house would be a vast understatement.“You’re here,” Lillian stood u
Night And Shining Armour CHAPTER 43
AMBERT WASN’T SAYING anything but Layla could feel that something was bothering him. Yes, he was obviously happy whenever they got out and roamed and strolled—he was genuinely happy when they went inside the Eiffel Tower, he was obviously happy, too when they got to the city’s other tourist attractions, but every now and then, she would catch him getting lost in thought and would sometimes scowl at nothing whenever he thought she wasn’t looking at him.It all started when his phone rang at their first day here in Paris. It woke her up but she still was so sleepy she didn’t move and open her eyes and tried to sleep again. She felt Ambert climbing out of the bed and walking out of the room. She opened her eyes and didn’t see his cell phone on the night stand. She shut his eyes and fell into sleep again.And after that, something changed in him. The excitement in him seemed to decrease. Who called him? Was there a problem back home? Was it work-related? Or something personal? She didn’t
Night And Shining Armour CHAPTER 42
AMBERT SAW SOME confusion on Layla’s face when he confirmed to her that he was talking about France, the country. And he sort of had an idea why—she remembered his tryst with Sadie in that country. A woman who loved him would not easily forget that and it was for that reason that he wanted her to take to France, to Paris specifically, to have that memory with Sadie erased and replaced with brand new Paris memory with Layla. That every time he would remember France, or Paris, he would remember Layla and not Sadie; that every time he went to Paris, it was Layla he’d remember and his moments with her and not Sadie.And why did he suddenly remember Paris and had a hankering to travel there? Well, while inside Anika’s office, he saw the Eiffel Tower miniature he gifted her, standing proud on top of her desk.“I saw a post on your Facebook where you said you wanted to see the Eiffel Tower up close and personal,” Ambert said.“Yeah, I remember posting that,” she replied and then smiling awkw
