Loving The Temperamental Adonis
Chapter 158: His past (part 2)

Chapter 158: His past (part 2)

"She must have grown into a beautiful woman by now," Mia muttered, "tell me more about her."

Neil’s reply was a shout of laughter that rebounded off the ceiling and before Mia could react, he wrapped his arms around her, hauled her next to him, and buried his laughing face in her hair. "Heavens help me," he whispered. "She’d grown into the most beautiful woman I’d ever seen."

"Oh..." she drawled, and he laughed harder.

"Good Lord! Are you alright?" Mia burst out, dumbstruck at his unusual laughter. "You must be high on water, Mr. Wayner!" His second shout of laughter nearly drowned out her next sentence.

"Laughing is good, keep on." Inordinately pleased that she could make him laugh like this, Mia leaned her head against his chest, but as soon as he stopped laughing she said, "Now it’s your turn. What happened to your family, I mean why did you grow up in the camp?"

Neil slowly lifted his face from her fragrant hair and tipped her chin up. "Because I had no where else to go, but the camp where I played with guns instead of toys."

"And?" Mia prompted, confused by her odd impression that he felt a special importance in answering that question without changing the subject.

"And," he said, looking into her puzzled eyes, "I became a soldier instead of taking on the legacy of the Galverra’s ancestors."

Mia glared at him as she said. "Neil Wayner was born in a rich family! But then many articles said you grew up on your own, no family, living on the street when in truth you are a Galverra! I believed those articles and sympathize with you like I knew you!"

"I apologize for misleading you and the other journalist," he said, chuckling at her indignant look. "But the truth is not far apart from what those articles said about me. At any rate, I did grew up without any family and left the Galverra estate before I was an adult, and I was on my own after that."

Mia wanted to ask why he’d left home, but then she held back again just so she wouldn’t ruin his mood, instead she stuck to basics for the moment. "Do you have any siblings?"

"I had a little sister at the age of five." He said.

"What do you mean ’had’?" She asked, confused.

"I mean a lot of things, I suppose," he said with a sigh, leaning his head back against the sofa again, feeling her shift her body and they returned to their former position with their legs stretched out on the table with his arms wrapped around her.

"If you don’t want to talk about that for some reasons," she said, sensitive to his changing mood, "there’s no need to do it."

Neil knew he was going to tell her all of it, but he didn’t want to examine the strange feelings that were compelling him to do it; to tell her everything about his life which he’d never told anyone. He’d never felt the need or desire to answer these same questions from Davina. But then he’d never trusted her or anyone else with anything that might bring him pain. Perhaps because Mia had already given him so much, he felt he owed her answers.

He tightened his arm around her and she moved closer to him, her face resting on his chest. "I’ve never talked about any of this with anyone before. It isn’t that long or a interesting story, but if I sound strange, it’s because it’s very unpleasant for me and because I feel a little odd discussing it for the first time in many years."

Mia kept silent, stunned and flattered that he was going to tell her something he’d obviously never told anyone before.

"When I was five, my parents had a little girl," he began, "and she was the cutest little thing I’d ever seen until..." Neil paused, trying to think of the right words and couldn’t. "She unknowingly killed herself at the age of two when she was left unattended for some moments."

Mia couldn’t stop her horrified intake of breath. "My God, how did that happen?"

Neil’s chest lifted beneath her cheek as he drew in his breath and slowly expelled it. "It was an accident. She likes to copy everything I do, and when I was a boy, I had a tendency to play with toy guns and knives to battle my imaginary foes. Unfortunately, my little sister got hold of a real knife when no one was around and accidentally stabbed herself in the chest..."

Neil could still vividly remember the day he’d found his little sister, who he’d started to grow attached to laying dead on the floor of the kitchen. He’d never told anyone about her, silently blaming himself for her tragic death for an entire year until he met Mimi, who unknowingly, and playfully helped him come to terms with his grief and taught him to embrace his playful side once more. With her cute and sweet presence, he was able to let go of the guilt and hold onto the fond memories he shared with his sister during her lifetime. However, he had never spoken of her to anyone until this moment.

When Neil fell silent, Mia asked, "What was her name?"

"Melissa..." he automatically answered.

"Such a lovely name," she whispered softly as she gently ran her hands up and down his chest, as if to offer comfort for his loss. "What about your parents? I mean, what happened to them?"

Neil’s expression darkened. "They passed away too."

"Oh my goodness," she exclaimed in shock, attempting to pull away from his chest to meet his gaze, but he held her in place with his arm, preventing her from doing so. Sensing that he did not want her sympathy, or perhaps did not want her to see his expression, Mia settled back against his chest and inquired, "How did they die?"

"They were murdered," he ground out through clenched teeth, his voice taking on a menacing tone that slightly unnerved Mia. However, she silently continued her soothing strokes on his chest, while trying to fathom the tragedy he must had endured through out his life with his entire family gone.

"By whom?" She asked, unable to contain her curiosity.

"I don’t know. I was only twelve when that happened and I wasn’t at home, I went to get ice cream for the little girl I told you about. But when I returned..." He paused for a moment, "everything was gone. My parents, my little friend, my life, it was all ruined. All I remember was seeing my parents dead bodies being burned in our backyard."

"I...I am sorry you had to witness that," she murmured, unsure of what to say. She could only imagine the pain he must have endured as a young boy witnessing such a tragedy. The image of a young Neil experiencing such horror and enduring grief alone filled her with tenderness and sympathy, causing her heart to ache with love for him. He’d been through a hellish ordeal far worse than what she’d experienced when she lost her mother.

"How did you manage to cope after that?" she inquired, holding back her tears and embracing him tightly around the waist.

"I coped just fine," he said, "I hunted down the source of their death and vowed to kill it when I grow older, but too bad it was never there by the time I was ready to kill it." He said, referring to Ella. But because he didn’t want to talk about the woman, he continued to speak to distract Mia from asking questions about ’the source’ he’d mentioned.

"When I saw my parents get burned, I was lost and panicked. Not knowing where to go, I left the Galverra estate and the entire city and began to walk around in torn clothes, barefoot on the street begging for food, until I came across a man who said he was my mother’s brother. He took me away and took me in, however, if I’d known he was a heartless freak, I’d have never gone with him."

Mia noticed the change in his tone and knew immediately that his uncle was a bad news to his life. "What did he do to you?" She asked gently.

He let out a humorless laughter as he said,"He treated me worse than an animal should be treated." His arms tightened around her as if the memories were unpleasant to him. And she tipped her chin up and said, "Tell me about him and what he did to you."

His gray eyes turned distant as if looking back to the memories. "The first day he took me to his house, I’d thought he was going to give me food and a place to sleep after I’d suffered on the streets of Mirage Mesa for many days and nights, but David Wayner did no such thing, instead he locked me up in a damned cage meant for dogs!"