Leilani.

The rest of the funeral felt rushed as one minute, I was watching the priest say the important prayers and complete the rites of passage for the dead, and the next minute, the large silver coffin was being lowered to the ground.

For some reason, Jarek had specifically asked that his coffin be never opened during the ceremony so that my last memory of him wouldn’t be that of him cold and stiff with cotton buds stuffed into his nostrils and ears, and even though I found that absurd, especially since I had seen him dead at the hospital, I didn’t complain.

I couldn’t.

Truthfully, I was even glad because this way, it would be easy for me to manipulate my mind into thinking that the last time I had seen him, he had been fast asleep.

That he was probably somewhere else now, somewhere better... somewhere he got all of his heart’s desires and—

"Leilani, we can go now," Maya’s voice slipped into my ears, snapping me out of the haze I had been lost in.

My head tilted upwards to meet her eyes and when this happened, I didn’t miss the sadness in her piercing gaze.

I shook my head. "No."

"He is already being buried. Everyone’s already leaving." She muttered worriedly, but still, I didn’t budge.

I wasn’t everyone.

I was Leilani. His Leilani. 𝑓𝘳𝘦𝑒𝑤𝑒𝘣𝘯ℴ𝘷𝘦𝓁.𝑐𝑜𝑚

My eyes stared into the vast space before me and I watched closely as the grave diggers continued to heap scattered soil over his half filled grave.

It was beginning to drizzle slightly, hence the reason many people had decided to seek shelter early. But I couldn’t move. Hell, I wasn’t even sure I still knew how to breathe probably.

My chest was the tightest it has ever been in my entire life. The corners of my eyes still stung painfully. And to top it all, for some reason, it felt as though I could hear his voice, complaining bitterly in my ears about the soil being thrown over him as they continued to cover his grave.

"This is wrong..." I muttered under my breath, earning myself a look from Maya.

"Baby,"

"He didn’t deserve to die like this... so suddenly. He was in so much pain in his final moments and it is all Keisha’s fault."

"Please..." Maya began to say but I cut her off abruptly by continuing;

"Now, I wasn’t even given a sign or something. And do you know what he did instead?"

"Huh?"

"He shoved responsibilities as big as Africa into my hands. Responsibilities that I was satisfied with letting him take care of while I helped in the shadows. God, I am not mad that he’s made me CEO without telling me first about it, I am mad however at the fact that he is gone. He is my best friend. He was supposed to be my best friend, but now, he’s gone! Just like that!"

I hiccuped when tears streamed down my face, but deciding that I didn’t want to wipe them off this time, and hide like I have been doing, I continued;

"Tomorrow, I will wake up and I won’t be able to call him on the phone. I won’t be able to go to his house to ’help out’ and my friend who is always and has always been there for me when I need it the most won’t be there when things get tough."

"Lani..."

"I can no longer cook in my house with the intention that he would come over for dinner. When I am stuck at work, I cannot rush down to his office to seek ’his advice’. Maya, I have lost the one person who made life livable when there was nothing to live for... and do you know why I feel so guilty?"

She shook her head quickly.

"Because if I had been asked to pick between him and the triplets only a week ago, then I would’ve picked them, not him. I would’ve answered to my body and not to the good deeds that Jay had done for me in the past."

"They’re your mates so I understand..." Maya began to say but I immediately cut her off by snapping;

"Mate bond or not, I would’ve been dead a long time ago if Jay had never come to my rescue."

A moment of silence settled between us as soon as I said that and was only finally disrupted when Maya wrapped her arms around her body. Her voice was soft as she muttered;

"Let’s go home please. I feel very cold."

I stopped, let my eyes rake over her body then turned to my front where I noticed the grave being filled completely with sand. The excess soil caused a heap on the floor and that sight in itself made my chest ache tremendously.

Why?

Because now, I was well aware of the reason why the soil wasn’t uniform right there...

...and it was because my best friend was now stuck underneath, with nowhere to go. For all of eternity.

"Let’s go," I whispered to Maya, my voice breaking as tears slipped down my face one more time.

She pulled me to her chest, hugged me tightly and then pulled away with a soft kiss to my forehead. After that, she looped her arm in mine and began to lead me out of the cemetery.

And as we went, we didn’t stop for a second, not even to take another glance at the freshly created grave.

However, just as we stepped out of the cemetery and into the parking lot, my sorrow soon turned into rage when I saw Darius standing there with Keisha hanging by his side like a puppet.

Her head was hung low and her lower lip looked busted— like she had been in a fight not quite long ago.

I let my eyes travel from her face to Darius’ who then shrugged nonchalantly at me. He muttered;

"She tried to escape and I promised to ensure that that doesn’t happen."

I cocked my eyebrows at him.

"So you beat her up?"

"No, she got into a fight with me." He snickered, "did you expect that I would tie my hands back and let her hit me? Are we practicing BDSM or something like that? Hell, even if I want to do that, she sure isn’t my type of woman..."

"Who then is your type of woman?" Keisha hissed through gritted teeth and he flashed her a smile before eagerly pointing at me.

"That girl. If I am being whipped or bound... or one of those shit, I would love for my woman to be silver-haired with purple eyes. And I would want her to be a spitfire. You Keisha, is a dunce."

I frowned again.

"Enough!"